Nola Bland, Diversity & Inclusion Program Management Specialist at NASA Glenn Research Center, at NASA's Glenn Research Center held a pre-college event for middle and high school girls that included a Living on Mars Habitat Design Challenge, and a Solar Arrays for the ISS Space Station Design Challenge.

Dozens of girls interacted with NASA women who are doing this work today.

“The Women of Color Conference builds the STEM pipeline and expands NASA's reach into the pre-college student community for those who might not otherwise aspire toward a career in science, technology, engineering, or math due to social and economic barriers,” said former deputy administrator Dava Newman. We have to ensure that these young superstars are welcomed and ‘see’ themselves and also know that they ‘belong’ in STEM careers,” she said.

NASA’s workshops were led by Tiffany Williams, who received a Technology Rising Star Award, and Rochelle May and Terrian Nowden — all three are engineers at NASA GRC.

The students shared in hands-on, competitive activities that engaged and challenged them to consider STEM careers as real options. The interactive workshops were very well attended, with over 160 middle school and high school students in the two one-hour sessions.