Four Jefferson County students to attend math, science camp for girls
Published 12:01 am Friday, May 31, 2013
PORT TOWNSEND — Four Jefferson County middle school students will attend a weeklong science and math camp for girls in July, the Port Townsend branch of the American Association of University Women announced this month.
This year’s participants at the AAUW’s Tech Trek will be Jaimie McGinnis and Erin Crouch of Chimacum Middle School, Kailee Kunz of Blue Heron Middle School and Hannah Williams of Quilcene School.
The four were introduced at the Port Townsend AAUW’s year-end academic awards meeting May 18.
They will attend a weeklong STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) summer camp at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.
Teachers in area public schools nominated girls who exhibited a particular interest in the STEM subjects.
Need encouragement
Research sponsored by AAUW indicates that middle school girls who lack encouragement, challenge and role models in STEM subjects may not continue to pursue those areas in high school and college, said Carol Colley, Port Townsend AAUW communications director.
So Tech Trek was started in 1998 at Stanford University to serve 150 California middle school girls.
The program has grown and now serves 800 girls a year, with expansion into other states.
This year, 60 Washington girls will attend Tech Trek.
Tech Trek teachers are Washington women with careers in STEM areas.
The cost of the camp is $1,000 per girl.
Funding for East Jefferson County’s four participants comes from two area business sponsors: Power Trip Energy Corp. and Emerald Reed Co.
Additional funding came from eight AAUW-PT members, AAUW Washington and National, and AAUW-PT’s nonprofit arm, the University Women’s Foundation of East Jefferson County.
