EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Marathon El Paso Refinery wants to get girls excited about careers in engineering and the sciences.
Thursday, Nov. 6, the Women’s Employee Network at the refinery in South-Central El Paso held their fourth annual Girls STEM Conference.
Forty juniors and seniors from Ysleta, El Paso, Socorro and Clint school districts, along with private schools, participated in the daylong event.
“Oftentimes, females aren’t aware of what job opportunities there are out there,” said Lisa Bielamowicz, operations director at the Marathon Refinery. “”Me personally, my parents weren’t sure when I decided I wanted to become a chemical engineer and what that really meant.
“When they saw what I was doing after college, they were like, ‘That is really cool,'” Bielamowicz said. “You are providing low-cost energy to the community and you are applying your scientific skills to that.”
High-school participants had to apply to join the event. Their applications were judged based on grade-point average, coursework and community service.
The event included a primer — a Refinery 101 — on what they do at the South-Central refinery.
They also had a fashion show where they were shown the personal-protective equipment that they wear at the plant.
Participants also learned about different types of careers in engineering.
“One of my favorite things we do is give them some water with contaminants,” Bielamowicz said. “We put them in teams and ask them to build a filtration system. We talk about sustainability.
“With that, they build a filtration system and filter this dirty water,” she said. “We take the clean water and go to our lab on-site and we test the water for contaminants to see if their science project worked.”
During lunch, they also had a women’s panel where the high-school girls could ask questions about picking a college degree to pursue, what to expect as a female in different fields and balancing a family and career.
“Those have been really powerful discussions,” Bielamowicz said. “I know, for me, I didn’t have access to this type of information. This has been really helpful to share.”
Two scholarships, worth $1,000 and $2,000, were given out at the end of the conference.
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