Valarie Armstrong, Tech Trek Branch Coordinator

Tech Trek is a one-week residential summer camp for rising eighth graders which was founded in 1998 with start-up funds from an AAUW Educational Foundation Community Action Grant. The camp was designed to encourage young women to continue studying science and math in middle school and beyond. An AAUW Educational Foundation research report, “Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America,” indicated that young women tended to drop out of these courses during the middle school years.

Each campership is paid by AAUW Long Beach through donations from its members.  If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution for Tech Trek, please email AAUW Long Beach at AAUWLongBeach@gmail.com for more information.

Tech Trek’s goals are:

1. to encourage young women of all backgrounds who are entering 8th grade to take math and science courses each year throughout high school
2. to motivate these students to attend college
3. to inspire young women to consider careers in science, technology, engineering or math

The selection process begins with the Tech Trek committee identifying Title I schools in the Long Beach Unified School District for candidates.  The school’s principal is then notified of the program and requested to provide the name(s) of science and/or math teachers who would act as a focal point.  The teacher then recommend girls who would benefit from our camp.  The girls are requested to write a two-page essay detailing why they would like to attend our camp.  The committee members interview the nominated girls.  We then meet to determine our nominees and alternatives for camp.

November 2024

The search for Tech Trek campers has begun! Fourteen Title I middle schools have been invited to nominate students for Tech Trek STEM camp, a week-long residential camp for seventh grade girls. Potential campers must be nominated by their math or science teacher, complete an application/essay, and have an interview with our branch’s Tech Trek committee. This summer, Tech Trek will be held at Whittier College June 15 – 22 and at UC Santa Barbara July 13 – 20, 2025.

Tech Trek California recommends that branches focus on middle schools that have at least 40% of their student population in the Title I program. Title I is based on the number of students that qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. The middle schools that have been invited to participate this year are Bancroft, Franklin, Hamilton, Hoover, Hughes, Jefferson, Lindbergh, Lindsey, Muir, Nelson, Powell, Robinson, Stephens, and Washington. Ten of these schools have over 70% of their students participating in the lunch program.

Informational emails and letters have been sent to LBUSD STEM teachers, the school principal, the LBUSD Middle School Program Director, and the LBUSD Superintendent. Nominations are due December 6, 2024. All nominees will receive a link to the application and parent consent forms, which are due February 28, 2025. Interviews will be conducted in mid-March and students will be notified of their selection by April 1, 2025.

This year, the Tech Trek committee hopes to send 10-12 campers. We would like to extend our gratitude to the STEM Conference Committee for their generous donation of $2,395. The cost per camper is $1,200, paid for by donations from our generous members and sponsors. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding Tech Trek, please feel free to contact me at valeriebeth@verizon.net or visit the Tech Trek California website: https://www.aauw-ca.org/tech-trek/

September 2024

Tech Trek Whittier College completed a successful two weeks of camp on June 29th, offering classes and in Robotics, Neurology, Chemistry, Forensics, Aerospace, and Anatomy. Workshops and activities included field trips to a cadaver lab and the Columbia Memorial Space Museum, Women’s Career Night, a College Prep presentation, a financial responsibility activity, and an engineering project. Our campers from Long Beach had a wonderful experience, based on the thank you notes that they wrote at the conclusion of camp. Here are some of their comments:

R.A., Muir Academy:
“Thank you for giving me the chance to go to Tech Trek.  The things I got to learn and see really helped my figure out what I wanted my future to be. I appreciated that you saw something in me and let me experience this amazing camp.

K.N., Powell Academy:
“Thank you for accepting me to be in this program.  The staff was amazing, and the cooks are very good.  The chemistry teacher and her class was very fun.”

N. M., Powell Academy:
“This was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot of things in my neurology class. I got to dissect a pig eye and touch a pig brain and pig liver. My favorite part was getting to know other girls interested in STEM and forming new relationships. I enjoyed the time I spent here and getting the chance to live in a dorm for a week. Thank you.”

G.T., Hamilton Middle School:
“Thank you so much for letting me come here. I’m grateful I got to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity! My favorite activities were the rovers and rockets I made in my Aerospace class. I’m so grateful and thank you again.”

B. R., Hamilton Middle School:
“Thank you, AAUW Long Beach. I had so much fun. The things I had the most fun with were when we extracted strawberry DNA in the labs, the finance game, and the field trip to the cadaver lab.”

S.P., Hamilton Middle School:
“I want to say thank you that you’ve considered paying for my STEM experiences. I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I love CSI and chemistry. Seeing a chemical reaction always surprises me! This week was a learning experience and I’m glad I know the periodic table. I’m so happy I learned so much here and I made new friends.”

Next year, Whittier College will be back to one week of Tech Trek because there are plans to reinstate the UC Santa Barbara camp. The Tech Trek Committee will begin its search for 2025 campers in September.

January 2023

Celebrating 25 Years of Tech Trek
Valerie Armstrong, Tech Trek Branch Coordinator

AAUW Long Beach we honored former Tech Trek campers and their parents at the LBCC Planetarium on Saturday, January 7^th, from 10:00 a.m. – noon. The Planetarium was a perfect setting for an event that celebrates young women who are interested in STEM fields. Many thanks to Ginny Baxter for obtaining this wonderful venue!

Our branch has sent 96 young women to Tech Trek since 1998. This would not have been possible without the generous donations from our members. The January 7^th meeting was our Annual Tech Trek Fundraiser, and we hope to send 12 students to camp at UCSB or Whittier College this summer. The price of attending camp is expected to go up this year. UCSB is asking for $1150 per camper and Whittier College is requesting $1200 per camper. This is a price increase of $250 – $300 per camper, so donations are very important this year.

If you would like to donate, checks should be made out to: AAUW – CA SPF with Tech Trek Long Beach on the memo line. By donating to the SPF fund, your donation will be tax deductible. Checks should be mailed to Tech Trek Treasurer Linda Patten.

Tech Trek is a unique opportunity for middle school girls to experience a week of college life while participating in hands-on STEM lessons and activities. We should be proud of our branch for providing this opportunity to 96 deserving students since 1998.  For more information, please contact Valerie Armstrong.

The Long Beach Grunion Gazette Article can be found HERE.

September 2022

After a two-year hiatus, Long Beach student experienced wonderful programs onsite at UC Santa Barbara and Whittier College. Three students from Muir Academy and two students from Hamilton Middle School completed a lengthy application process, which included proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test upon arrival at camp. All five had an unforgettable experience and wrote about their favorite activities in thoughtful thank you notes.

Campers at Whittier College took project-based classes in Biology, Architecture, Anatomy, Computer Science, and ­­­­­­Forensic Science. Following their classes, they attended workshops on Polymers, Paleontology, and the Science of Cosmetics. Field trips included the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey and a cadaver lab in Whittier.  Activities continued into the evening with career presentations from professional women and college readiness information. Camp Director Judy Pfeil and her assistant, branch member Tobi Balma, did an outstanding job of organizing these programs.

Students who attended the UC Santa Barbara camp attended classes in Aerospace, Robotics, and Forensic Science. Field trips included a boat excursion where the students saw pods of dolphins.

Although AAUW Long Beach approved nine students for Tech Trek, three could not meet the vaccination requirement and one experienced the death of a grandparent shortly before camp. The vaccination requirement was clearly stated in the application and discussed in the students’ interviews.

The Tech Trek Committee will begin contacting schools by the end of September. We’re looking forward to selecting our next group of outstanding campers.

Thank you letters from our Campers:

September 2021 

As a result of concerns regarding COVID-19 and the impact of directives from national, state and local leaders, AAUW California held a virtual Tech Trek program this summer.

AAUW Long Beach invited 18 students from Muir Academy and Hamilton Middle School to attend the virtual program. These students were recommended by their science or math teach- ers. The students from Muir Academy were selected for Tech Trek in 2020, but the camp was cancelled due to COVID-19. Of those 18 students, two students persevered through the online application process and attended the 5-day camp, which was conducted via Zoom.

The camp was centered on a morning project-based robotics/engineering/coding class that met daily. After lunch, the campers heard from inspirational women for an hour, then participated in one or more 90-minute interactive science, technology, engineering, and math work- shops. They had the option to return for evening workshops which in- cluded social activities or parent sessions.

 

Genesis Hernandez, an 8th grader at Muir Academy in West Long Beach, enjoyed the virtual program. “I think my favorite thing about Tech Trek had to be the guest speakers. I loved how they talked about their struggles and how they overcame them without giving up.”