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Nerd Girls
Its Official, Its Cool to be a Nerd!
by Wendy Stevens
 Its
official, its hip to be nerdy. Take it from the Nerd Girls, a bunch
of mighty empowered girls who have their own ambitions, their own
brains, and are putting them to use by making their own environmentally
friendly car!
When somebody asks you 'What do you want to
be when you grow up?', what is your answer? Is your answer to
fly in a spaceship, be a gardener, or take care of babies? There
is no wrong answer. The only wrong thing to do is: give up on
your answer. You may have heard that boys are smarter at math,
that girls aren't 'mechanically minded'. Hogwash! Look at this
page, its just bursting with girls that could build empires!
The dictionary gives the following definitions for the word nerd:
a foolish, inept, or unattractive person. A person who is single-minded
or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt
to be socially inept. The Nerd Girls are anything but socially
inept. Do these girls look like nerds?
Some of them are national tennis champions, some ballerinas. These
girls have danced in the Nutcracker ballet, sang at the Apollo
Theater, played award-winning piano, and earned national sports
titles! Meet each of the team members below, and be assured that
any girl with motivation and ambition, can be anything she wants
to.
If you want to become an engineer and build
cars, spaceships, or do any of that other hard stuff, there is
no reason why you can't. Read about the girls doing just this
below.
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Professor Karen Panetta of Tufts University
is heading up the Nerd Girls project to empower us all to
follow our dreams. When she is asked 'What do you want to
be when you grow up?', her answer is: 'To be a NASA astronaut,
to be an animated character on the Simpsons, to be the voice
for a cute fuzzy animal in a Disney cartoon.'
Can a girl want to be a voice
in a Disney movie AND an Astronaut? This one can!
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Megan
Junior majoring in Computer Engineering. Interests: My dog
Buddy, talking, shoe shopping, skiing, reading good novels.
'What do you want to be when you grow up?', her answer is:
'To eat chicken nuggets in the White House, drive a zamboni,
make more money than the next guy, prove everyone wrong :)' |
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Bebe (aka Ms. Behavin)
Junior majoring in Electrical Engineering. Interests: Drawing,
sports, Ireland, chocolate, and long walks on the beach followed
by a candlelit dinner. 'What do you want to be when you grow
up?', her answer is: 'Make an electric/solar car, travel,
meet Bono and the rest of U2, and have fun along the way.' |
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Katie
Junior majoring in Computer Engineering. Interests: Tennis |
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Steph
Junior majoring in Computer Engineering. Interests: Ballroom
dancing, dress making, web designing, and Starbucks! |
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Jenny
Junior majoring in Computer Engineering. Interests: Ballet,
family dinners, watching movies, skiing, beautiful beaches,
light summer reading, Monet and Degas, Theatre, France. 'What
do you want to be when you grow up?', her answer is: 'To own
my own special effects company and a non-profit organization
to help communities build centers for Tolerance, Education,
and Culture (TEC) |
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Nannette
Sophomore majoring in multimedia design (plan of study). Interests:
Graphic/web design, animation, drawing, online treasure-hunting,
dancing. 'What do you want to be when you grow up?', her answer
is: 'To introduce really good 3D computer graphics to Puerto
Rican media.' |
Background History
Breaking the Stigmas and Stereotypes
of Women in Engineering
Despite efforts to attract women to engineering
and science careers, these technical fields still remain elusive
and do not appeal to young girls. While workshops and dedicated
outreach efforts in K-12 continue to target this invisible barrier
by introducing young girls to the workplace and to special math
and science projects, the negative perception of women engineers
and scientists is compounded by the "egghead" stereotype
associated with engineering and science in general. Engineers
and scientists are typically known as "geeks" or "nerds"
and are considered lacking in social skills and non-technical
interests. For more info and an update on the project, visit http://nerdgirls.eecs.tufts.edu/.
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YOU FOUND
A TREASURE!
Place your mouse over the chest to see your treasure. |
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Character is always lost
when a high ideal
is sacrificed on the altar of
conformity and popularity.
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| Source 'unkown' |
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