Designing a future Charleroi, Waynesburg students participate in engineering-for-girls session
From left, Westinghouse employee Lexi Scala explains how the top of a reactor vessel head works to Waynesburg Central High School students Shay Echegaray, Elle Hampson, Destiny Withrow and Janvi Patel. Students from regional high schools participated in an “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” program at the Waltz Mill facility Thursday.
From left, Westinghouse employees Sheri Belschner and Mike Audey oversee students Destiny Withrow, Anna Kuenzel and Elle Hampson as they try to configure parts to retrieve items from a steam generator.
Charleroi students Kaylee Lauritzen, Anna Kuenzel and Karlen Brovey put on protective gear to simulate what workers wear when working in various sections of the Waltz Mill facility Thursday.
Westinghouse employee Dave Kwiatkowski explains different displays inside the Waltz Mill plant to a group of students. Girls in 10th and 11th grades spent two days learning about engineering through a Westinghouse Electric Co. program.
MADISON – Janvi Patel, a junior at Waynesburg Central High School, was a nuclear engineering student for two hours Thursday morning. That may or may not be the beginning of a professional path.
“I’m looking at this as a career option,” she said, expressing a sentiment that most of the other 38 young women in the room probably had.
Westinghouse Electric Co. held its semiannual “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event Wednesday and Thursday at its Waltz Mill nuclear facility in Westmoreland County, a quarter-mile off Interstate 70. About 78 10th- and 11th-grade girls from 18 Southwestern Pennsylvania high schools participated over the two days. About 39 were on hand Thursday, including four from Waynesburg and three from Charleroi.
Four Belle Vernon Area students attended Wednesday – Julie Weir, Tatum Rodriguez, Lexie Argirakis and SaraAnn Buza – with chaperone Amber Null.
Though nuclear engineering is Waltz Mill’s specialty, the 14th annual program has a clear mission that is reflected in its title: introduce a girl to engineering, and try to stoke an interest in any branch of engineering, or other STEM-related careers.
Women comprise only 14 percent of U.S. engineers, said Jackie Mineweaser, a mathematics teacher at Charleroi Area High School and event chaperone for the three girls from her school: sophomores Karlen Brovey, Anna Kuenzel and Kaylee Lauritzen.
Students both days got to climb inside an actual, non-commissioned nuclear reactor vessel head, inspect a steam generator and examine a simulated spent fuel pool.
Although there was no radiation risk, the students had to dress as if there were. Following a briefing and before the tour, they had to pull on personal protection equipment, from toe to top of the hairstyle.
“When you are finished, there will be a specific way to undress,” a tour guide said, explaining that radiation could exist on the protective gear in a real-case scenario.
The tour was informative and enlightening, and over the heads of many, including adults. Nuclear is a deep science. The girls learned a lot, though, including the financial ramifications Westinghouse would face in the case of an energy breakdown. “The plant loses $1 million every day it doesn’t generate power,” another guide said.
This was an interesting program for the Charleroi and Waynesburg students, one that their teacher/chaperones – Mineweaser and Dan Higinbotham – know well and fully endorse.
“A lot of girls are not interested in this discipline, but they realize there are other forms of engineering, and they talk about it,” Mineweaser said, adding that she has been to “about five” of the Westinghouse sessions. She also is a former Westinghouse engineer, specializing in material science.
Mineweaser said one Charleroi girl is interested in nuclear engineering: senior Johnna Fagan, who is considering that as a college major.
Higinbotham, a physics teacher, has been accompanying Waynesburg students to Waltz Mill for eight years. “It’s a really good program,” he said. “Anything that gives these girls insights into careers is a positive.”
The seven from Charleroi and Waynesburg agreed Thursday that the session was a valuable introduction, but they weren’t necessarily sold on becoming an engineer.
“This was an opportunity to see what engineering actually is,” said Shay Echegaray, a Waynesburg junior, adding she is most interested in civil, “but I’m considering other stuff.”
“It was a good chance to see what’s out there,” classmate Elle Hampson said, “I’m thinking more about engineering now.”
Patel said, “Maybe I’ll find something in engineering, I don’t know. I may get into biomedical because I want to do something in medical.”
Destiny Withrow, another Waynesburg junior, said she favors civil engineering, “but I’m not sure. I may want to major in math.”
Kuenzel, of Charleroi, said she “really learned a lot about nuclear plants.” She added that she favors mechanical engineering and is interested in aerospace.
Lauritzen and Brovey likewise expressed interests in engineering – mechanical and chemical, respectively. Both are considering the biomedical field, as well.
Westinghouse conducts these sessions every spring and autumn, and according to company spokeswoman Denise Hughes, the spring 2017 event is already filled.
This program has been exclusive to Westinghouse’s Pittsburgh area locations, but Hughes said it will be expanded to other U.S. sites next year.
The percentage of women in engineering may well rise above 14 percent.