November Webinar

Engage Students to Pursue STEM and Trades Careers: Next Steps after Vermont’s Women Can Do Conference, a Student Event

Thursday, November 13, 2014
1 pm ET, 12 pm CT, 11 am MT, 10 am PT
1-hour complimentary session

STEM careers are in demand, and opportunities are available for every student. However, women and people of color are significantly underrepresented in the majority of high-demand, high-tech, high-wage jobs. Many efforts to increase student awareness of such careers exist, but as Kelly Walsh of Vermont Works for Women states, “Conferences or other events are wonderful, but they must lead to next steps that move students to pursue careers with livable wages.”

Educators, school professionals, and role models! Join us for a webinar designed by NAPE and Vermont Works for Women to leverage the excitement generated by the Women Can Do Conference and other student engagement events across the country to encourage students to consider careers in the trades and STEM fields.

Women Can Do! is a full-day conference for high school girls, which features dozens of hands-on workshops and action stations highlighting careers in the skilled trades and STEM fields. This year, the event took place on October 16, with 500 girls and 100 chaperones attending. Learn more at Women Can Do Conference and Vermont Works for Women.

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION

In this webinar, Dr. Meagan Pollock brings a national perspective, and Lynn Vera from Vermont brings a state perspective. This webinar will empower participants to effectively communicate to students the breadth of opportunities and pathways in STEM careers through the use of NAPE’s STEM Career Toolkit. In addition, practical and effective statewide and local strategies from Vermont will be presented as examples of ways to encourage young women and girls to consider and pursue rewarding careers in high-wage, high-demand technology and trade careers.

The objectives are to

• Learn from a national and a local expert about strategies to engage students to pursue careers in STEM and trades careers after they have attended a targeted student event.
• Learn how to use the items in the NAPE STEM Career toolkit in your job.
• Increase your awareness of the most effective messaging for STEM careers, and improve your understanding of the breadth of opportunities and pathways to STEM careers (spanning certifications to graduate level training).

PRESENTERS

• Meagan Pollock, PhD, is NAPE’s Director of Professional Development. Before turning her focus on the intersection of education and equity, Meagan worked as an engineer for Texas Instruments. Meagan holds a PhD in engineering education from Purdue University, an MS in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University, and a BS in computer science from Texas Woman’s University.
• Lynn Vera has lived in the Burlington, VT, area for more than 40 years. Lynn has worked as a carpenter and construction laborer, taught in secondary public school education, special education, and adult education, and worked as a Gender Equity Specialist in Technical Education. Currently she is a school counselor at the Center for Technology, Essex, where students prepare for work in allied health, mechanical and construction trades, human services, culinary arts, digital design and multimedia, and many technical areas. She is active in statewide and national efforts/organizations that support diversity and respect in schools and the workplace and encourage training for women in “nontraditional’ areas.

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