Four LHJH students selected to attend virtual ‘Girls of Promise’ meet
PEARCY — Four eighth-grade Lake Hamilton Junior High computer science students, Jenny Dong, Gabrielle Gilliam, Kaitlin Guthrie and Anna Allgier, were recently selected to attend the Girls of Promise virtual conference April 1-2.
Girls of Promise is an initiative of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, which “aims to help women and girls reach their full economic potential,” according to its website.
Girls of Promise exposes girls to opportunities and mentors in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields to increase the number of women in higher-level STEM courses, careers, and put them on the path to achieve economic security as women, it said.
Since 1999, over 5,000 eighth-grade girls have been introduced to women with careers in STEM fields, participated in hands-on learning activities, and met other girls passionate about learning through Girls of Promise conferences and other programs, the website said.
Guthrie said she is excited to be part of the initiative, but noted she has mixed feelings about going to the conference because she is excited and nervous at the same time.
Guthrie said she hopes to learn more about STEM careers since she is interested in going into that field one day.
Dong said she is interested in STEM because she has always been more of a hands-on person.
Gilliam said she wants to learn about STEM because it can eventually help her decide what field she wants to go into.
Gilliam said she got into computer science after hearing about it from others, which sparked an interest in her.
“I basically said (in the application) that I expect to learn a lot of different fields that I can go into,” she said.
Guthrie said she feels she was selected because she stressed she hopes to learn and gain more knowledge about computer science.
Ashley Kincannon, Lake Hamilton Junior High School computer science teacher, said the conference is virtual via Zoom this year and the students will receive a box of supplies that will help facilitate hands-on activities.
“They’ll get to learn about careers in STEM. It is a lot of fun activities and a great opportunity for girls to interact,” she said.
“We know that girls are a minority in this field. It’s important that we expose girls at a younger age to STEM careers to the possibility that they belong in this skill,” Kincannon said.
“(We are) trying to create a connection and spark an interest for their future. (We want them to have) motivation because it’s so helpful to be able to see people who are women in technology, or currently in these careers and what these women are doing,” she said.
Girls of Promise is a two-day conference. For 2021, activities will begin at 12:30 p.m. on April 1. On April 2, activities will start around 8 a.m. and conclude after a lunch keynote around 1:30 p.m., the website said.