Summer program connects girls to STEM education

UM-Dearborn senior Ayah Bazzi walked around a College of Arts, Sciences and Letters classroom showing high school students how to use math to change the color in digital images, crack codes and create algorithms during a recent June afternoon. It’s apparent that the Mathematics major is dedicated to the subject with every ‘a-ha’ moment the students had. But it wasn’t always that way, Bazzi said. And that’s why she wanted to help mentor students at UM-Dearborn’s GirlsGetMath summer camp, a free weeklong mathematics program that took place in June. In its fifth year, the camp’s goal is to help increase the number of women in STEM fields.

“There is a thought that women may not have many opportunities in the STEM field, when in reality there are a plethora. It’s a subliminal message we get while growing up because we don’t often see as many women in STEM roles. Based on my past experiences in math courses, I also used to believe that mathematics was difficult to master due to my struggles to grasp concepts quickly and perform well on exams,” said Bazzi, who plans to become a math teacher. “When I took a calculus class at UM-Dearborn, I had a teacher who helped change my mindset. The professor gave us an article to read as an assignment. It said anyone could do math, as long as a student is taught the right technique, the right strategy and is shown the tools. I’ve found that to be true and want to spread that message.”

GirlsGetMath — organized by Mathematics and Statistics associate professors Yulia Hristova, Hyejin Kim and Aditya Viswanathan — offers interactive guest lectures, activities and computer lab sessions surrounding mathematics for high school students. In addition to Bazzi, UM-Dearborn students Melia Conners and Tanya Danial assisted with running the program this year.

According to the National Science Foundation the number and percentage of women in STEM occupations has shown modest improvement — between 2011 and 2021, the percentage of women working in STEM increased from 15% to 18%.

Hristova said when she first started at UM-Dearborn more than a decade ago, she noticed the more advanced the math classes were, the less women took them. “In any field, if half the population doesn’t participate, you lose a lot. I wanted to find ways to reach girls at a young age, help them feel empowered and see that math leads to interesting career paths,” said Hristova, noting that there are only five female students in her 31-member Discrete Mathematics course this summer. The course is often taken by computer engineering and electrical engineering majors. ” The number of women in my advanced math courses is better than it used to be, but it’s still a concern.”

The 21 GirlsGetMath participants discussed how algorithms — for example, what Amazon suggests to you — work, saw the role mathematics plays in image processing, completed a treasure hunt to learn how to decode messages and more. They also learned the programming language MATLAB, which is used by engineers and scientists to analyze data and develop algorithms.

The program, which was open to all high school students across southeast Michigan, was free to attend, thanks to a grant from the Mathematical Association of America’s Tensor Foundation. It included instruction, guest speakers, lunch and all materials for participants.

Detroit resident Sena Segbefia, who will be a high school junior in the fall, wants to be an engineer because it combines her interests of creating and problem-solving. She found the camp after seeking out STEM opportunities at U-M. 

“The Michigan name let me know that it would be a good learning experience, but GirlsGetMath has exceeded any expectations that I had,” Segbefia said. “A lot of engineers use programs like Python and MATLAB and this gave me my introduction to these. I don’t have the money to pay for a class to learn how to use these programming languages — but now I have some experience programming and coding. I liked it and am now confident using it in the future. I feel like I have a head start.”

Dearborn resident Raheel Khaled, who will be a high school senior in the fall, wants to be a gynecologist and obstetrician. She knows that STEM education is crucial for her future pre-med path and wanted to find ways to expand her knowledge during the summer. 

“Math sometimes feels like a chore. I’m going to need to continue learning math in my studies, so I thought I should do this program to help me take a look at math through a different lens,” Khaled said. “This camp has been so much fun. It’s collaborative, not competitive. The professors are interactive. They put math in real world situations so we can apply it, see it and understand it better. If math was taught this way in a supportive environment regularly, I think there would be more girls interested in STEM fields.”

Conners said she wishes there had been a program like GirlsGetMath when she was in high school. The Applied Statistics major said a few great mentors — including her UM-Dearborn professors — helped her realize her love of the subject and her ability to achieve within it.

“At some point, someone tells us along the way that we're not good at math or that we may not succeed in math. I had that in middle school,” she said. “Having professors and teachers along the way who encourage you and show you that math is more than memorization changes everything. My professors have shown me that math is a deep understanding of the world around us. So just because you weren’t great at fractions in third grade, does not mean that you cannot be an engineer one day. Math is much bigger than that — and I hope that’s a lesson these students take with them.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury