With Deidre Holmberg in her Blue Angels VIP jacket.

I was picked as an alternate this year, and only as I stood on the tarmac did I learn that the person I was backing up was Deidre Holmberg, principal of Delta High School in Richland, Washington. 

I was honored to have Deidre’s back. I met her for the first time in July during the Cascade Curtain Study mission, an event sponsored by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce with an eye toward building better understanding between the eastern and western halves of our state.

Our visit to Delta High School, a STEM public school for students living in the Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland School Districts, where Deidre is principal, was my favorite part of the trip. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and Delta is an innovative effort to help cultivate the next generation of STEM professionals.

I’ve said before that I believe that as a city, Seattle should set a goal that 50% of graduates this decade will be girls and women who excel in science, technology, science and technology. 

I’m especially interested in encouraging young women to explore STEM studies, because they are greatly underrepresented in STEM careers.  As I tell young women, they will have so many more choices, flexibility and opportunities in their lives if they learn critical skills now that employers want.  

NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity mission control room

Earlier this week we saw a great example of the fascinating and important jobs a STEM focus can lead to in the mission control room for Mars Rover Curiosity.  Still male dominated, but there are a few more female faces than the Apollo days!

Career and college opportunities – in fields such as biotechnology, software design, aeronautical engineering, and others – will require adaptability, creativity, critical thinking, and technical competence in science, technology, engineering and math. Employment in these areas is projected to grow 70 percent faster than growth for other occupations.

STEM graduates on average are expected to enjoy better employment prospects and higher starting salaries than graduates in non-STEM fields.

Hard at work at Delta.

 Delta is a positive model.  Elements of STEM are woven into every subject at Delta High School, and coordination with local organizations such as Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) brings the curriculum into alignment with economic opportunities.  Delta students partner with volunteers for outreach events, small group mentoring, apprenticeships and more. Students work with an entire community of inventors, scientists, architects, engineers, designers and more who serve as mentors and advisors, and they have internship and job shadow opportunities.  Imagine the possibilities.

Oddly, I learned about Delta before learned about Cleveland High School’s success in Seattle.  After returning from the Tri-Cities, I reached out to our new Superintendent Jose Banda and to Cleveland’s principal Princess Shareef. 

Cleveland High School’s award-winning principal, Princess Shareef.

Cleveland High School’s program was launched just two years ago, based on the curriculum and training offered by the New Technology Network, a national group of 41 schools, many of which also have a science-math-engineering-technology (STEM) focus. 

My aim is to encourage the labor and business communities to provide support to the students and teachers at Cleveland and to provide introductions.  Those have started.

Enrollment at Cleveland is open to any Seattle student willing to commit to four years of math and science courses. Today, Cleveland offers two separate academies: School of Life Sciences and the School of Engineering and Design.  Opportunities are unlimited for those willing to work hard.

I heartily applaud Principal Shareef’s efforts and look forward to seeing the STEM program at Cleveland expand. 

I strongly believe that STEM fields are the underpinnings of future careers, and that we can align our  school curriculum, student leadership, labor, businesses, and employers for regional success.  This is important for each student’s life AND for our regional economic development.

Making “green maps” from real-world data at Cleveland High School.

Regional collaboration is what makes Deidre Holmberg one of my heroes. She’s making STEM accessible to kids from all backgrounds in the Tri-Cities area. And she’s a strong, powerful woman who confessed to me she had to overcome her fear of flying to get into the Blue Angel cockpit.  Impressive.

Astronaut Sunita Williams on the International Space Station (from nasa.gov)

Having had the wonderful experience of becoming a pilot and certified flight instructor at age 50, I am an enthusiast for encouraging girls and women to excel in challenging fields. And I’m so glad to see how much times have changed since I was one of only a handful of women in my law school graduating class in 1976: Now women make up half of every law school class.

Women have achieved much over the past decades, yet we have more work to do, particularly in the fields of math and science. Women comprise nearly half of America’s workforce, but only 1 in 4 of jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM jobs) are held by women, and only 11% of our engineers are women.

Publications like Science Daily report on the difficulty of recruiting and retaining women in the sciences, and even the Department of Commerce asks where the women are.

We must encourage girls and women

As a society, we can do more to encourage, support, mentor, and lead girls into challenging STEM fields of study and careers whenever we can. As a City, I believe we should set a goal that 50% of graduates this decade  will be girls and women who excel in science, technology, engineering and math.

We parents, extended families, teachers, counselors, coaches and more are the ones who will make a difference. We must guide our young women to study – and LOVE – math and science from their youngest days. We’re missing the boat if we don’t.

What scientists look like: 2011 Graduates of the UW's Making Connections program

My dream is that girls and young women know in their hearts from the moment they start to learn that they can become one of the Boeing engineers who designs the next generation of spacecraft. That they can contribute to meeting our society’s biggest challenges: developing new fuels so we aren’t dependent on fossil fuels; saving women and children globally from premature pregnancy and deaths; designing new technologies to harness wind, solar and more to conserve and generate power. Just for starters.

Our own region is a recognized international leader in the technologies of emerging medical cures, space exploration, software design, and environmental research to mention just a few. These industries are calling now for smart and prepared workers. We can’t afford not to have women in STEM careers.

STEM is Enticing!

Girls in goggles: From the Women in Science and Technology Program at Boston College

In June, Seattle Center is hosting our City’s first annual Seattle Science Festival. Here’s an opportunity to introduce your girls and their friends (there are activities for kids under 7!) and young women to how exciting and rewarding sciences can be.

On Science EXPO day, June 2, you can bring students of all ages (both genders welcome!) to the Boeing Flight Simulator and let them try their hands at flying a 787 Dreamliner. Or encourage them to join the Project Splash team to create, program and drive LEGO underwater robots that can rescue people and help protect our oceans.

With more than 150 family-friendly, hands-on experiments, exhibits, demonstrations, interactive activities, games and live performances, chances are good that you can find a match for your aspiring scientist. Even if you weren’t attracted to math and science, giving your student encouragement and an opportunity to see how cool this can be may open their eyes to possibilities.

Here are some of the details:

Isolating a bacteriophage (Image: lookslikescience.tumblr.com)

• Science EXPO Day, a free event at Seattle Center on June 2.
• Science Festival Week with inspiring special events happening all over the region. Programs include behind-the-scenes tours, a Science Under Sail adventure with Salish Sea Expeditions, a South Lake Union Science Trek, a free Computer Programming Symposium for high school students, screenings of science-themed films, and many, many other events!
• Science Luminaries Series, today’s most brilliant minds (including astronaut Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, national security expert Deborah Gracio, computer game designer Kim Swift) and inspiring thinkers sharing the stage with breathtaking performances by world-class artists for five exclusive evening events in June. Topics to be tackled include cyber security, the future of genomics, the next generation of space exploration, computer games, and mitigating the world’s leading cause of disease.

I firmly believe that the most important things we can give to our children are opportunities and support to build self confidence. When our

At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (Photo: CIMMYT)

children learn that they can succeed at anything – and have our support to try and keep trying – they put their minds to doing it. I also believe that as a City, we can encourage and support our girls and young women to enroll and succeed at STEM classes. We need their hearts and minds. I call upon all of us: Let’s see that the 50% of the graduating classes in this decade include young women who choose to study and work in science, technology, engineering and math.

See the Seattle Science Festival’s calendar of events or download the Seattle Science Festival program (4 MB PDF) that incudes a detailed map of the Seattle Center grounds with the location of each exhibitor and performance stages as well as a schedule.

Visit the UW’s Making Connections website for information on the program’s mission, which is to increase college enrollment and career exploration in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields for underrepresented youth.

I’ve posted this reminder before, but here’s a new push to remind people that the decisions the city makes now will have great implications in the future. We need your thoughts on updating Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan – the vision for how Seattle will evolve over the next two decades.

There’s a great YouTube video that explains the purpose of the Comp Plan and directs the sort of feedback that the Department of Planning & Development (DPD) are looking for. Check the video out here before moving on to the additonal information provided below.

DPD has a great overview of the Comprehensive Plan available online. Included in that overview is a public involvement plan that outlines the schedule for the public participation process, the methods and tools the department will use, and what materials and information will be produced and available for distribution as a result of that process.

There’s also a brief survey available on the site that allows users to rank and prioritize the goals driving the Comp Plan review and update. It takes about ten minutes to complete. The public’s contribution to these outreach efforts will influence the final decisions.

Help DPD  – and Seattle – plan ahead for the next twenty years. Share the links to the video, the public involvement plan, and the survey.

TMF provides funding for projects focused on what’s known as digital inclusion, which means acccess, technological literacy, and relevant content/service for all citizens. TMF is intended to help underserved communities get the access and the skills necessary to participate in our global economy.

Seattle – The deadline is fast approaching to submit applications for the Technology Matching Fund (TMF), a fund that provides technology access to underserved communities. 

 “The Technology Matching Fund provides services to more than 15,000 residents throughout the City.  Since the program was established, the City has supported 177 projects and received $4.5 million in community matches.  This program exemplifies how the City can work with the community using technology tools to build strong neighborhoods,” said Councilmember Harrell, chair of the Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee.

 Eligible organizations must submit their application by Wednesday, May 18.

 The TMF program was established in 1997 to help narrow the digital divide by supporting projects to increase access to technology in underserved communities.  The TMF program helps residents gain resources to jobs, housing, education, and healthcare by building critical skills through increased computer training and access to computers and the Internet.

 Organizations that meet the following criteria are encouraged to apply:

• 501 (c)3 non-profits located in Seattle serving Seattle residents
• Non-profits without 501 (c)3 designation but with a fiscal agent
• Organizations formed by ad hoc groups of residents to work on specific projects
• Community Councils, neighborhood associations or business groups
• Community-based organizations with a majority of members residing or operating in Seattle with a goal improving the quality of life for a specific Seattle community.  

 To submit your application to Seattle’s Technology Matching Fund or for more information, visit http://www.seattle.gov/tech/tmf/

While we celebrate those moments in history, it’s also a bittersweet day for us. Our own Museum of Flight wasn’t selected to house one of the retired space shuttle orbiters. There’s no doubt that NASA had a difficult task– there were 28 other institutions vying for the chance to display an important part of America’s space exploration history in their galleries. Nonetheless, I believe that Seattle would love and appreciate a shuttle more than most.

One of the most important criteria was that the eventual home of each orbiter had to feature a strong educational program that could benefit from an addition like a shuttle. To my mind, we’ve got just that program. With a comprehensive outreach program that covers five states, the Museum of Flight reaches over 140,000 school kids every year. Maybe one of those prospective astronauts will become the next great space explorer, joining the 26 astronauts that Washington State already boasts.

We do have a consolation prize. The Space Gallery currently under construction at the Museum of Flight will be a tremendous draw when it opens. It will include immersive exhibits throughout, but the focal point will no doubt be the shuttle full-fuselage trainer. It’s an exact replica of an actual shuttle, just without wings, and it’s where all shuttle astronauts trained before heading into space.  When the shuttle program is discontinued, the Johnson Space Center will send it to Seattle.

I sent my congratulations to the final destinations of the shuttles. Atlantis will be a part of Kennedy Space Center and Endeavour will end up at California Science Center in Los Angeles. The Enterprise will be on display at the Intrepid Space Museum in New York, and Discovery will land at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

I want to thank the Museum of Flight staff, the board of directors, and five-time astronaut Dr. Bonnie Dunbar. Your efforts to secure the shuttle are to be commended. Nearly half a million people come through the museum doors every year, and your work continues to highlight the historical and economic value of the aerospace industry in the Northwest while inspiring a new generation of explorers to “boldly go.”