SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Students at one Scranton college got a hands-on look at careers where women are still underrepresented.<\/p>\n
Johnson College in Scranton hosted its annual \u201cGirls on Fire\u201d event, designed to introduce girls in grades six through nine to careers in science, technology, engineering and math.<\/p>\n
More than 90 students from the Old Forge, Tunkhannock, and Susquehanna Area school districts spent the day on campus exploring different programs and meeting women already working in the industry.<\/p>\n
The event began with a panel of female professionals and alumni before students toured the campus and took part in hands-on workshops in areas like electronic engineering, architectural drafting and design, HVAC, carpentry, and electrical construction.<\/p>\n
Organizers say the goal is to show girls that these career paths are open to them, even in fields traditionally dominated by men.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like to be able to have that option. Even if I am in a male-dominated field, I want to be that female that sticks out, so I\u2019m trying to do that,” said 6th grader Gabriella Carbenter.<\/p>\n
College leaders say they are seeing progress as more women pursue technical careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gap is still huge. I like to think it\u2019s changing, but in the last five to seven years\u2014welding, electrical engineering, mechatronics, computer information technology\u2014we\u2019ve definitely seen more women than we had in the past,” said Dana Healey, associate director of career services.<\/p>\n
The event is part of Johnson College\u2019s Women in Industry initiative and is held during the same week as International Women\u2019s Day to help empower the next generation of female leaders in STEM.<\/p>\n
Organizers say many students return year after year, building confidence and learning new skills along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Students at one Scranton college got a hands-on look at careers where women…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-135957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}