- Worcester State University News - https://news.worcester.edu -

Urban Studies and Mathematics Departments Host Girls Inc. Eureka Program

In late July, the Urban Studies [1] and Mathematics [2] departments at Worcester State University hosted more than 60 young women from the Girls Inc. Eureka Program [3].  A five-year program for teenage girls, the Eureka Program “focuses on STEM, leadership, health and fitness, college-readiness, and career-readiness.”

For a month this summer, the program’s participants were scheduled to visit four area colleges—Worcester State, WPI, Clark University, and Becker College—to work on the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

While at Worcester State, these 8th and 9th grade girls worked with math faculty and students to explore STEM careers and construct platonic solids, offering a hands-on exploration of a particular area of geometry. They also worked with urban studies faculty and students on high school/college-readiness, humanities and social science careers, an original curriculum by the department called the Zombie Apocalypse, and in the Garden for All Ages.

Lisa Krissoff Boehm, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Linda Larrivee, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education, Health, and Natural Sciences, offered their insights to the girls and served as visible role models, as women who have succeeded academically and professionally.