As 70 professional women gathered Saturday in Flossmoor to impart wisdom to area schoolgirls, many shared the same thought.
“I wish I had this when I was growing up,” said Dr. Lisa Grant, who runs an orthodontics clinic in Homewood.
The second annual Girls STEAM Ahead event at Idlewild Country Club and organized by the Homewood Science Center attracted about 130 girls in grades seven through 12 representing 28 area schools.
The event aims to connect professional women such as Grant who work in science, technology, engineering, the arts or mathematics — collectively known as STEAM — with girls in order to guide and encourage them to pursue education and careers in fields traditionally dominated by men.
“There’s a problem in our country,” said Edie Dobrez, executive director of the Homewood Science Center. “We don’t have enough women in the STEAM fields. We’re trying to fix that.”
Last year’s event drew about 40 professional women and 90 girls.
This was Grant’s first year participating and she said she loved providing guidance to girls who looked to her for advice.
Grant said female representation has increased significantly since she started in the orthodontics field 25 years ago.
At that time she said she would attend medical conferences and many men would automatically assume she was an assistant, rather than a doctor like them.
The event was part of a larger national movement. A team of women who work for Microsoft flew in from Seattle for the three-hour event.
“I feel like it’s an incredible opportunity to be here,” said Susan Mings, a senior design researcher for Microsoft.
She said she told girls to study fields such as communications, psychology and technology if they want a position like hers.
Mings and other women at the event also encouraged the girls to apply for internships at tech and science companies.
A booth featuring Meghan Ostermann, who works as a propulsion engineer for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, was among the most popular and was crowded with girls during much of the mingling portion of the event.
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“If a girl wants to know how to become a rocket scientist, we have a rocket scientist here,” said Jeff McClain, president of the Homewood Science Center board.
Ostermann told the girls about the importance of studying math in school, like she did.
Some girls also were presenters, including Victoria D’Astrici, a junior at Homewood-Flossmoor High School who’s taking several engineering courses.
She said she was one of the only girls in those classes when she was a freshman and she was there to encourage other girls to take the courses.
Rick Edwards, of Flossmoor, said he registered his 14-year-old for the event because it was wonderful opportunity.
His wife, Jaqueline Clark-Edwards, is a chemical engineer and was one of the presenters.
His daughter’s friend, Ashley Wells, 13, said she was hoping to absorb as much as she could and learn from all the presenters.
There also were several professional women on hand who represented fields in the arts, such as Ashley Jay Gardner, who’s originally from Homewood but now mostly paints commissioned work at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago.
She said if a girl loves art, then she encourages her to stick with it, noting the art center has open studio events every third Friday, when artists demonstrate their craft free to the public.
Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.