Fair showcases the importance of women in engineering

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- More than 150 Milwaukee-area middle school students spent Thursday morning, October 24th at Saint Joan Antida High School to learn about engineering.

Eight schools participated -- including a variety of public, private and charter schools. High schoolers who are part of some of St. Joan's engineering classes led the way. They led projects like making Halloween slime, and building tennis rackets to show that engineering can be fun.

“Engineering is a lot of fun. It's a lot of hard work but it's also very rewarding in the end,” said Ivory Roberts, a senior at St. Joan Antida and one of the student leaders on Thursday.

But the focus of the day wasn't just on engineering as a future career - the focus was on women as engineers.

“I think it’s important to show young women that they can have an interest in STEM, science technology engineering and mathematics, and they should. And we really want to empower them to go out and pursue that field,” said Rebecca Surges, Director of Admissions and Marketing for St. Joan Antida High School, and the organizer of the day’s event.

“I think it’s important because there are not a lot of women engineers out there and it will help make a difference in the world,” said 8th grader Olivia Packer from Thomas Aquinas Academy.

The young women also heard from a GE Healthcare Manufacturing Engineer about what it was like being a woman in the field, and why she is glad she chose that career.

The fair is held twice a year. The next one is in the spring.