Ed Surge – Alyssa Tormala
“Jackie, the team captain of St. Mary’s all-girls robotics team, knows a thing or two about breaking the mold. During a panel on the importance of STEM education for women, she explained what it’s like to be a female student competing in a male-dominated program: “Not only were we the only all-girls robotics team,” she explained of a recent competition, “we were the only team that actually allowed girls to touch the robots.” Jackie’s experience demonstrates how essential it remains to support STEM education designed for women, particularly in engineering and computer science, which remain disproportionately dominated by men. It’s a mission we live by at St. Mary’s Academy (SMA), an all-girls high school located in the heart of Portland, Ore., which has been dedicated to promoting female education for the last 157 years. At SMA, we know that young women thrive when given the chance to choose how and what they learn, while at the same time being supported by a community that believes they can succeed, regardless of gender.”(more)