Once again, the Half Moon Bay branch of the American Association of University Women was offering that experience to local seventh-grade girls. Perlsweig was curious.
So she applied. She filled out forms and interviewed. She didn't have much hope - she was one of about 45 girls vying for a slot.
 From left, Mariela Lopez, Giselle Mendoza, Sabina Perlsweig and Anita Oettel-Flaherty, shown during an AAUW luncheon in Half Moon Bay, are going to tech trek this July. Adi Padilla, at far right, who attended Tech Trek in 2003, is serving as a junior counselor for the team. AAUW member June Baxter is in the background. (Not pictured: Kelsey Briana Moor.) |
Scheduled from July 23 to 29 at Stanford University, Tech Trek is seven days of exposure to science- and math-related activities, field trips and visits by professionals discussing careers in those fields.
"I was amazed when I got the letter," Perlsweig said. "I was in total shock for about five minutes."
But she got over it, and now five Coastside girls are looking forward to a week of science, math and the Stanford dorms.
"It will be a good experience for me," said Mariela Lopez of Pescadero, a Pescadero Elementary and Middle School seventh-grader. "I want to see opportunities for jobs based on math and science."
"It will be great to meet new people and learn about life on a college campus and learn about science and things," said Anita Oettel-Flaherty of Half Moon Bay, also a Cunha seventh-grader.
Tech Trek, a program unique to California, began in 1998 at Stanford University. It is funded by AAUW's Educational Foundation and has spread to Mills College, Whittier College, Fresno State University and the University of California, San Diego.
Its purpose is to encourage girls to pursue science, math or computers at an age when girls can be intimidated by fields once considered male-dominated.
Tech Trek "gives them a broader picture, out of a small town and into the world," said Julie Gerth, local Tech Trek chair.
The local AAUW keeps track of the girls as they go off to college. "We get a lot of positive feedback," she said.
Besides Perlsweig, Lopez and Oettel-Flaherty, the Coastside girls off to Stanford in July include Kelsey Briana Moor and Giselle Mendoza, both Cunha students from Half Moon Bay.
Moor, who says she really likes geometry and biology, is expecting fun with purpose at Tech Trek. "It's like camp," she said, "but you learn something new."
She likes geometry because "it's fun to do the equations. You actually see what you're doing."
But in biology, you learn things you don't see. "Say you have an involuntary muscle, you learn why you have it. If it's a voluntary muscle, you learn how it works and why you have it. You're learning about yourself and what you do."
Mendoza, who always wanted to be a veterinarian, is excited about studying science at Tech Trek. "Math is numbers and you get confused," she said, but in science, "if you make a mistake, you can discover new things.
"I wanted to go because there are lots of interesting fields you can study in science like chemistry and biology," she said. "You can discover a cure for cancer. (Tech Trek) can open your eyes."
Oettel-Flaherty also wants to be a vet and to get into science at Tech Trek.
"Science is interesting because you learn about viruses and bacteria and disease, so then you can help animals," she said. "I think it will be really fun - to not only learn about biology but be with other seventh-graders for a whole week at Stanford."
Lopez favors math and wants a career like architecture. When she was little math was hard, but by fourth grade she was doing fifth-grade math. Now she's tackling pre-algebra.
Besides numbers, she thinks Tech Trek will add to her social life. "I want to meet new people," she said.
Perlsweig likes both fields.
"Ever since I've been in school, I've always been into math," she said, but since she's gotten into science at Cunha, "Biology in general is just amazing.
"I hope to learn more about different sciences I'm interested in and get a better handle on science," she said.
Funding for Tech Trek comes from local AAUW fund-raising and member donations. The organization is seeking community and corporate partners.
On the other end of the school spectrum, the local AAUW has awarded scholarships to Coastsiders Leah Walsh, a senior at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who is majoring in feminist studies and wants to develop a nonprofit to benefit rural women, and Leilani Ortiz, a junior at California State University, Monterey Bay majoring in human communication with plans to become a lawyer.
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