The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was asked to host a room at the annual Introduce
a Girl to Engineering Day and the Girl Day STEM Festival on Saturday, Feb. 27 at UT Austin.

There were over 5,000 kindergarten to 8th grade girls in attendance. Paul Dowell, Andrew Lai, Mikaela Sifuentes, Kristen Weismantel, and myself all volunteered to represent the graduate school at this great event.

Our room focused on getting girls thinking about science and what about science interests them.

We had interactive poll questions for the girls to answer, we asked the girls to draw what a scientist looks like to them, and we took “selfies with a scientist.”

Throughout the day, several hundred girls and their parents come through the room.

It was an amazing day filled with energy and excitement! The young girls we encountered were truly interested in science. Many of the them were eager to ask us questions about what we do in science and how we got to where we are.

We received questions on a multitude of topics, including the brain, genetics, animals, and technology. It was extremely inspiring to meet so many young girls with a passion for STEM, and a determination to be educated and to succeed.

We hope that we were able to inspire the girls to pursue their interests and gave them a real life perspective on what completing higher education in science is actually like.

Additional Photos