Girls Inc. engineers new possibilities

LYNN – Teondra Sneed likes science, but the opportunity to meet engineer Nancy Ngo Thursday showed the Marshall Middle School seventh-grader how to convert her interest into a career currently dominated by men.Ngo works for coffee company Keurig Green Mountain and spent Thursday morning in Girls Inc.’s High Street center with other women engineers, showing 150 middle school girls why science, mathematics and engineering should be part of their futures.Sneed and Marshall sixth-grader Cassidy Pa liked science even before Ngo asked them to rub balloons on their heads and use the static electricity they created to pull an empty soda can across a table.”People think only boys are scientists, but girls are too. And girls can prove themselves,” Sneed said.Pa wants to become a scientist and invent new candy colors – a career choice Ngo encouraged her to pursue.”You can invent new foods,” she said.Girls Inc. has brought in women scientists like Thursday’s guest speaker, meteorologist Nelly Carreno, for 13 years in an effort to stimulate girls during the formative middle school years to consider science as a high school and college study path and, eventually, a career.”The main focus is to inspire girls to explore careers that are not traditional,” said Girls Inc. development and communications manager Karol Nina.Emily Pearson works as a Keurig manufacturing engineer, making sure the company’s Burlington assembly line operates at peak efficiency. As a teenager, the 2007 Carnegie Mellon University graduate’s life revolved around basketball, but engineering’s problem-solving challenges attracted her to the profession.She helping Pickering Middle School eighth-grader Alexis Ferraro build an electromagnet out of a battery, copper wiring and nails while male colleague Matt Fulmer gave Soulyda Pen and fellow students a quick lesson in polymers.A quick mix of detergent, Elmer’s Glue and water turned a thick liquid into a rubbery substance that hardened as soon as Fulmer slapped it onto a table top. He said the simple experiment mirrors much more complicated ones aimed at finding materials that could earthquake-proof buildings.His gooey mixture left an impression on Pen.”I like experimenting – no idea is a bad idea,” she said.Nina said the girls participating in Thursday’s “smart” workshops were nominated to attend by middle school teachers. She hopes the girls will return to High Street to participate in a summer math, engineering and science program packed with field trips.