Students Experience “We Are IT!” Event at Edison

Students engage in a crime scene investigation
session during Edison’s “We Are IT!” event.

More than 200 students in grades six to eleven from Miami, Darke and Shelby county schools were at Edison Community College on Friday, November 16, for the seventh annual “We Are IT!” event. The daylong program is designed to help boost interest of young women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

The event began with a keynote address from speaker Allison Mendenhall, a Certified Physician Assistant, of Troy Primary Care. Mendenall spoke to the ladies about valuing their independence and gaining meaningful lessons through life’s everyday situations. She touched on the fact that life doesn’t always go as planned and encouraged the group to be persistent in reaching for their dreams.

Each of the girls chose three breakout sessions from a total of thirteen different sessions offered. Topics of breakout sessions ranged from diagnostic laboratory medicine and physics to digital photo editing and video game design. During lunch students had the opportunity to network with professionals and discuss careers in information technology and engineering.

“Our goal is to have these young women explore different technology careers such as robotics and welding, working with Raspberry Pi boards to learn to build a minicomputer, building video games, digital cartooning, mixing their own music and forensic science,” said Patti Ross, Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and coordinator of the event. “In doing this, we want to encourage these young women to consider all their options as they plan their academic futures.”

In addition to giving students a look at what they could do for a living somewhere down the road, some of the day’s sessions focused on things that are relevant in their daily lives. A session titled “Hot Technologies” gave the girls the chance to explore the latest and greatest technologies. They were taught how to solve problems, get information quickly and communicate in new ways using technology.

To wrap up the day, students were encouraged to participate in an essay contest. The theme of the essay asked students to describe how they best embodied the characteristics of the event’s mascot, “Mitse” (Math, Information Technology, Science, Engineering). A total of 76 students entered the essay contest with the first place winner receiving an iPad.