Select local students got a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in the American Association of University Women’s Tech Trek program. According to AAUW-Healdsburg (which serves, Windsor, Geyserville, Healdsburg and Cloverdale), “Tech Trek is a week-long residential summer camp for girls entering eighth grade. The focus is on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Begun in 1997, there are now 22 Tech Trek camps at universities across America, 10 of which are in California. The girls sent by AAUW-Healdsburg join about 70 girls from over 20 towns in Northern California to attend the camp at Stanford University.”
This year, AAUW-Healdsburg sent nine girls to Stanford for the week of July 10-16 from all the north county school districts. Candidates were recommended by their science and math teachers and then there was an application process including a 500-word essay and an interview.
Students selected were from Windsor, Ashley Knott is a student at Windsor Middle School and Vanessa Cordova attends Cali Calmecac Language Academy. From Cloverdale, Summer Lands, Leslie Santa Maria (both attend Washington Middle School) and Sophia Arenales (lives in Cloverdale but attends Cali Calmecac Language Academy). And from Healdsburg, Adriana Novak, Elina Sadeghian, Zoe Turk (all from Healdsburg Junior High School) and Lupita Guzman (Geyserville New Tech Academy).
Students attending Tech Trek not only enjoy a unique educational experience, but also get to experience what college life will be like: they are housed in the dorms at Stanford, paired with a roommate they’ve never met, they eat in the cafeteria and they have dorm mothers standing in for RA’s.
There are five “core” classes to chose from each year, though students are not guaranteed their first choice, and this year their options were marine biology, cyber security, forensics, engineering and design and computer coding. Mornings are generally spent in the classroom, while afternoons involve more hands on explorations, including field trips, experiments or other activities.
Guzman went in with a strong love for science and math and came out with a new potential career path. “I learned that there were a lot of new careers that I didn’t even know about,” she said. “I got engineering and design and I also really love building and thinking about how to work an object. It was very interesting.”
Guzman’s favorite activity had a more down-to-earth message, however. “My favorite part was when we did Mad City Money. We went around and they gave us checks and say things like what we could be and how much we’d make, and we had to figure out how to spend it on food and housing. We could see how our parents spend a lot of money without us realizing how much it is and how much it costs.”
Sadeghian also enjoyed the real world experiences that were part of Tech Trek. “It was a very exciting program, I really liked the Professionals Women’s Night,” she said. “You could meet women who had experience in a STEM field and ask them a variety of questions and I had a lot of fun doing that. There was one woman, her name was Peggy and she owned a business, and she really explained about things that would actually get you through life, so I really liked her.”
Sadeghian is walking away with a new found interest in engineering and design, and some new knowledge about the path forward. “The really gave us a lot of good advice, like what to do about college and how to get in there and show yourself,” she said. I would totally recommend it because it’s a good experience and you get to meet a lot of people and you just become more confident and more sociable.”
