By Gabby Benedict, CEC Student Intern

Miami University invited approximately 160 high school girls to participate in an exclusive event celebrating Careers Involving Quantitative Skills (CIQS) Day, Oct. 7.

CIQS Day at Miami is an annual event that helps young women from across southwestern Ohio explore prospective fields and majors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The event features faculty and students leading workshops and panels.

The girls started the day in the Armstrong Student Center pavilion to meet for breakfast and heard from admission about some of the different programs Miami has to offer. Afterward, volunteers took each girl to different sessions to attend out of the 28 sessions occurring throughout the day.

Mehdi Zanjani from the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering led a sesson for students. One session was led by Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering alumna Laura Wasson, who is currently a Robotics Application Development Technology Leader at Procter & Gamble. During the session, she discussed how robots are used in the field today and their potential for the future.

In addition, Miami student groups from the College of Engineering and Computing Theta Tau, Society of Women Engineers, Girls Who Code, Redhawk Racing and Zeta Rho talked about their classes, internship experiences and what their student organizations are all about. 

Each session also included hands-on activities for the students to participate in, with an example being the RedHawk Racing student team’s activity. The team gave the high school girls a box of supplies to finalize and complete the bottom half of a Baja car.  The girls had to figure out where the pieces went and how to attach them. 

“All around, it was a really great day. The high school girls who participated expressed how they enjoyed walking from session to session on campus and talking with volunteers. They really liked getting to experience what it's like to be a student here and talking to students about their actual experiences on campus. It was a good day for all involved, so we are planning to host again in 2023,” said Joanna Hohn, assistant director of K-12 Outreach for CEC.