{"id":391,"date":"2022-05-18T09:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T16:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/westem\/?page_id=391"},"modified":"2026-04-30T08:05:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:05:44","slug":"my-homepage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/westem\/","title":{"rendered":"My Homepage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Women Elevate STEM <\/h1>\n\n\n\n

(WE STEM+)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The WE STEM+ Career Summer Academy is a PAID summer experience designed for students who have participated in a MESA program and completed 8th 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.\u00a0While priority will be given to MESA students who have complete 8th grade by Summer 2026, this opportunity is available for all rising 9th-12th grade students. For more information about this opportunity, please contact Melissa Graham at\u00a0mgraham14@ewu.edu<\/a> or (509) 359-2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Note: Biotech Week and Geosciences Week are currently full and no longer accepting applications*<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\nApply<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Biotech Week: July 6-10 (Full – no longer accepting applications)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Activities for the biotech week will be led by Amy Gray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Amy<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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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\u2019s academic interests include botany, entomology, mycology, and microbiology. She earned her Bachelor\u2019s and Master\u2019s degrees at Eastern Washington University where she focused on molecular biology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mechanical Engineering\/Robotics Week: July 13-17<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Activities for the mechanical engineering\/robotics week will be led by Dr. Jennifer Leaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jennifer\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Geosciences Week: July 13-17 (Full – no longer accepting applications)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Activities for the geosciences week will be led by Dr. Lindsay MacKenzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lindsay is a sedimentologist and paleontologist whose research focuses on the process of fossilization, with a special interest in exceptional fossils (those preserving soft tissues in addition to hard parts).  As a geoscientist, Lindsay loves exploring the Earth as a working system and aims to understand how different processes in each of Earth\u2019s spheres (lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere) interact with each other, and are responsible for many of the global phenomena both in present time and in Earth\u2019s past.  She earned her BSc in Geology at Purdue University, and went on to complete a MSc in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Alberta and a PhD in Geosciences at the University of Montana.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Computer Science Week: July 6-10<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Activities for the computer science week will be led by Karen Thurston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Karen<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Computer Science is a misleading name for a discipline that is not really about the \u201cscience\u201d 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 \u201cApplied Math\u201d but math is only one small aspect, although foundational, of computer science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen will focus on software\u2014the instructions computers use to execute a problem-solving process. \u201cSoftware is Eating the World\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students will have a chance to write small programs and also \u201clook under the hood\u201d of a few real software systems available online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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