"Engineering is in your everyday life:" St. Joan Antida High School hosts 'Girls in Engineering Fair'

MILWAUKEE -- St. Joan Antida High School on Tuesday, April 19th welcomed a record crowd of more than 200 area middle school students for its 10th annual "Girls in Engineering Fair" held at the school.

The annual event is an effort to introduce girls at an early age to potential careers in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.

"Engineering is in your everyday life -- doing activities and things that you might not think are relevant. So, for instance, the girls are doing things where they're working with a balloon, they're working with a cup of water. But that's engineering, that's science," said Alexis Carter, St. Joan Antida High School director of admissions.

St. Joan Antida High School "Girls in Engineering Fair"

The event included St. Joan Antida students, along with roughly 170 area middle school students, who were able to learn from women working as engineers for local companies.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, only five percent of American professionals currently working in STEM fields are women.  Fair organizers said the event aims to address, and increase, this number.

"Telling them that they can, and actually showing them that they like the activities that they're doing -- it really makes me happy," said Sarah Kopacz, St. Joan Antida High School junior.

"It's like whoa! Like, this can be for me too! I can do what you can do. Like, you're not better than me. I'm not better than you. We can all do it. We can create something out of this world," said Carmen Medina-Santa Anna, St. Joan Antida High School junior.

Most of the middle school students who took part in this event will eventually attend St. Joan Antida High School, and the event gave them an opportunity to get more familiar with the school.

St. Joan Antida High School "Girls in Engineering Fair"