Texas Women and Girls in STEM Summit
Lightning Talks and Breakout Session 1
9:45 a.m. - 10:30 a.m

Hosted in Gatherly - See all presentations on the YouTube Playlist for this Session
 

Explorations of Interests and Attitudes towards joining an All Girls Robotics team
Recording: 5 Minute Lightning Talk
Recording: 9 Minute Presentation with Student Interviews

Lutheran High School of San Antonio (LHSSA) is in it's four season with a "No Boys Allowed" FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics team.  This is the tenth season of robotics at LHSSA.  The team started with a group of 4 or 5 girls who where all teammates on the volleyball court and formed the nucleus of a junior plus four senior team.  As the team has sustained itself, it appears that peer groups continue to drive membership with an explosion in membership this season with a dozen girls.  Many of them now come from different peer groups within a relatively small parochial school with an enrollment of 120 in grades 9th - 12th.  Let's hear from the ladies what factors lead to their joining the team  and why it is growing.

  • Andrew Schuetze, STEAM Teacher and Robotics Coach, Lutheran High School of San Antonio

  • High school students:

  • Paige Riley, 12th grade

  • Mia Chandrahasan, 12th grade

  • Johanna Gunther, 12th grade

  • Savannah Van Cleave, 12th grade

  • Lily Friesenhan, 12th grade

  • Miki Urban, 12th grade

  • Kamryn Boriak, 12th grade

  • Nghi Tran, 12th grade

  • Abi Geraldi, 12th grade

  • Rachel Sanders, 10th grade

  • Dani Fischer, 10th grade

  • Delany Kowald, 11th grade

 

Including Girls in STEM: High School and Beyond
Recording: 5 Minute Lightning Talk
Recording: 11 Minute Presentation with Student Experiences

In our Breakout Session, we plan to first discuss the experiences of girls on our robotics team, QuadX 6299. We will have two speakers from our marketing team who have experience with outreach projects that have taken place across the globe. We plan to discuss specific events that occured in South Africa and Argentina, and touch on the interactions with girls in these regions. We will also have a speaker from our software team, who will share her experience in this realm of the STEM world. Our next speaker will be a female engineer, who will discuss the characteristics of her position and the steps that one must take to succeed in a STEM-related career. In the final portion of our session, we plan to open up the floor for any questions.

  • Suhani Dewagan, Assistant Project Manager; Marketing team member, Viperbots QuadX 6299

  • Anjili Gorti, Viperbots QuadX 6299

  • Emily Martin, Viperbots QuadX 6299

  • Peggy Baker, Motorola

 

Adaptability as the new benchmark for leadership: How a high school robotics team pivoted to virtual formats to continue to develop female leaders
Recording: 5 Minute Lightning Talk
Recording: 31 Minute Presentation with Programming Examples/Tutorials & More

An interactive session to introduce attendees to the method that a group of female high school students used to extend hands-on STEM learning and leadership development through virtual means.  Through our efforts, we have maintained 50% female leadership on our team and extended our reach to similar groups across our school district and across the country. Our efforts focus on increasing awareness, inclusion, exposure, and confidence by hosting events that engage girls K-12.

  • Shreshta Keta, FRC Team 2468, Westlake High School

  • Arohi Majmudar, FRC Team 2468, Westlake High School

  • Kelsey McCormick, FRC Team 2468, Westlake High School

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