Enriched

Expanding Horizons

WHAT: SUNY Adirondack and the Adirondack Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) offer Girls Go STEM, an annual day of science, technology, engineering and math for regional middle school girls.

DETAILS: Sixty young women visit SUNY Adirondack to explore STEM-related disciplines through hands-on learning experiences.

Since 2016 (with a break for the pandemic-related shutdown), SUNY Adirondack has hosted Girls Go STEM.

WHAT: SUNY Adirondack continues to offer Summer Enrichment, a program geared toward children in grades 4 through 10 to learn, experiment and have fun in courses designed for all interests.

DETAILS: At the height of the pandemic, SUNY Adirondack offered Summer Enrichment classes virtually, returning to in-person courses in the summer of 2022.

While their peers were sleeping in late or riding bikes around their neighborhoods, small groups of teenagers hunched over lab tables at SUNY Adirondack, peering into vials of murky orange liquid.

The kids — in grades 7 to 10 — were extracting DNA from strawberries, then examining it under a microscope.

“The hands-on activities were a lot of fun,” said Rowan Triller, a Queensbury student who attended the Forensic Science program in the summer of 2022. “Now I bring the supplies when I baby-sit a new family and show the little kids, to hopefully inspire a love of science.”

Despite finding the experiment “fascinating,” what Triller liked most was the fingerprinting unit.

“I love true-crime podcasts and forensics TV dramas; taking fingerprints and learning about how to analyze them made me even more certain I want a job in an investigative field someday,” she said.

Other classes offered include American Sign Language, theater, rockets, art, “Dungeons & Dragons” and a Culinary Arts camp. Once students age out of Summer Enrichment, they can work as a faculty assistant or Summer Enrichment office assistant.

Learn more at https:// www.sunyacc.edu/ summer-enrichment.

The all-day event offers workshops that encourage middle-school girls to explore science, technology, engineering and math. Female speakers who work in related fields offer presentations, talks and hands-on experiences.

Participating young women are recommended by their teachers to attend the free event.

BY THE NUMBERs

434: Number of students who attended 2016 through 2022

Participating schools: Argyle Central School; Bolton Central School; Cambridge Central School; Corinth Central School; Fort Ann Central School; Fort Edward Union Free School; Glens Falls City School District; Granville Central School; Greenwich Central School; Hadley-Luzerne Central School; Hartford Central School; Hudson Falls Central School; Lake George Central School; Queensbury Union Free School District; Salem Central School; Schuylerville Central School; South Glens Falls Central School; St. Mary’s/St. Alphonsus Regional Catholic School; Warrensburg Central School

34 percent of STEM-related jobs in the United States are filled by women (despite the fact nearly half the workforce is women)

WHAT: Former SUNY Adirondack student competes in “Hell’s Kitchen: Battle of the Ages” on FOX.

WHEN: Season 21 of the Gordon Ramsey hit reality TV show ran September 2022 through February 2023.

FUN FACT: After his “Hell’s Kitchen” experience, Billy Trudsoe returned to the area, where he is executive chef of Basil & Wicks in North Creek. Learn more at www.basilandwicks.com.