Hundreds of girls experienced science, technology, engineering, arts, and math through workshops led by local women at the forefront of the fields, hoping to usher in the next generation of women in STEAM.
Imagination Station hosted its Girl Power event Saturday, which invites girls in third through eighth grades to the science campus to engage in hands-on activities, workshops, and panels.
Sloan Eberly Mann, chief education officer at Imagination Station, said the event started 11 years ago.
“We really wanted to engage girls, specifically in STEM, and we know that around middle school age engagement with the sciences drops for young women,” Ms. Mann said. “We wanted to create an event that was really exciting and engaging, and challenged ideas about what science is and who gets to do science.”
Girls made their own lip balm, dismantled computers, and put together solar-powered vehicles. Admission to the event was $30 per participant and $20 for chaperones. Three hundred girls attended the program, and around 100 local women who work in STEAM fields led the workshops.
STEAM-focused organizations from Toledo and beyond exhibited and held activities at their tables. Representatives from General Motors’ Toledo Propulsion plant showed off an all-electric Chevy Equinox and helped the girls make their own solar-powered cars, employees at Formlabs showed off their cutting-edge 3D printing process in action, and The Andersons taught girls about grain science.
“Representation matters, and young girls need to see women who look like them, doing jobs that they aspire to do,” Ms. Mann said.
One of the women hoping to be a role model girls is keynote speaker Stephanie Finoti, Miss Ohio 2024. She discovered STEM through an injury sustained while studying ballet and is currently studying at the University of Cincinnati to become a pediatrician while working as a scientist and nurse aid.
“What I realized is that through my whole life dancing, I was falling in love with medicine because I had to learn the anatomy and physiology of my body — the muscles, the movements — and I was really interested in that kind of stuff,” Miss Finoti said.
Growing up as a first-generation American in a low-income area, Miss Finoti said, there weren’t many role models for her to look up to. Without a clear vision for what her future could look like, self-doubt and imposter syndrome set in.
“A lot of that doubt stemmed from people telling me that I wasn’t the right fit to be in the STEM field. It was really stemming from these stereotypes that women can only be taken seriously if they lose their femininity,” Miss Finoti said in an interview. “That was a part of myself I didn’t want to lose just to be taken seriously in the STEM field and be seen as intelligent.”
Wearing a sparkly tiara, a pink bedazzled dress, and her pageant sash, Miss Finoti said she hopes girls can look to her as an example of what a woman in STEM can look like.
“I hope it completely dismantles those stereotypes for the young women that I get to speak to today,” Miss Finoti said before her keynote. “Because you can absolutely wear sparkly hats and sparkly outfits, pink clothes, and still be a serious changemaker in the world.”
First Published March 8, 2025, 8:34 p.m.
