ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Akya Hill works on a squid during a workshop with Allison Matzelle of the Northeastern University Marine Science Center.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN — Girls Inc. of Lynn hosted its 15th annual SMART (Science, Math and Relevant Technology) Girls Summit on Wednesday, which aimed to increase female youths’ interest and participation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
The career awareness event drew more than 130 middle school girls from Greater Lynn, who participated in workshops covering topics such as coding, forensic crime and aeronautics. This year’s summit offered 14 workshops with representatives from 12 organizations, businesses and universities.
“It’s our 15th year,” said Ann Ayala-Macey, STEM coordinator. “It’s a special milestone celebration for us … This is really cool because girls are exposed to careers they didn’t even know existed.”
Ayala-Macey said girls in Lynn didn’t always have access to these opportunities in STEM. She said the original idea was to create an event to invite a significant number of girls from the Lynn area and introduce them to careers underrepresented by women.
She said the workshops were meant to be hands-on, experiential, fun, exciting and a way for girls to connect with women who are in the STEM field.
“I find it interesting,” said Massiel Tolentino, 14, of Thurgood Marshall Middle School. “You’re working with people who are in the workforce — the STEM. It’s nice to see how they do their job and how they work.”
In the workshops, Tolentino said she was exposed to an experiment of making ice cream and learned about how changing PH levels can make certain fabrics dye better.
Lydia Splaine, 13, also from Marshall Middle School, said she thought the summit was useful because it showed her how many career options there are in science. She learned how to make slime and examined a dead squid and learned how its skin changes colors.
“Science is more towards guys, so my dad really said it was important to go to this,” Splaine said.
The Museum of Science, Boston; Cell Signaling Technology; Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center; the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory; Keurig Green Mountain; General Electric; the Cambridge Fire Department; New England Biolabs; the Chandra X-Ray Observatory; and Warner Babcock Institute/Beyond Benign were some of the businesses and organizations represented.
The four SMART Girl Award recipients were Violet Howard, from Breed Middle School; Georgina Camil Toribio Reyes, from Marshall Middle School; Hannah Tobin, from Pickering Middle School; and Alina Akhmedkarimova, from KIPP Academy.
“They’re girls that are not afraid to participate in these events,” said Ayala-Macey. “They actually seek them out. They’re not afraid to get their hands dirty.”
The SMART Girls Summit also serves as a kickoff for the Eureka! Summer program, a free, six-week, full-day STEM and sports summer program for rising seventh, eighth and ninth grade girls. The girls also go on weekly expeditions related to their classes to places such as the Northeastern Marine Science Lab in Nahant, the Museum of Science, Boston Society of Architects-Learning by Design and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum and Media Lab.
Girls who successfully complete the Eureka program are eligible for a paid internship the summer before the 10th grade.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at gcawley@itemlive.com. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.