Photo by Mirza Kurspahic/The Connection Presenter Laura Bloechl, center, a software leadership development engineer in Springfield, helps Melissa Hadley from Lake Anne Elementary School, left, and Cierra Morrison, London Towne Elementary School in Centreville, build their Egg Drop structure.

Veterinarians, pilots, engineers, mathematicians and financial professionals gathered at Dogwood Elementary School in Reston on Saturday morning. While they came from varied backgrounds and professions, they shared one thing in common: They are all women.
"I want you to see yourself in their place," said Dogwood Elementary GT specialist Linda Martin as she introduced the professional women to more than 400 fifth and sixth grade girls who took part in the 2008 Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) Conference on Saturday morning, March 8. The girls came from 15 of the 18 elementary schools in Cluster VIII of Fairfax County Public Schools. "There is a seed that is going to be planted today," said Martin.
The professional women acted as presenters during a day of workshops geared toward encouraging fifth and sixth grade girls to take math and science courses as they graduate into middle school, high school and college. One of this year’s presenters, Alexis Vaughn, is a former GEMS Conference attendee. Vaughn, a biological anthropologist, presented a workshop on pollution in the region on Saturday. "We will discuss how to solve land pollution here in Fairfax County," Vaughn told the 400-plus girls as she and other presenters introduced themselves to the participants.

WHILE THE GIRLS applauded each presenter during the introductions, it was Limo, a mixed-breed dog, who drew the most excitement out of the group. Rebecca Cudd, a licensed veterinary technician, adopted Limo and brought him to help her present her workshop, "Excellence in Pet Care: A Fulfilling Opportunity." Cudd described the educational road to her career before explaining what her job entails to a group of about 20 students during a workshop.

On the opposite end of the second-floor hallway, a class of eight girls designed, built and tested a support structure for an egg, hoping to keep it from cracking when dropped from a certain height. Laura Bloechl, a software leadership development engineer who works in Springfield, presented the "Egg Drop" workshop. She told the girls from elementary schools in Reston and Herndon – Deer Park, Fox Mill, Lake Anne, Sunrise Valley, Terraset and Floris – that the preparation and the execution of the egg drop project is very similar to what she and her colleagues do at their jobs. "When you’re an engineer you work a lot in groups, you rarely work alone," said Bloechl. She told the students to test their designs for a structure that would support the eggs and not crack them when dropped from the height. If the tests fail, Bloechl told the students to learn and improve their designs for the structure. "You learn 10 times more from something not working than when it works at first, because you understand why it didn’t work," she said.

Twenty-eight different workshops were presented on Saturday morning. Most of the presenters came from professional backgrounds, but two presenting groups were high school students from Lee and South Lakes high schools. In addition to workshops offered to the fifth and sixth grade girls, five were offered to their parents. They included a workshop on academic opportunities in Fairfax County Public Schools, led by Cluster VIII Director Jane Dreyfuss, and a question-and-answer panel with Lee High School students describing what high school life is about. An estimated 250 parents attended Saturday’s conference, more than any other year.

"WE HAD one third more students this year than last year, and doubled the parents," said Gigi Castle, a Title I math specialist at Dogwood. The conference grows each year, said Castle, and individual schools outside of Cluster VIII are starting to establish their own GEMS clubs. The conference moved to Dogwood eight years ago. According to Vice Principal Bill Vardeman, about 25 girls attended that conference. "We are maxed out as far as we can be," said Scott Logan, a fifth grade teacher at Terraset Elementary School, and a member of the GEMS Steering Committee.
The Reston-Herndon branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) helps organize the conference each year. Member Fran Lovaas said AAUW volunteers filled 461 folders for GEMS Conference participants on Friday night and 27 of the volunteers worked the event. Branch President Carol Hurlburt said the 2008 conference was a success, both in terms of the numbers of participants and the array of workshops offered.