GAMES Girls' Camp Promotes Career Awareness
Edinburg - July 13, 2009
By Marcela Navarro

EDINBURG - Thursday morning, the University of Texas-Pan American departments of science, math and engineering were overtaken by young women from 21 RGV middle schools who gathered to discover the importance of getting ready for college.

The UTPA Mother Daughter Program coordinated the first Girls Adventuring in Math, Engineering and Science (GAMES) camp on July 8 at the UTPA campus in Edinburg. This three-day event is dedicated to promote the study of science, math and engineering among students and to provide them with a college experience.

The UTPA Outreach Center, an initiative that provides services to public schools and other organizations in support of college readiness initiatives, designed the Mother Daughter Program to encourage young women in 7th and 8th grades to complete high school and get ready for college. The program is also focused on the development of stronger links of communication between mothers and daughters.

Asked about the goal of the GAMES camp, Mayra Hinojosa, counseling specialist at Mother Daughter Program and coordinator of the camp, said that the focus of this event was to introduce students to the many careers available for them in the areas of science, math and engineering.

"Now that the girls are at an early age, we want to get them interested in different careers and universities," Hinojosa, 24, said. "If by the end of the (GAMES) camp we have motivated one girl to say 'hey I can do this, I can be an engineer' then we know we have done our job."

During the GAMES camp, the girls attended three different classes, one for each area (science, math and engineering), where they participated in several activities while obtaining hands-on experience and a better understanding of what they would be doing if they decided to become a scientist, mathematician or engineer.

Among these activities, students learned about the process of making shoes and what effects this process has in the preservation of the environment. With the help of instructors, the girls were able to create biodegradable plastic and they discovered the importance of ethics while studying the causes of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

However, creating awareness about these careers is not a recent concern among local and national organizations.

On April 2004, the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency created by Congress to promote the progress of science and national defense, established that there was an "emerging and critical problem of the science and engineering workforce."

Even though there are many fields of study, during the GAMES camp instructors and coordinators felt the need to encourage the 34 girls who attended the camp to learn more about the science, math and engineering fields.

"The number of women who get into these fields (science, math and engineering) is very low. From all the engineers who go into the workforce only 18 percent are women and from that only 0.8 percent is Hispanic." Hinojosa said. "We want students to think about a career. We tell them that that education is something nobody is going to take away from them."

Even though the event was carried by the Mother Daughter Program, its team knows that the force resides in uniting efforts with other organizations.

"If it wasn't for the support of Engaging Communities in College Readiness (ENCORE) program, today would've been the last day of the camp. The girls would've not been able to continue exploring tomorrow's activities and our mothers would've been able to see what their daughters accomplished." Hinojosa said. "Thanks to ENCORE's support we managed to make this camp what we wanted, a real college experience for the girls."

Friday, students and instructors will close the event with a mother and daughter picnic. However, students already feel excited and thankful for the opportunity they received.

"I like the (GAMES) camp because I learned about careers that I didn't know much about," said Nallely Garcia, 14, an 8th grade student from Harwell Middle School in Edinburg who attended the GAMES camp. "I see that here in college people are serious about their future and I want to do that. I want to be someone in life."

For more information please contact Mayra Hinojosa at 956-292-7597 office or via e-mail at mdp@utpa.edu