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CLEARFIELD — Jessie and Maddy Turner have big dreams for their futures, but both include doing well in school.
"The more I learn and the better I get at it, the more opportunities I'll have," said Maddy, a sixth-grader from Clearfield who attended the Northern Utah Expanding Your Horizons conference for young women on Saturday. She said she wants to be a pilot and a veterinarian "to be able to help animals all over the state when they need it."
Both girls tend to enjoy staying after school some days to help with or participate in extracurricular science, technology, engineering and math programs.
"I like the hands-on stuff best," said Jessie, while twirling the propeller of her homemade airplane that she made and learned to fly at the conference. "A lot of it is stuff you don't get to do in class."
Expanding Your Horizons exists to encourage more women to pursue interests and careers in STEM-related fields, said Kay Anderson, spokeswoman for Orbital ATK in Brigham City, which sponsors the annual conference for girls. The conference brings together hundreds of junior high schoolers to learn practical skills in fields where female participation is stereotypically low.
The girls sign up for various workshops, the most popular being one where they learn to measure, mix and heat chemicals to make their own lotion. Another that fills up quickly involves taking paper strips and soaking them in water to make pulp and then recycled paper that is used to make a craft.
"A lot of creativity comes out of this," said Marilyn Marshall, an ATK employee who helps with the workshop.
Meagan Gibbs, 28, of West Haven, has attended the conference since she was in sixth grade, though more recently as a volunteer. She is pursuing a career as a pharmacy technician and recalls the days she mixed her first chemical compounds in grade school — something she now does on a daily basis in her work.
"It's good to show them that we use math and science in our normal, everyday jobs," Gibbs said.
For the most part, the workshops are all taught by female employees at ATK, a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies. As Anderson said, "it is important to model the behaviors we want them to see in the world, to show them girls can do it."
"I've loved math since elementary school," said Ann Zocchi, a senior proposal analyst with ATK, who led the girls in making lotion. "It's just something that flows for me. I can do it in my head."
Anderson said interest in the conference has increased over the years and a majority of the participants, sixth- to ninth-graders, return every year they are eligible.
"People are becoming more aware of how important education is," she said. "Kids are learning things earlier. Teachers and parents are more aware now of what it takes to make it in the world."
