Women, Girls Unite For Career Day

Careers in law enforcement and architecture aren’t just for Chuck Norris and Frank Lloyd Wright anymore.

Ninety young Boston-area girls came to Harvard Saturday afternoon for “Careers Day,” hosted by Strong Women Strong Girls (SWSG). The third to fifth graders, who participated in the event, were introduced to a broad range of potential professions through a series of educational workshops in different career fields.

Members of SWSG, an all-female campus mentoring organization for at-risk girls in the Boston area, ran the workshops, which allowed the girls to explore careers in architecture, business, science, and law enforcement. Participants also learned basic resume and interview skills in a “careers toolkit” workshop.

“[SWSG] tried to give a representative sample of what careers are out there for women,” said Tracy E. Nowski ’07, SWSG’s co-director of programs. “We especially tried to incorporate careers that are typically male-dominated in our workshops in an attempt to really broaden the girls’ horizons.”

Hands-on activities kept the girls actively engaged throughout the day. During the science workshop, the girls became chemists, performing what science workshop co-leader Jennifer E. Zora ’06 described as a “fun and tasty experiment” in which the girls made homemade ice cream. During the business and architecture workshops, the girls assumed the roles of marketing executives selling household products and architects designing a new SWSG club building, respectively.

The popular workshop on law enforcement was run by four female Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officers and involved learning fingerprint identification and self-defense.

“Opportunities for women in law enforcement have increased dramatically in the past ten years,” said Maureen Morrison, a HUPD officer instructing at the workshop. “These girls need to know that law enforcement is not just a job for the boys.”