WEBVTT

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MESA stands for Math Engineering Science Achievement.

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It's a national program, but there are only about ten states right now involved.

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We get legislative money.

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Money from the legislature provides us money for each school and they apply for a grant

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to help girls and minorities-let them know that math and science

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and engineering can be actually fun things.

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It can be very enlightening for them to help them out,

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to try to get them involved in these careers.

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A lot of these things I don't get to do in my class time

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because I have so many things I have to cover.

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So this is the time to have the fun things to build, to put together things,

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have a better rapport with the students.

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We always like to do an end of the year field trip, and it's just fun for the students.

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Every Monday we have a program in our school-it's tutoring.

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We have free tutoring, and it's open to anybody-girls or boys, or anybody.

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And we have A.P. students from the Tooele High come down and mentor them, tutor them,

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let them help with any subject that they are having any problem with.

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And it's a one-on-one program for them, so that it's not a teacher.

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It's an older student, and they can see, "Oh, they accomplished this.

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I can accomplish this.

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They got through it, so can I get through it.

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And they are doing a lot harder work than I am now, so I can obtain that level, also."

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Some of the programs that extend beyond MESA here at our school are-is the Step Program,

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and that's the college level MESA program, that they can become involved in.

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They have volunteers that come down to the public schools-to the junior highs and high schools

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that help mentor the girls and minorities in those programs.

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I bring in mentors; I even bring in my mentor from school.

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She's older now, but she really has a fun time enjoying talking to the students.

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But I think it's really important, because she wanted to be a nuclear physicist,

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and she was told that she couldn't because she was a woman.

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And so that's very important for the girls to hear that-that we've come a real long way,

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that they can become anything they want to.

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When I bring in role models, I think of, "Do they have a rapport with the students?"

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I mean, you can be a woman engineer,

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but that doesn't necessarily mean that you feel comfortable around the students

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or will be able to answer their questions on their level.

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I have brought in women engineers from ATK and Thiokol, and so forth.

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And some have worked very well, and others you can tell they are a little nervous.

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If you work through their Human Resources department,

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I think they'll be able to send the right one that will do a good job for you.

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For the speakers that speak in my class, I like them to give their background example,

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what sparked them to go into this career, and then how it was for them in college,

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what kind of classes they took, if they had scholarships, if they worked hard,

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if they obtained scholarships or not,

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and then what the ratio for the men and the women in the classes.

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I like them-and then usually we have an open-ended question period

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for the students to ask questions to the people.

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And usually it's really interesting that all of them had some type of mentor

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or some type of role model that sparked their interest

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and why they chose that career in the first place.

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We've had astronomers-women astronomers-come in, and they've really enjoyed those.

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One was a F.B.I.

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scientist, and she does the C.S.I.

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part of it, and it was really interesting

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because she was comparing how she does it, and then how the movie is.

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She says there is no way that they have things the next day ready, that they can process the DNA

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and the fingerprints and everything so fast.

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When you see it on their computer program going through to match the fingerprint

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or the faceprint, there is no way they can do it in the time frame that they have on TV.

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So, that was a real eye-opener to the girls.

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On the way home, they all wanted to be that person.

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They wanted to work for the F.B.I.

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; they wanted to work in the C.S.I.

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; they wanted to process the DNA; they wanted to process the fingerprints.

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They thought that was a really fun job.

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We take girls to a program called Expanding New Horizons down at UVSC-it's a college in Provo.

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There's thousands of girls there from all over the state,

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and all they have is women role models.

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They can choose from thousands of workshops they can go to that day

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with these women role models, and just have a wonderful time, and a great time.

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And they can see what's out there, what they can go in to, what jobs they can obtain.

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Even if they want to get a college degree,

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and then stay home and be a mom, that option is up to them also.

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With our science department, we are all women.

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I was a geology minor, and we went on a lot of field trips.

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I know that Mrs. Clegg-Patch is a biology major, and she had a lot of fun field trips,

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and she enjoyed the animals and so forth.

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We really make science fun, so it's not something boring-reading out of the book,

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you know, write down the definitions.

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It's a really hands-on thing, inquiry thing.

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So they are like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know science is so fun."

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Then, hopefully get them interested so that when they are in high school,

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they'll take more honors classes and A.P. classes, and get involved that way.

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Even if they don't go to a certain college, at least they know they had fun.

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We let them know that there is nothing you can't obtain.

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If you have a dream that you can do anything.