Members of the Bishop O'Connell club, "Game Design with Girls In Mind," recently attended the STEM+Women Conference at George Mason University in Fairfax. Technology teacher, Terese Scott, accompanied three juniors, Daniela Rutherford, Eva Wittkoski and Anna Bourque, and one sophomore, Alyson Speier.
The one-day conference was filled with learning opportunities. The keynote speakers were the Honorable Karen Jackson, Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Dr. Megan Healy, Virginia Director of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). In addition, the students participated in small-group mentoring sessions Jenny Gaskill, a manager at AT&T; Dr. Anika Lalmansingh, a scientific consultant as well as a Steering Committee member of Girls in Technology (GIT); Nancy Lamberton, leadership coach and VP Mentoring Solutions for The Nebo Company; and Dr. Kristina Nasr, a manager at comScore Inc.
One of the many highlights of the day's activities was the opportunity to network with game design students and faculty of George Mason University. The GMU students discussed the school's program and invited our students to actively participate in a firefighting training simulation game they were developing at Little Arms Studios, a game-creation company based in Vienna, Va.
"Throughout the course of the conferense, our students were able to have great conversations with wonderful mentors from different areas of the technology industry,"said Scott. "They enjoyed talking about their own plans and listening to the remarkable mentors talk about their paths in life. We were especially honored to have one of the keynote speakers, Dr. Healy, join our table during a mentoring session."