Banning/Beaumont "Pass Area" Branch Group
AAUW Tech Trek Summer 2011 program on CBS News: click here (you need Flash to play film)
May 2011: We met with our Tech Trek girls and their families. We do this each year so the girls get to know each other before they go off to camp in July. It also gives the families the opportunity to find out more about AAUW and what we do for women and girls. We are sending three girls this year, one from each of the middle schools in Banning and Beaumont. This brings us to a total of twenty girls from the Pass Area that we have sent to Tech Trek. The girls are very excited about going to the University of California, San Diego, living in the dorms for a week and attending classes on the campus. We are very proud that we are able to offer this opportunity to these outstanding seventh grade girls.
Feb. 2011: See our 2011 Math/Science Conference pictures - that's the whole story of our success, yet one more year. Our eleventh annual Math/Science Conference was held on Tuesday, Jan. 11 on the campus of Mt. San Jacinto College. 320 girls attended this year’s conference. New for this year’s conference were speakers in Computer Science (the City of Fontana brought their whole IT team); Emergency Medical Services (courtesy of the City of Riverside); and Civil Engineering (courtesy of the County of San Bernardino). These were all great additions to our conference.
Sept. 2010: Our three girls recently returned from Tech Trek at the University of California, San Diego. From the looks of the Tech Trek website, not only did the girls have a good time, but they had a great academic experience. One of the girls wrote that her anatomy class dissected a fetal pig. She thought she would hate doing so, but she states that she found it fascinating (except for the smell). We are continually impressed by the caliber of girls that we send each year and find it difficult to believe they are only seventh graders.
We have a great committee working on our Math/Science conference 2011. We are expected to have 300 girls again this year. This will be year eleven for this project. Working with us are several new AAUW members from the Pass Area. The conference is tentatively set for Friday, January 7, 2011 at Mt. San Jacinto College. We hope that members living outside the Pass Area will also assist us with our conference. Providing this service to girls is always a rewarding experience
Math/Science Conference at Mt. San Jacinto Community College on Friday, January 8, 2010: We did not think a conference would be possible in 2010 due to a reduction in financial contributions. However, when the Banning and Beaumont School Districts heard our problem they stepped forward and volunteered to provide the lunches for the girls, thus making the conference possible this year.
Sept. 2009: our Pass Area Group was recognized by the Beaumont School District for our service in providing the Math/Science Conference for the past ten years and awarding scholarships to Tech Trek. Present at this board meeting were the two girls we sent to Tech Trek this year and their parents. The Principals of both the Beaumont Middle Schools spoke about our contributions to their schools. To date we have sent 25 girls to Tech Trek.
We have members further away from Redlands who have alternative meetings in Banning and Beaumont.
Our Pass special activities include:
The Pass Area Interest Group of the Redlands Branch of American Association of University Women is proud to present a math science conference designed to build confidence in young women and create an awareness of the diversity of careers involving math and science. The Conference is planned and managed completely by the women from Beaumont and Banning Pass AAUW Interest Group (mostly from Sun Lakes), and on the day of the conference, approximately 35 additional friends, both men and women from Sun Lakes, participate.
updated June 2011