I have worked with the organization for over 10 years. EYH Network and its 80+ conference continues to deliver meaningful experiences to thousands of girls. It provides girls fun and interesting hands-on STEM related activities led by women scientist, engineers, and other STEM professionals. These women often represent the first non-medical STEM professionals these girls have met and can be come important role models. The organization is beginning to increase its range of programs through partnerships with Seagate, Google, and Symantec, however, more funding is needed to sustain these programs.
I have been involved with the EYH organization for more than 30 years,both at the national and at the local level. The 1-day conferences held at approximately 100 different sites reaches many thousands of middle and high school girls each year. The girls are introduced to STEM careers that they might never have otherwise heard about, and they discover that math and science can be interesting, challenging, and fun. The EYH Network has an enormous impact and does this with a very limited budget. Many volunteers all over the country work to make these conferences successful.
I've worked with the EYH Network since 2005. After more than 30 years encouraging young women in STEM, EYH Network received the 2010 National Science Board's Public Service Award. The staff and board members are very dedicated to ensuring that the organization continues to encourage girls in STEM learning and careers. As a small organization, it often struggles with funding and growth. However, it consistently provides workshops to middle and high school girls that inspire them in STEM.
I've been a Board Member since 2006 and am very proud of my association with this organization. EYH/N (Expanding Your Horizons Network) is the leading organization for motivating girls to pursue higher math and science courses and expand their career choices through hands-on workshops and meeting women STEM role models at Conferences held at colleges and universities around the US and globally. More than 800,000 girls have attended these Conferences and workshops since the Network was founded approx. 30 years ago. Clearly, the organization has made a difference in the lives and career choices of many of our alumna, as we have collected data that has told us how the EYH/N has had a positive influence on them and led many women to careers in science, mathematics, and technology. Also EYH/N won the National Science Board's 2010 Public Service Award, further demonstrating the effect and value of the organization and its mission.
The Math/Science Network changed its name to the Expanding Your Horizons Network in ~2006 to better reflect its major role in the 80-100 annual Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics (EYH) conferences held all over the USA. As a woman physicist wanting to increase the number of women physicists I would work with everyday (from zero) I started volunteering at EYH conferences in 1978 and joined the leadership of the organization in 1979. I have volunteered for the Network ever since because it has an effective intervention strategy for encouraging girls to consider a career in science or engineering or other mathematically-based fields, it has been unwavering in replicating this strategy all over the USA and some foreign countries, one can see the enjoyment of the girls at the conferences and our post-conference surveys show that the girls' minds can be changed- some decide to become scientists and all attendees are much better informed about STEM fields being a fine place for a woman to have a rewarding career.
EYH was founded in 1974, and has been educating and inspiring girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math ever since. In fact, since its formation, 800,000 young girls have participated in one of our conferences throughout this country and now internationally. Conferences are organized at the grass roots level by women STEM professionals. Many conferences are started by women who attended an EYH as a young girl, or as a workshop leader. Once a conference gets started it’s rare for them to stop. Many EYH conferences such as the one at San Jose State have been happening for more than 30 years. Hundreds of girls from local middle schools or high schools arrive in the morning and the excitement is palpable. After listening to a motivating introductory speech by a women computer scientist from Google or a physicist from Sandia National lab, the girls go to workshops all led by women, where they explore topics such as Something Fishy about marine biology, Love at First Byte on computer Science or Rootbeer, Cheese and a Kiss about mold and fermentation. For many of them, this is the first time they have been on a college campus and have seen science and math come alive in hands-on experiments and activities.
The Expanding Your Horizons network provides hands-on outreach to girls in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics by engaging members of the professional community. It's incredibly motivating for girls to have the opportunity to see first-hand the benefits of concerted academics in these areas, but it's even more rewarding as the adult reaching out to these girls. Instigating that spark of interest can often mean the difference between a girl throwing in the towel in the face of a difficult math class, versus giving it all she's got. It's one of the most directly effective organizations I've had the pleasure of working with.