Lake Washington School District had 16 female students honored as STEM (Science, Technology and Math) Scholars by the Kirkland/Redmond American Association of University Women at their annual celebration April 22 at the LWSD Resource Center. Cheryl Platz, an Eastsid resident with a background in video games and human-computer interaction, currently working at Amazon while also acting and doing improv work, was the featured speaker.

The STEM honorees included, from Juanita High School: Maxine Beeman, Izabel Jo and Rebecca Liu; from Lake Washington High School: Valerie Sue Kettering, Elisa Truong and Alaena Roberds; from Emerson High School: Rylee Bienhoff; and from International Community School: Grace Wang, Laura Liao and Kate Belokrylova.

After hearing from Cheryl, all the awardees were presented with certificates and small gifts, then enjoyed a dessert buffet with their families.

As long time advocates for women and girls in education and pay equity issues, the national AAUW has recently released important research this spring, “Why So Few,” on the challenges and recommendations for women in STEM fields. It can be accessed at www.aauw.org/research/why-so-few.

Locally, the Kirkland/Redmond AAUW branch actively organizes the annual Expanding Your Horizons  conferences for 500 local middle school girls held

each spring at Bellevue College, and is supporting the new Tech Trek, a one week, immersion summer program for eighth grade girls nominated by their

teachers.

For more information on the Kirkland/Redmond AAUW branch, visit http:// kr-wa.aauw.net.