Hudson County Community College to Host Third Annual ‘Girls in Technology’ Symposium on March 16th
March 10, 2016
March 10, 2016, Jersey City, NJ – Hudson County Community College (HCCC) will hold its Third Annual “Girls in Technology” Symposium at the College’s Culinary Conference Center, 161 Newkirk Street in Jersey City. The daylong event is designed to provide approximately 200 middle- and high-school students with first-hand information on STEM studies and careers from educators and women working in STEM fields.
The event will begin with welcoming remarks from HCCC President Glen Gabert, Ph.D. and the College’s Dean for Non-Traditional Programs Ana Chapman-McCausland at 9:00 a.m.
The microphone will then be turned over to Darielis Duarte, a sophomore at Jersey City’s William Dickinson High School. An honor student, Ms. Duarte is the winner of the Symposium Essay Contest.
Opening remarks will be followed by the panel discussion, “A Day in the Life of Women in Technology,” moderated by HCCC CIO Pamela Scully. The panelists include: Jazlyn Carvajal, cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of SOYD (Stay on Your Daily) and President of the MIT Club of Northern New Jersey; Summer Jones, Director of Technical Support Services at Montclair State University; Kristen S. Labazzo, Executive Director of Medical Device Development Center, Rutgers School of Engineering; and Jennagloria Pacheco, Senior Regulatory Affairs Specialist at Stryker Orthopaedics.
Attendees will then have the opportunity to view demonstrations of a 3-D mechanical hand, energy turbine, robotics, fabrications, and more, and to attend workshops on coding and 3-D printing.
Exhibits of students’ contest displays and voting will precede lunch and the announcement of contest voting results. The students’ exhibits include: “Biotechnology in Agriculture” and “Robotics Evolving” by students from Secaucus; “The History of Film and Women’s Role in its Development” and Technology and the Law” by Dickinson High School students; “Digital Fabrication and Design,” “The Technology of Cloning,” and Advancements in Renewable Energy” by students from Hudson County Schools of Technology High Tech High School; “The Technology of Jewelry,” “Telephone Technology,” “Technology and Cultural Headwear,” and “History of Gaming Consoles” by students from Bayonne.
“This is an important event for the young women in our community,” stated Dr. Gabert. He said that it is projected that there could be 2.4 million unfilled STEM jobs by 2018, and a significant employment gap in STEM industries when it comes to women and minorities. “Hudson County Community College has a solid history of women leading our STEM academic and IT programming. When we open our new STEM Building next year, the young women – and all HCCC students – will have the opportunity to learn in the newest, state-of-the-art classrooms, and labs in the area.”
Dean Chapman-McCausland said the College is grateful to its partners, sponsors, and patrons – Eastern Millwork, Fidelity Investments, HCCC Academic Affairs, Liberty Savings, Mona Lisa Pizzeria Ristorante, New Jersey City University, Susanne Peticolas & Henry A. Plotkin, Pico Turbine, SILVERMAN, Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Adrienne Torcivia-Crosby, and University of Phoenix – for their support in making this event possible.