By Leslie Carson
AAUW sponsors TECH TREK, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Camp for rising 8th grade girls. Through hands-on problem solving and encounters with women role models in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), AAUW Tech Trek helps girls see their futures while having nonstop fun. This one-week summer camp is backed by AAUW’s research and designed to make STEM fields exciting and accessible to girls in middle school — the age when girls’ participation in these fields statistically drops. It started with one event in California in 1998. Today, AAUW Tech Trek operates at 22 different sites around the nation, and thousands of young girls have attended. A 2013 survey of AAUW Tech Trek alumnae from California demonstrates the program’s lasting effects on many levels, including interest and confidence in STEM fields, decision to pursue those fields, and future career plans.
Here in New Jersey, TECH TREK is conducted at Stockton University in Galloway, NJ (near Atlantic City). This year TECH TREK will be held July 20th to 26th. Girls will live in the University’s dorms, eat in the dining hall, and take classes and conduct experiments at the University and on field trips nearby. AAUW volunteers become dorm mothers for the week. One evening, professional women in STEM careers come to the University, have dinner with the girls, and discuss their careers. That is often the girls’ favorite part of the week.
Each year, every school in New Jersey that has seventh grade girls is sent an invitation to nominate one girl to attend TECH TREK. Once nominated, that girl must apply and be interviewed by AAUW volunteers in her county. That’s where we come in. Several Summit College Club members have been calling the Union County schools (there are 63 of them!) to remind them to nominate one girl. So far only one school has done so. If that girl applies, we will interview her and recommend her to the AAUW NJ TECH TREK team. In the past NJ TECH TREK accepted 60 girls. Theoretically that is three from each county. But in reality, more girls from south Jersey go to TECH TREK.
Since Covid, TECH TREK has had to rebuild its program and will be accepting up to 45 girls this year. At this writing we hope the Union County girl who was recently nominated will apply. If she attends, we hope to invite her and her parent to one of our Summit College Club meetings. We have done that twice in recent years and loved hearing how much TECH TREK meant to those girls.
TECH TREK is looking for girls who love STEM but who may not have many opportunities. This is in keeping with AAUW’s initiative Breaking Down Barriers. Families pay only $50 for TECH TREK. AAUW members raise the rest. It costs about $1,500 per girl. This year Summit College Club Foundation is donating $500 to AAUW NJ TECH TREK.
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