GIRL SCOUTS DAY - Saturday February 22, 2020

For this year’s Engineers Week 2020, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Los Angeles Younger Members Forum (LA YMF) hosted over 150 girl scouts for Girl Scouts Day! The 3rd Annual Girl Scouts Day took place on Saturday, February 22, 2020 at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus.

The girls were welcomed by leads of the event, Nikki Zulueta - Civil Engineering Associate from the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering, Claire Killian - Civil Engineering student at UCLA, and Anna Leidelmeijer - Program Specialist from Girls Scouts of Greater Los Angeles.

When the troops arrived, the girls were given an event day t-shirt, hard hat, and goodie bag, then split into groups. Each group included student engineers and working professional engineers to help guide and mentor the Girl Scouts throughout the event, including the design challenges. Before the hands-on activities, the girls assembled in the auditorium to be welcomed by Nikki, and to learn about the UCLA student engineering projects.

The hands-on activities included three design challenges; the helping hand (mechanical hand), pop fly (catapult), and a water collection device (rain harvesting).

At the conclusion of the activities, an Engineering Panel of four UCLA engineering students was moderated by Chloe Gharios of LADWP. The girl scouts and their parents got valuable insight from the panelists on how to encourage and support future generations to pursue STEM related fields. The questions asked related to college planning, career guidance, encouragement, and more!

The day was extraordinarily fun for all that participated. Girl Scouts Day is a great day for inspiring future generations of female engineers! After the event, the girls received their “Think Like an Engineer” certificate so they can obtain their engineer’s badge!

Special thank you to all the volunteers and the sponsors who helped make this event possible. Thank you!

Thank you to our Gold Sponsor, the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering (LABOE), for making Girl Scouts Day 2020 possible, and thank you to both LA Sanitation and LABOE for the fun giveaways provided to the Girl Scouts when the day was complete!