Journei Hutchings conducted this workshop to achieve the Gold Award in Girl Scouts, the highest award one can earn as a Girl Scout.
Journei Hutchings has been interested in STEM since she went to a Girl Scout workshop in third grade and had the opportunity to speak to a scientist on a research vessel, a ship or boat designed to do research at sea. That experience made her want to become a marine biologist when she grew up.
Six years later, the sophomore at Eastern Regional High School who is a Voorhees resident, gave young ladies from South Jersey the same opportunity. She held a Self-eSTEAM — Journei’s STEM Gems Workshop at Rowan University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford — for girls in sixth through 12th grades from high schools in Camden and Burlington counties. Her mission was to increase their interest and exposure to STEM and art — how it relates to STEM, and empower them to speak up and not feel uncomfortable in any situation. This workshop was Hutchings’ project to obtain the Gold Award, the highest award one can earn as a Senior Girl Scout. She will be honored at a ceremony in May.
“I’ve done a lot of research on women in STEM, and I didn’t like there was not a lot of women involved, so I decided awhile back I wanted to help increase that number,” she said.
She did a similar workshop on a smaller scale to obtain the Silver Award in 2015.
“I took all the ideas that I couldn’t do for my Silver Award and put them into this project and made sure they happened, and it was very hands-on,” she explained.
Journei’s mother, Frederica, called her an overachiever from a young age, and said she had until the summer before her freshman year of college to complete this project, but didn’t want to wait that long.
“As she started learning things, she always wanted to do more,” Frederica said. “She always wanted to do one more thing at the next level and to do it right now.”
Some of the activities in the workshop included a motors and magnetism workshop where the girls got to see how magnets and GPS work. They heard from an aerospace engineer who showed them how to build paper planes and explained how and what makes planes fly. The girls were broken into smaller groups for a problem-based learning session, where they were able to see how a doctor thinks, how they figure out a diagnosis for patients and how cases present themselves.
“I want them to be able to not only find a passion for STEM, but at the same time, be in an environment where they are comfortable expressing anything that they love,” she explained. “I did some research and I saw how boys would intimidate girls, and they would be quiet and not say what they want to say, but when they are around the same kind of girls who have the same passion and the same goals, they would be able to speak more and get their ideas out there.”
First-year medical students Matt Tribble and Nilufar Ernazarova took part in the workshop and say it’s imperative for girls to realize their potential.
“It was common for girls to say, ‘oh I’m not good at math, science is for smart people,’ and I believed that,” Ernazarova said. “It’s important to see there’s plenty of women in this program and them saying, ‘I can do it, too.’”
“By coming in doing this and seeing what we’re doing and put a face to it, it really opens up a whole new world to them,” Tribble said.
Paula Watkins, who serves as Rowan University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, said Journei’s dedication to helping these girls and showing them what kind of opportunities they have is unparalleled.
“When you see her badges and commitment and dedication, it’s uncanny,” Watkins said. “I think that her loyalty to expose other students to what she’s doing, becoming a Girl Scout and enhancing her leadership skills and literally creating opportunities for women in STEM is incredible.”
Olivia Rose Arculeo, a freshman at Eastern who wants to do something in the medical field, found the workshop to be interesting and full of hands-on experiences she’s never done before.
“This is the first thing I’ve ever done that was anything close to being a real situation,” the Voorhees resident said. “It challenged us to work as a team, to figure out what was wrong and had to use what we learned in school to try to figure out what was wrong. My favorite part was art because it’s not just STEM, it’s STEM with arts. We had a teacher talk about how art is related science and technology and how things vibrate per minute or per second. I found that interesting because I like music and I like how she incorporated it.”
Makayla Ludwick, another freshman at Eastern who wants to be a psychiatrist, said she really enjoyed the day and felt a workshop like this allows girls to feel more inspired.
“This is really important because I feel like girls don’t have as many opportunities as men do,” the Berlin resident said. “It’s important for girls to be more spoken about what they are passionate about.”
Watkins hopes these girls will be interested in becoming physicians and will see these them at Rowan University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine down the road.
“I hope they will be motivated, they will be independent thinkers and recognize that they, too, can do anything they chose. There might be challenges, but when you see them through, you can accomplish so many things.”
