Over 500 girls, parents, and educators from more than 160 schools and 6 counties participated in STEM-based immersive hands-on learning experiences and explored exciting career opportunities in STEM fields during the 21st annual Girls Exploring Tomorrow’s Technology (GETT) held recently at the Technical College High School Brandywine Campus.

GETT is an opportunity for girls in grades five through ten to explore hands-on interactive activities to encourage them to discover new ways to connect their passions for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and learn about STEM career opportunities.  

The annual event is presented by the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC) via its Innovative Technology Action Group (ITAG) initiative. Experiential activities were led by successful women in STEM — from more than 50 of the region’s top STEM-based companies and organizations — who interacted with the girls as they explored dynamic expo-style experience stations. 

Girls participated in more than 80 activities including video production, architectural design, robotics, coding, healthcare, engineering, video gaming, environmental science, virtual reality, aerospace, information technology, veterinary sciences, forensic sciences, automotive engineering, and more. 

Keynote Speakers shared their personal and professional pathways and insights to successful careers in STEM: 

• Gillian Keating, I WISH Co-Founder 
• Brittany Ward, weekend evening forecaster at WDVM 25 in Hagerstown, Maryland 
• Hattie B. McCarter, Motivational Speaker and Owner of Tea with Hattie B Podcast 
• Dr. Yasmine Daniels, “The Classy Chemist” 

Over the past twenty years, the event has touched the lives of thousands of girls by nurturing their interest in STEM fields, providing a venue through which they could meet friends who share these interests, and introducing them to exceptional female professionals from some of the Philadelphia region’s top tech companies.  

Marianne Stack, ITAG’s Project Director, said, “One of the challenges ITAG has encountered is that the tech industry falls short with regard to diverse demographic inclusion within its workforce. GETT helps us address this challenge by inspiring girls to love STEM and empowering future tech leaders.”  

Patti VanCleave, VP of Workforce Development at the CCEDC, said, “Our STEM Innovation Youth programs are designed to offer students the chance to explore career opportunities across all of our key industry sectors, helping to build and strengthen the pipeline of an informed, skilled workforce in our communities. The Girls Exploring Tomorrow’s Technology (GETT) event is a perfect example of this as it showcases the wide variety of STEM-based careers available today — showing girls that they can be anything!” 

According to the National Girls Collaborative Project, women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, but only 28 percent of the science and engineering workforce. Female scientists and engineers are concentrated in different occupations than men, with relatively low shares in engineering (15 percent) and computer and mathematical sciences (26 percent).