CALDWELL, Idaho — The College of Idaho held an event on October 17 to inspire more girls to join the STEM field.
TECHGIRLZ is a hands-on middle school event with workshops in science, technology, engineering, and math. Over 460 students representing 28 different schools across Idaho attended.
The event is hosted by Women Innovators, A Boise-based non-profit with the mission to make Idaho the place for women and girl innovators to succeed. The goal is to get more women into the STEM fields.
“It helps just kind of plant that seed. There are so many other things you can do with STEM. You can take your biggest passion and apply stem to it,” said Rachael Hogan, college journey lead for Women Innovators.
“It's a great opportunity for girls starting at this age to learn how to grow their innovation skills and really get the feel like working with other girls their age with the same interest in the same community,” Zoe Naylor, an eighth grader at Riverglen Junior High School.
Seventeen Techzone booths featuring some Idaho colleges were available for students to talk about future engineering and STEM paths, along with 16 workshops for students to test and see different fields.
Getting students to think about STEM earlier in life is another goal of this event. “It helps just kind of plant that seed of like, there are so many other things you can do with stem. You can take your biggest passion and apply stem to it,” said Hogan.
