Girls who attended AAUW’s Tech Trek science camps this summer told of their experiences at the kickoff meeting for the Silicon Valley branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women). The meeting, which began the 2024-25 membership year for the branch, was held Sept. 15 at Los Altos’ Neutra House.
The camp was held on the campus of Santa Clara University, with additional campers participating in an online version. Melissa Wilkinson from Egan Junior High School was enthusiastic about the opportunity to meet new people at the camp, and to do hands-on science in sessions taught by women who were actually working in the STEM area. Meghna Gopalakrishnan from Blach Middle School mentioned that in school she often felt that she was the only one really interested in a group project, while at the camp the girls were all really engaged. Emma Chen from Fletcher Middle School in Palo Alto said that the camp had solidified her interest in pursuing a STEM career.
One parent commented that his daughter, on returning from camp, told him, “Sorry I didn’t miss you; I was having too much fun!” Another of the parents remarked on how well the all-day online camp worked: “My daughter couldn’t wait for each session to begin.”
Vicki Reeder, Tech Trek committee chair for the Los Altos-Mountain View schools, also welcomed Marie Wolbach, founder of the Tech Trek Camps, who was in attendance.
Tempe Javitz, author of “Bighorn Visions,” was the featured speaker. She told of growing up on a cattle ranch in southeast Montana. The ranch house walls were adorned with photographs and paintings by noted Western artists such as Frederic Remington and Charles Russell – and by her grandmother, Jessamine Spear Johnson. Javitz realized that her grandmother had not shared the fame of her male counterparts, and spent six and a half years combing through her photo legacy – 34 boxes of images from the early 1900s through the 1950s, documenting Jessamine’s life as a rancher’s wife and mother of seven children in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming.
The photos revealed enormous changes taking place in ranch country as gasoline motors replaced horses and the open range was supplanted by fenced pastures and dude ranches.
One photo was used by the Northern Pacific Railroad in travel posters, and others documented such events as the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Little Big Horn, including photos and the names of all the Cheyenne survivors who attended.
The meeting concluded with a summary of future AAUW-sponsored events and an invitation for non-members to consider joining AAUW Silicon Valley. For more information, visit siliconvalley-ca.aauw.net.
