I'm a scientist. Specifically, a geologist. When I explained my job to a classroomful of kindergarteners that my bestie Maria teaches, it was pretty easy. All I said was that I am a scientist, and that I study the earth. From what Maria tells me, they were pretty excited and asked her in the following weeks "when is the scientist coming back?" Hopefully I got some of them excited about science from my short conversation.
Very few females go into the sciences (biology/physics/chemistry/geology - you know, the ones you have to take to satisfy credits in undergrad), mathematics, or engineering. Only 3/10 graduates in those degrees are female. It was quite obvious in school when myself, Merideth, and Karen were the only girls in a class of 30 people (and even more obvious when I am the only girl in meetings here with 20 other people). More power to us, though! I am proud that my company participates in STEM, to get girls involved in the technical degrees early in life.
Since most of my friends are fellow geologists and engineers, a youtube video link came up frequently to me over the past few weeks. If I have a girl, I hope she follows in my own footsteps and excels in the maths and sciences. Especially because there are two of us scientists in the house now, since Adam is a geologist as well.
