A select group of Hispanic women from the Richmond area participated in the second Pathways to Science camp, which was held recently on the Randolph-Macon College campus. The camp is designed to spark high school-aged women’s interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and encourage them to pursue a career in science.

The camp is the product of a partnership assembled by Randolph-Macon that includes Fortune 500 companies, state Hispanic leaders, and STEM-focused nonprofits. The program—the first of its kind in Central Virginia—gives young Hispanic women the opportunity to explore STEM disciplines and interact with researchers and other professionals from companies throughout the region.

Exploring STEM
Campers, who attended for free and earned a $2,500 scholarship to the college of their choice, explored a number of STEM topics during their week, including measuring acceleration andg-force during “Theme Park Physics” activities at Kings Dominion; testing blood sugar levels during a medicinal chemistry simulation; and composing music via computer coding in a computer science session.

They also met with Kimberly Higgins Deobald (vice president, global sales, data science and business analytics, IBM Analytics) for a roundtable discussion on pursuing a career in STEM, as well as admissions officers and medical students from the Medical College of Virginia. Students who attended both the 2017 and the 2018 camps will receive a $5,000 scholarship to the college of their choice.

RMC Chemistry Professor April Marchetti ’97 served as camp director and Primary Investigator of the $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation that funded the 2017 and 2018 Pathways to Science camp experiences. Rebecca Michelsen (chemistry), Rachele Dominguez (physics), Tricia Reagan (Spanish), and Laurie Massery (Spanish) made up the rest of the leadership team. Damon Reed ’20, Rosa Paredes ’21, Jordan Poehler ’18, Courtney Taylor ’18, Melody Peacock ’21, and Ariel Salerno ’20 served as mentors during the program.

Pathways Partners
Campers toured several of the Pathways to Science partners, including Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, the Science Museum of Virginia, and Maymont park.

At WestRock, students toured the facility and participated in an engineering challenge in which they competed in teams to build the tallest structure that would support a marshmallow using only 20 pieces of dry spaghetti and a yard of masking tape.

At Dominion Energy, campers participated in a private tour the Power Delivery Training Center and enjoyed lunch with staff members. At CodeRVA, a non-profit that promotes computer science across Virginia, students participated in a workshop; engaged in group activities; and worked with a music-making program called Earsketch to compose a short piece of music using the text-based language Python.

Excitement + Enthusiasm
On campus, students met with RMC admissions staff for “What’s Next: How to Start Your College Search,” and during their free time they enjoyed STEM-themed painting activities and a movie night.

“We were so thrilled that every student from year one of our camp chose to return for a second year, as well as that we were able to welcome 12 additional campers to campus this summer,” says Marchetti, the Garnett-Lambert Endowed Professor in Chemistry. “The partnerships we have created and the funding we obtained for this program is creating excitement and enthusiasm about careers in STEM for our campers and allows us to show them a little bit about what STEM professionals do in their daily lives.”

The Pathways to Science research group is actively seeking funding to continue the program for summer 2019 and beyond, as well as to permanently fund the program.