Women Elevate STEM
(WE STEM+)
The WE STEM+ Career Summer Academy is a PAID summer experience designed for students who have participated in a MESA program and completed 10th grade. In this academy, students will spend a week touring facilities from some of EWU’s industry partners, participating in many activities on the EWU campus, meeting with women who are industry experts, and learning about educational pathways that lead to work in those industries. For more information about this opportunity, please contact Melissa Graham at mgraham14@ewu.edu or (509) 359-2007.
WE STEM+ is now full for Summer 2025. Check back later to sign up for Summer 2026.
Biotech Week: June 23 – June 27 (Full)
Activities for the biotech week will be led by Amy Gray.
Amy Gray is passionate about connecting students with hands-on research opportunities, science outreach, and spending time in nature with her own budding young scientist and husky mutt. Amy’s academic interests include botany, entomology, mycology, and microbiology. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Eastern Washington University where she focused on molecular biology.
Mechanical Engineering/Robotics Week: July 7 – July 11 (full)
Activities for the mechanical engineering/robotics week will be led by Dr. Jennifer Leaf.
Jennifer’s original career field was computer science. She worked as a software engineer in the defense industry and as a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. After 14 years in industry, she decided to pursue her other lifelong goals of teaching and robotics. She studied mechanical engineering at EWU as a post-baccalaureate student to prepare for graduate school, then attended Oregon State University where she completed a Ph. D. in Robotics in June of 2023.
Geosciences Week: July 14 – July 18 (Full)
Activities for the geosciences week will be led by Dr. Erin Dorothea Dascher.
In her research, Erin uses geospatial tools and large datasets to analyze functionally connected river networks, watershed connectivity, and freshwater mussel distribution. Erin draws upon her past experience working as a grass-roots organizer for Greenpeace and her knowledge of environmental management to pursue scientific endeavors that not only lead to better environmental policy and practices but also create tools for improved dissemination of scientific findings and ideas.
Computer Science Week: July 14 – July 18 (full)
Activities for the computer science week will be led by Sarah Johnson.
Computer Science is a misleading name for a discipline that is not really about the “science” of computers or computing, but more about logic and reasoning to solve problems of many types using computer software. Some have referred to Computer Science as “Applied Math” but math is only one small aspect, although foundational, of computer science.
Karen will focus on software—the instructions computers use to execute a problem-solving process. “Software is Eating the World” is an expression coined by Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of Netscape, the company that made the Internet World Wide Web more easily accessible to the masses with its browser software, Netscape Navigator in the mid-1990s. Software is in every industry and is an industry unto itself with companies like Microsoft creating operating systems and general purpose productivity software.
With only one week to cover a massive topic, Karen will expose students to the many options for careers in software in various industries. Programmer is one option, but also systems analyst, architect, designer, quality assurance tester, project manager, and various sales, marketing, and management roles depending on the particular software company and industry sector.
Students will have a chance to write small programs and also “look under the hood” of a few real software systems available online.
