On November 1, 2014, the first ever Miss Maker Fair was hosted at Rolling Meadows High School.

The Miss Maker Fair was created by Holmes Junior High alumni Lauren Anfenson and Veronica Boratyn. Lauren is currently a sophomore at Rolling Meadows HS, and Veronica is a Junior at Prospect High School. Both students are members of Wildstang Team 111, a First Robotics Team (FRC), and conceptualized the Miss Maker Fair in an effort to address the lack of girls on their team and in the professional engineering field.

“Our team currently consists of 60 boys and 10 girls,” Ms. Anfenson said, “and when we realized we are so underrepresented, we wanted to help equalize the disparity, and reach that goal of a 50-50 split.”

They felt it was important to get elementary and junior high school girls excited about science, technology, engineering and math (commonly called STEM) at a young age. Over 30 girls in elementary and junior high school attended the Miss Maker event, including girls from Holmes Junior High School and Juliette Low Elementary School.

The half-day workshop focused on introducing girls between the ages of 9 and 13 to STEM through guided, hands-on activities with three themes: mechanical, software and electrical. The participants built mousetrap cars, catapults, and breadboard circuits. Students even learned basic programming and soldering skills. Wildstang, which includes not only Anfenson, but sixteen other Holmes alumni members, designed all the hands-on activities and guided participants through them. The members of Wildstang hope girls who attended had a positive experience and left the workshop feeling empowered and excited about STEM.

“Some of the nine year old girls picked up soldering faster than girls our own age could!” commented Ms. Boratyn.

In addition to the onsite exercises, the girls who attended were given kits with instructions to take home and create later.

Both Ms. Anfenson and Ms. Boratyn considered the event a major success and gladly share the credit with the teachers, parents, volunteers and participants.

“We are so glad we achieved all we had aimed for, and are already planning our next events, camps, and activities,” said Ms. Anfenson. “We can’t wait to get back out there and just keep doing more.”

For additional information about on Wildstang Team 111 and future Miss Maker events, visit their website at www.wildstang.com.