On Friday, February 28, ExxonMobil Baytown Area’s WIN hosted roughly 180 middle school girls for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day 2020. The program is designed to inspire female students to consider careers in engineering through various hands on activities. This year students from Barbers Hill North and South, Cedar Bayou and Baytown Junior gathered together and performed various STEM related activities that helped encourage them to learn more about the world of engineering.
To kick off the event, Tera Shandro, Baytown Area Projects Manager, spoke to the girls about what engineering is and the roles she has held with ExxonMobil. She introduced them to engineering as a profession where being creative, solving problems and developing new technologies are important parts of the job and informed them that is not just about math and science. She shared the opportunities she has had to see the world thanks to her career and explained that engineering does not have one single job description but that there are many different paths to becoming an engineer. What is important is being eager to help the world meet new challenges.
ExxonMobil Baytown volunteers came together to present some hands on activities that included a short presentation about how a Chemical Engineer designs a process to combine multiple ingredients to form a final product. Activities for this were making bath bombs and slime. Another hands on activity allowed the girls to explore the concepts of buoyancy and stability while designing a boat within a set of dimension constraints. They were given a variety of materials, each with different costs, and were instructed to construct a boat that would hold the most weight without allowing water to enter at the cheapest construction cost. The Houston Museum of Natural Science also gave a science presentation on stage in the auditorium.
Alex Fournier, Baytown Refinery Process Department Head, closed out the event by speaking to the girls about what he loves about being an engineer. He spoke about job stability, the great pay and travel opportunities but also about how he loves being able to work with amazing people and continue to be challenged every day. He explained how a degree in engineering is one of the most versatile degrees in the world and asked them to consider the topics that interest them most and continue to explore them. He also spoke about important skills for an engineer to have apart from knowledge of math and science: reading comprehension, writing skills, debate, and public speaking.
ExxonMobil Baytown Area hopes this event inspired the students and encouraged them to further explore the world of engineering.