Four students to attend Tech Trek Science Camp

FALLBROOK — Four local students have been chosen by the Fallbrook Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW-Fallbrook) to attend Tech Trek Science Camp for Girls at University of California, San Diego, July 15-21.

Jessica Leon, Ilse Pineda and Samantha Geikie of Potter Junior High and Amanda Amiri of Sullivan Middle School will attend this weeklong summer program for eighth grade girls sponsored by the AAUW of California. Alternate campers selected are Danielle Harlow of Sullivan Middle School and Roselia Mendez of Potter Junior High.

The girls will get a taste of college life while learning that math and science can be fun and a good career choice. At the AAUW-Fallbrook Math and Science Recognition Breakfast April 24, guest speaker Lorraine Pillus, PhD, Professor of Molecular Biology at UCSD, invited the girls to visit her lab while on campus for Tech Trek this summer.

The students will live in dormitories at UCSD campus during camp and will attend classes featuring hand-on experiments taught by credentialed middle school teachers. Women who are professionals in the fields of math, science and technology will be guest presenters.

Highlighting the activities will be field trips that include a Scripps Institute marine science boat trip, snorkeling in La Jolla Cove and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. AAUW volunteers serve as camp directors, nurses and chaperones/counselors.

Students are nominated by teachers and then interviewed by the AAUW-Fallbrook, which provides camp scholarships. The branch makes the final selection of “campers.”

Since 1998, AAUW-Fallbrook has awarded 27 camp scholarships to local eighth grade girls. It has received Tech Trek financial support from Rally for Children, which generously funds one full scholarship at $700.