George Mason University's Volgenau School of Engineering hosted the 8th Annual STARS Celebration on August 14-16. Since 2006,STARS Computing Corps has been dedicated to broadening participation in computing and encouraging young students to pursue degrees in computing-related fields. This year students and faculty from all over America gathered in Washington, D.C. to participate in this popular STEM outreach event.
"Northern Virginia, in many ways, is the economic engine for the Commonwealth of Virginia," said Ken Ball, dean of the Volgenau School of Engineering. "We hope that events like this will help to engage students and introduce them to the much-needed technology skills that so many careers of the 21st century require."
Jade Garrett and Melissa Davis were two Volgenau students who helped with conference registration, set up, and even stepped in to lead a few workshops when the organizers were too busy. On the first day of the celebration they filled in with several leadership workshops and created their own icebreaker events. The workshop turned out to be a great learning experience and a huge success.
"I think the most inspiring moments for me were listening to Ruthe Farmer's opening remarks," said Davis who is majoring in Electrical Engineering. Farmer is the Chief Strategy and Growth Officer for the National Council for Women in Information Technology.
"She talked about specific things we can do to ask for help. One of the things she said that stuck with me was ‘the first no is never no.'" Farmer went on to tell the audience about the importance of persistence and tenacity and how she learned to ask different questions and get to the yes.
Garrett, who is majoring in Applied Information Technology, found the presentations and sessions at the STARS Celebration provided useful suggestions for how to plan STEM outreach events.
Both students have been working with Kamaljeet Sanghera, associate professor in the School's Department of Applied Information Technology. Sanghera has offered summer camps and outreach activities for middle school students since fall 2013.
"This year we ran camps for seven weeks and we're looking forward to doing more this fall. I know students like Melissa, Jade, and the other STARS participants will take what they learned and the conference and leverage the knowledge to do more workshops this year," said Sanghera.
Pictured above are (l to r) Robert Baccary, Melissa Davis, Jade Garrett, Kamaljeet Sanghera, Jordan Newton, Jacklyn Lasky.