Shelley--thanks for sharing. I really like the idea of writing about a conference. How often do we attend a conference and get excited while listening to speakers and hearing new ideas, but return to home, jump into work, and forget about the conference? I know that happens to me. After my last conference I made a promise to myself that going forward I will write a blog about my reflections from a workshop, interaction with a speaker or another attendee, or hands-on experience at the conference.

Jackie, thanks for sharing this personal story about your journey in engineering and your mentoring experiences. It is clear from your blog that you helped change the mindset of the girls you mentored. I loved hearing how the girls became more comfortable with challenges. Imagine if every girl had someone to challenge and support her! We could have so many more young women going into engineering and technical fields.

Geek, nerd. What do these terms mean and what are their impact? It’s complicated. It depends on who is using them and how they’re being used. In my research at Techbridge Girls, I heard girls use these terms to describe people they imagined working in engineering and technology. Along with the terms, girls described engineers and tech workers in these ways--super stressed, working alone inside an office, and likely to be white and male. The stereotypes didn’t inspire them to want to pursue careers in engineering or computer science. On the flip side, I also heard girls embrace the terms geek and nerd. One year a group of Techbridge Girls created t-shirts for themselves. They brainstormed ideas and landed on “Geek is Chic” for their Techbridge Girls t-shirts. They were proud to wear the shirts and own the identity of being a geek, which for them was positive in their after-school program. There are a number of programs, organizations and books that use these terms. In Geek Girl Rising, authors Heather Cabot and Samantha Walravens celebrate women who are building tech start-ups, investing in each other’s ventures, and creating networks of support. “The book is a call to action for women to think big and act bold, to not allow the obstacles that lie in their path to stop them from achieving their goals, and to create a roadmap to success for others to follow.” Cal NERDS is a program at my alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley. The program is for non-traditional undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields. The program is all about building community and offering resources like academic counseling and research experience. It's about making a more diverse STEM workforce. So, while I wouldn’t use geek and nerd to recruit kids to STEM programs I do understand that these terms can be taken on to mean more than the stereotypes.