The drill press whirled and the sanders buzzed at Johnson College on Wednesday as about 100 girls learned more about STEM-related fields.
Deanna Rivas, a Forest City Regional ninth grader, drilled holes for a tealight candle holder. She waited in line to use the router to round the edges.
“It's actually so fun. Like, it's exciting,” she said. “I was nervous, but I'm really excited to do it.”
The Scranton college hosted about 100 girls from Wayne and Susquehanna counties for the annual Girls on Fire event. The students in sixth through ninth grades attended hands-on sessions related to careers in STEM, the abbreviation for science, technology, engineering and math. Johnson invites different schools to the event each year.
“Sadly, even in 2024, there are just not enough women in the trades,” said Dana Healey, associate director of career services at Johnson. “So this just gives young women an opportunity to see the things they may not see otherwise, to know that if they wanted to be a drafter and architect or if they want to be a diesel mechanic, biomedical technician that these things are available to them.”
Healey started at Johnson six years ago, and said that since then, she has seen more women interested in STEM fields.
Statistics from the National Science Foundation support her observation.
Although men continue to hold a majority of STEM jobs, between 2011 and 2021, the number of women in the STEM workforce increased 31%.
Across Johnson’s campus, students learned about some of the school’s most popular programs.
Hope Hoanzl of Forest City studies electronic engineering technology. She helped lead the younger students in an activity with electronic building blocks.
“Being in a male dominated field it can be a struggle sometimes,” Hoanzl said. “So it is really good to get out there and help them with experience and let them know that there's a strong female there you know.”
Back in the carpentry classroom, Emory Dawe, a Wallenpaupack freshman, sanded her candle holder.
“I thought it would be fun to experience things that girls don't usually get to do,” she said. “And it's just cool to learn and know for the rest of your life.”
