Girls Recognition Night 2012

The  AAUW Community Committee is planning the second Girls Recognition Night on April 19, 2012.  The Beaver Valley Branch will again partner with the Community College of Beaver County to recognize young women who excel in one of the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, math).

Our premier event held this past April included participation by 12 schools; 22 girls were each awarded a certificate of excellence in Science and Math and tickets to the Carnegie Science Center. Many parents and extended family member along with several teachers from participating school districts were in the audience. Four outstanding speakers helped these young women gain an insight into college and career choices.

Committee co-chairperson Jodean Brooks and Jan Landsbach and their committee hope to expand the program for  2012 based on the success of 2011.

The Beaver Valley Branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women) in conjunction with CCBC (Community College of Beaver County) replicated a program in the Beaver County schools that has been introduced by other branches across the state.   Girls Recognition Night is designed to honor two outstanding eighth grade girls in each school district who excel in science and/or math.  Last fall, AAUW asked every science and math teachers from each school district in Beaver County to  select two of their female students in each of their classes to be recognized at this event.  They were asked to choose students with

    • An exceptional interest or passion for math or science.
    • A potential for growth in the subject area.
    • Class participation, effort, enthusiasm, grades, in-class projects, and problem-solving ability.

We believe that teachers, advisers, role models and parents can favorably affect the attitudes of young girls and persuade them that they are every bit as qualified as young men to pursue math and science careers.  Being praised for their interest and performance and being shown hat there are indeed many female achievers in technical and non-traditional fields can make a great difference to a young woman in deciding which courses to take in high school and college.