How on earth is a grade 9 girl, with a variety of interests from science to sports to music, supposed to know what she wants to be when she grows up? With so many career choices out there, it’s a good thing there’s Operation Minerva.

An Operation Minerva conference gives grade 9 girls the opportunity to job shadow women in science careers to get a first-hand look at opportunities open to them as young Albertans.

Athena Crowley and Kristyn Smigelski learned what an electrical engineer does when they job shadowed Daniela Broten as part of the Operation Minerva conference at Medicine Hat High School in 2005. Meanwhile, their classmates shadowed other women in a variety of scientific careers, from pharmacy to veterinary medicine to microbiology. By spending the morning with their mentors, and the afternoon in hands-on sessions, the girls learned about many of the careers open to them and exciting opportunities for the future.

From shy to confident

An Operation Minerva conference is a big day for the girls, many of whom travel to the city from rural areas. And if that’s not scary enough, they know they’ll start the day by “flying solo” to their mentor’s office and introducing themselves. As a result, the girls may begin the day in shy and nervous silence as they rehearse their introductions.

But not to worry! At noon, they return full of excitement and confidence, sharing stories and ideas for the future after their successful visits with their mentors. They’re ready to take on the afternoon sessions that offer a variety of subjects, from respiratory therapy to forensics to sports medicine.

Engineers turn ideas into reality

Athena and Kristyn particularly enjoyed their time with Daniela, who encouraged them to “choose a career that you really like because you’re going to be doing it for a long time.”

“Your love of the work will sustain you during challenging times and will give you more determination to see projects through to the end,” Daniela told the girls.

When she was the girls’ age, Daniela knew that engineering was the career for her. “Engineers turn ideas into reality. If you like space exploration and travel, engineering can take you there. If you like the interconnectivity of telecommunications systems, engineering can take you there too,” says Daniela.

Kristyn says she signed up for the conference because she wanted to actually see what an engineer really does, not just hear about it. After her morning job shadowing Daniela, Kristyn confirmed her dream to study engineering on a university hockey scholarship.

Job shadowing benefits everyone

“Job shadowing benefits both the girls and the mentors,” says Kristyn. “The mentors help the girls learn more about careers dominated by guys. The girls get to experience the mentor’s job and see if we’d like to do it. And the mentors enjoy helping the girls decide what to do with our lives,” says Kristyn.

“By understanding how a job really works and by knowing what kind of education is required for that job, girls can make better decisions about jobs they can really get,” says Athena. “That’s why it’s important to take part in conferences like this.”

“We also learned that hard work at university pays off,” says Kristyn who liked the statistics on potential salaries for engineers (and other professions) that Daniela shared with the girls.

Award-winning program

Operation Minerva has actively promoted science education to girls in a variety of Alberta communities for 17 years. Their hard work was recognized in 2001 when the organization received the Science and Technology Awareness Award from the Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) Leadership Award Foundation.

“It’s good to encourage young women to pursue scientific careers,” explains conference coordinator Patti Rooks. “We need to show girls that non-traditional careers are available to them and that they can do it. We need to build their confidence. Girls from rural areas in particular are not often exposed to non-traditional careers, so they need to expose them to role models in the community.”

Kristyn says there’s another reason that kids should go into scientific or technological careers. “Because Alberta has the facilities and resources to have technology developed here, which will be good for the province economically,” explains Kristyn. “That means a better life for Albertans.”

Click here for more information about Operation Minerva