In 2019, women made up only 27% of workers in STEM. This was only a 3% increase from 1970. Ruby Densock (12), wants to change that statistic. For her Girl Scouts Gold Award, Ruby decided to create a week-long virtual STEM camp for upper elementary and middle school girls. Ruby explained, “I am a woman in engineering and I learned that only 13% of engineers are women, which is such a drastic number and I wanted to do something about it.”

Ruby wanted to “[…] give the girls female engineer role models to look up to,[…]) as well as give them information on the four major types of engineering are, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. This camp, which was held last August, gave these young girls hands-on experience with real world scenarios of how engineering is utilized. Each day, one of the core four engineering types were explained in detail and a female engineer in that field came and talked to the girls about their job.

The website that Ruby created in companion to the camp is now self-sustaining. She put in all the information that any young girl aspiring to be an engineer could ever need, as well as all the information needed to recreate the camp again if someone wanted to continue with this project. She advertised the website so other girls could research their interest in STEM in a safe environment designed for them. “I think the campers inspired me the most because without them I wouldn’t have been able to inspire so many younger girls and it was for them that I did the project in the first place.” Ruby said in an interview.