Ashley Smith
FIRST RoboticsIn 8th grade I was given a technology award for my overall love of the subject. The teacher that gave me the award pushed me to join the FIRST robotics team at my school.
When I look back to my first robotics meeting I can remember standing outside the room trying to build up enough courage to go in. How could I walk into the room when i didn't even have enough courage to walk up to the table during freshman orientation. My friend Caroline, who noticed me staring at the table from a far walked over signed me up and gave me a pamphlet. As you may have guessed i did walk into the room, and will be starting my fourth and final year on the team as the elected President. During previous seasons i did mostly electrical work, this year i will be running the team and keeping it as organized as possible. I am always trying to encourage more girls to sign up and join the team. My freshman year the team was about 85% male. This past year our team was about 30% girls and I can only hope our team will grow even more when we bring in the freshman this year. I want to do everything i can to show these girls that no matter what background knowledge they have or don't have, anyone can do anything and STEM is no exception. Anyone can be a Scientist, Technician, Engineer or Mathematician, as long as they have the passion and desire to learn and create. I have always had a passion to be an engineer for as long as I can remember and I will continue to do my best to inspire others as i move forward in my journey to become a successful Woman in a STEM career. |
My name is Ashley Smith and I am a Senior at HCRHS in New Jersey. I am currently a Senior Girl Scout and have officially completed my Gold Award Project. I have been a GS for 12 years and will continue through the remainder of my high school life. I also swim, ski and run when the weather allows it. In school I have always enjoyed all the science and math courses made available.
Being a girl in an all or mostly boy group can be difficult, I know, I also take part in my schools concert band playing the baritone and I have always been the only girl in the low brass section. Even in the marching band, which I also do, there is only one other girl in the baritone section and she is a sophomore this year. Sticking with it, staying focused and organized is the only way you will ever be able to complete anything. 
Check out my team at: http://www.team3637.com/
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Gold Project
On 9/16/2015 I received my Gold Award for my Summer Camp project. I designed a week long STEM program targeted at girls in 5th and 6th grade. I spent over 90 hours of my summer working on organizing and then running this program. I ran the program at three different elementary schools in my area and had groups ranging from 8 girls to 24 girls. With each session we built catapults, bottle rockets and I brought out the robot from my sophomore year to show the girls how it was built and how it works. They got to drive it around and work the catapult as well.
The kids i worked with had so much fun and were genuinely interested in not only the projects but the in the history and information behind them. It made me happy to see them like this, especially because my goal was to inspire them to want to move towards engineering and science as they get older and eventually move to the high school. It was a very rewarding experience and I truly enjoyed every second of it.
You can see my site that I am building at: http://discoveringstem.weebly.com/
Below is an Article I was featured in. This was taken from IEEE Potentials Magazine
The kids i worked with had so much fun and were genuinely interested in not only the projects but the in the history and information behind them. It made me happy to see them like this, especially because my goal was to inspire them to want to move towards engineering and science as they get older and eventually move to the high school. It was a very rewarding experience and I truly enjoyed every second of it.
You can see my site that I am building at: http://discoveringstem.weebly.com/
Below is an Article I was featured in. This was taken from IEEE Potentials Magazine