Career Girls

As high school students, we are always asked what direction we want to take in our lives for the future. The more we hear this question, the more we wonder: What are we going to do?  We sit through lectures asking ourselves if what we are learning will ever help us. Teachers always say that what we are doing in class will benefit us in the future. But, how? This is especially true in math and science, where we wonder why we are taking these classes if we don’t want to be a doctor or a teacher. Instead of having all of these unanswered questions regarding our future, we decided to take matters into our own hands and find out: What can a girl can do with her math and science education?

 

We started our search on the Career Girls website, where we uncovered a plethora of jobs a high school girl can have in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields. We barely scratched the surface on this website, but it was easy to find admirable woman with very interesting careers who are putting their math and science education to work. 

 

One person who caught our eye was Susana Tapia Harper, a chemical engineer who works as the Standard Test Manager for the NASA White Sands Test Facility. Susana manages and tests materials that are sent into space, such as something’s ignitability and flammability. In her job, she is constantly using the math and science that she studied in high school and college to protect and save the lives of astronauts. Chemical Engineering is a field that is rarely mentioned or introduced into students’ lives. But we learned that Susana’s career uses the chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics we’re studying in high school. 

 

It’s important that more girls are made aware of the connections between what they study in school and all of these wonderful jobs and opportunities in the STEM field, especially because of the fact that men outnumber women in STEM careers. In fact, we learned that only around 17% of chemical engineers are women. Susana Tapia Harper has made a tremendous change with her job, and it is essential that more girls follow in her footsteps!

 

Even with just this brief glimpse into STEM careers, we were able to better understand the importance of our math and science education. Going to school and learning these subjects isn’t just about temporary knowledge or jobs as doctors. It is about finding a career for yourself that can make a difference. We challenge you to do a little discovering on your own to figure out the answers to your own questions about how the subjects you’re studying now are already helping you prepare for a future career!