By Tara '27 and Ananya '27

On Saturday, Dec. 6, Janksters Tara '27 and Ananya '27 organized the 12th Annual Young Women’s Engineering Symposium (YWES) at Notre Dame High School, bringing together 28 female and non-binary high school students to learn from a panel of inspiring women in STEM. They were pleased to invite Christine Harper from Cleancard, Katie Patrick, who founded Hello Worlds Labs, Nina Ault from Silverman & Light, Lizmarie Ortiz from Intuitive Surgical, and Elizabeth Lo, who founded Lo Designs, to educate attendees on biomedical, environmental, electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering.

Students engaged in hands-on workshops, participating in activities such as designing a lighting system for their dream room with Nina Ault, to using Katie Patrick’s Behavior Mapping for Climate Action card kit to develop solutions for environmental issues. The event concluded with an open Q&A panel where speakers shared what inspired them to pursue STEM and choose their specific field of interest, their experiences as women in male-dominated fields, and how AI is changing the future of engineering. Many attendees shared that the event helped them become more knowledgeable about different engineering fields and narrow down their interests, leaving them excited to dive deeper into STEM!

Photo credit: Reese '27