Close Menu
WashingtonExec
  • News & Headlines
  • Executive Councils
  • Videos
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • 🏆 Pinnacle Awards
    • 🏆 Chief Officer Awards
  • About
  • Contact Us
Latest Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_0OGr8ie5g&list=UULFQpADaPZpDb8HwwScpJ2OPQ
Podcast Episodes
LinkedIn Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
LinkedIn Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
WashingtonExec
Subscribe To The Daily
  • News & Headlines
  • Executive Councils
  • Videos
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • 🏆 Pinnacle Awards
    • 🏆 Chief Officer Awards
  • About
  • Contact Us
LinkedIn YouTube X (Twitter)
WashingtonExec
You are at:Home»Events»Altamira’s ‘Girls in STEM’ Wing Seeks to Bridge the Gap
Events

Altamira’s ‘Girls in STEM’ Wing Seeks to Bridge the Gap

By Ariel RobinsonApril 25, 2017
Share
LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Email
Jonathan Moneymaker, Altamira
Jonathan Moneymaker of Altamira Technologies Corp.

There was something new at WashingtonExec’s K-12 STEM Symposium this year: an entire wing of the Nysmith School dedicated to women and girls in STEM. Altamira sponsored the unit and set up activities, including slime making and drone hacking.

“This has been a passion of ours and mine personally for a good part of the last decade,” said Altamira Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Moneymaker. “I came to last year’s STEM Symposium and was blown away, so when the opportunity came up this year to get involved, we wanted to use it to bring more visibility and awareness to something that’s very important.”

Kids and slime: They just go together, especially in the Girls in STEM wing at the 2017 STEM Symposium.

Wandering around the Girls in STEM wing was a special kind of adrenaline rush. Kids and parents alike were packed around tables, wide-eyed and excited. Volunteers from Altamira could be seen running around with gallons of milk (for the make-your-own-ice-cream station, where students learned about freezing point depression), and teaching students to code.

Sarah Kozik built the Hack My Drone project. She’s a reverse engineer for Altamira, having joined through its acquisition of Prime Solutions last year. While her team at Altamira is great, it hasn’t always been this way throughout her career.

“I was tired of walking into a room and being the only woman,” Kozik said.

She and a colleague had started an internship program for college students back at Prime Solutions, but by that time, many of the girls had already left the STEM career path.

“As girls start getting older, stereotypes are reinforced and they realize that there aren’t any other women in the room and wonder, ‘Why am I here? I’m the only girl,'” Kozik said.

Brian Moran and Sarah Eastman noticed the same thing. They own Boolean Girl, which runs summer camps and after-school programs, where elementary-school-aged girls learn to code from other young women in STEM.

“Often, there simply aren’t programs like these available in schools,” Moran said. “But what I hear from my instructors is that when something is available, it’s probably with all boys and they’re the only girl in the room, so they say, ‘I’m not going to sign up again.'”

In middle school, in particular, the stereotype that tech is for boys also drives girls to opt out because they don’t want to be outcasts.

A Boolean Girl teaches a STEM Symposium attendee how to code in Scratch.

“The good news is, I don’t think it’s an innate difference,” Eastman said. “It’s socialization, and we can solve that problem. A lot of it has to do with making sure girls have peers and mentors as well. Boolean Girl provides both: girls sitting next to you in class and your instructors are women in the field.”

This is exactly the kind of thing Moneymaker said there needs to be more of.

“You see the gender divide from a career standpoint, when you’re looking to hire more women, from a university standpoint, where we’re trying to attract more women to technical fields, and it just backs up earlier and earlier,” he said. Moneymaker is on the board of University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, and has two young daughters.

“We, as a society, need to be doing more and that is why we’ve launched the Girls in STEM initiative,” he added. “It is not the singular answer, but hopefully will build awareness at all levels.”

Previous ArticleJune 15: EY Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
Next Article A Tale of 2 Cyber Competitions

Related Posts

2023 Pinnacle Awards Winner: ASRC Federal’s Scott Altman

Top CIOs to Watch in 2024: ManTech’s Mike Uster

Top CIOs to Watch in 2024: Serco’s Christine Kalb

Comments are closed.

2023 Pinnacle Awards Winners Revealed
Trending

2023 Pinnacle Awards Winner: ASRC Federal’s Scott Altman

December 4, 2023

Top CIOs to Watch in 2024: ManTech’s Mike Uster

December 4, 2023

Top CIOs to Watch in 2024: Serco’s Christine Kalb

December 4, 2023

Amentum Wins $56M Biological Threat Reduction Mission Contract

December 4, 2023

2023 Pinnacle Awards Winner: SAIC’s Vincent DiFronzo

December 4, 2023
Quick Links
  • Executive Councils & Committees
  • Chief Officer Awards
  • Pinnacle Awards
  • Advertise With Us
  • About WashingtonExec
  • Contact

Subscribe to The Daily

Get federal business news & insights delivered to your inbox.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Copyright 2023 © WashingtonExec, Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Powered by J Media Group

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.