Orange, CA – December 3, 2018 – Orange Unified is proud to announce that McPherson Magnet School teachers Teresa Andrade and Sara Hoffmann have received a $955 grant from the Assistance League in Orange to support McPherson Magnet’s Femineers© Program. McPherson Magnet currently has the first licensed Femineers© program within the district.
Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Hoffmann wrote their grant, Beyond Rosie the Riveter, Empowering Girls in Engineering!, which will purchase supplies that will help the Femineers© program sustain and grow at McPherson Magnet. The grant will allow McPherson’s Femineers© program to purchase supplies such as fabrics, LED lights, coin cell batteries and holders, electrical wire cutters, and welding stations to help the students construct wearable technology projects which they will present at the next Femineers Summit in May.
McPherson's Femineer© cohort meets weekly after-school and participants use the Design Process to construct and program a Wearable Technology project using recycled materials. Mrs. Andrade and Mrs. Hoffmann are proud to nurture the girls’ inquisitive minds. Additional information about McPherson’s Femineers© program is available online: https://www.smore.com/h5vkp
Last spring, the McPherson Femineers© had the opportunity to attend the Femineers© Summit and heard from women in the STEM field about their experiences. Each professional told their inspiring stories and talked about measures to increase women working in STEM fields. The STEM professionals included:
- Tara Welborne, Mission Assurance Manager, Northrop Grumman
- Luz Virgen, System Engineer Manager, Boeing (and an original student from Jaime Escalante’s calculus classroom)
- Leanne Swanson, Principal Manager, Southern California Edison
- Nicole Cadreau, Distribution Engineer, Southern California Edison
The Femineers© Program was created and funded by Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Engineering in 2013 to inspire additional females to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in their education and career. The program provides K-12 students with project-based learning, female engineering student mentors, and opportunities to visit Cal Poly Pomona, while building a sustainable program and community for current and future STEM leaders. The program engages participants through highly creative, hands-on activities. By engaging with real-world applications, Femineers© acquire the technical knowledge and practical skills necessary to become confident and strong in their future careers.
McPherson Magnet is a K-8 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) magnet program in the Orange Unified School District. To get information about McPherson, please follow them on Twitter @mcphersonmagnet or visit their website: https://mcphersonhome.meteormail.net/home
