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STEM careers on display for girls at Beaverton's Valley Catholic Middle School

This was the first ever 'Women in STEM' event at Valley Catholic Middle School in Beaverton.

BEAVERTON, Ore. — A Beaverton middle school held a "Women in Stem" event on Wednesday to get more young girls interested in STEM Careers. At Valley Catholic Middle School the focus was on science, technology, engineering and math Wednesday morning.

There were 32 women from companies like Google, NIKE, Intel and the Army Corps of Engineers covering STEM-related topics and their careers.

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8th grader Agamya Guttal said events like "Women in STEM" are crucial for younger female students.

"I think it's really important that girls my age, who are going into high school and have to start thinking about what they're going to do with their lives, see these careers," Guttal said. 

The event was put together by the school's Director of Design Thinking Melissa Iserson.

"I had a professor when I was in my undergrad who encouraged met to go into information technology for part of my major. If I hadn't had that professor encourage me to do that I would not have had that career in management consulting to start off," Iserson said.

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Stef Kondor is the senior vice president of a real-estate company. Her job includes working with technology and engineers to bring together housing opportunities for people from all walks of life. She said a lot of careers you might not think of require STEM knowledge. 

"I would just say we need to encourage our women into going into those fields because they can be dynamic and successful and it's a really good job," Kondor said. 

Valley Catholic Middle School isn't just focusing on STEM careers for one day, the school has STE- based curriculum that students are exposed to each day. 

The event was made possible through a $25,000 grant from the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation.

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