Honoring The Agnes Irwin School and its Center for the Advancement of Girls (CAG) in partnership with the Franklin Institute on the Occasion of the 3rd Annual STEM Conference, Sharing Solutions 2017: Advancing Girls in STEM.

WHEREAS, Thursday, March 16, 2017 to Friday, March 17, 2017 will mark the third annual Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Conference, Sharing Solutions: Advancing Girls in STEM, developed by The Agnes Irwin School and its Center for the Advancement of Girls (CAG) in partnership with the Franklin Institute; and

WHEREAS, Since its inception in 2015, The Agnes Irwin School’s STEM conference, has served as a premier conference in inspiring success in young girls and women in STEM fields. The conference welcomes educators, innovators, and leaders in industry to collaborate on how to create effective partnerships to advance girls in STEM; and

WHEREAS, The two-day long conference focuses on how to achieve sustainable cultural change that truly supports the success of girls and women in STEM. At the conclusion of the 2015 STEM conference, organizers concluded that, “To change an institution’s culture requires that the institutional community must recognize challenge and then profoundly change commonly held assumptions, values, norms, and practices associated with women in STEM fields”; and

WHEREAS, In the past, the conference brought together educators from K-12, higher education, corporate and non-profit leaders to engage in TED-style talks and design-thinking challenges to build on professional training, mentorship, and partnerships; and

WHEREAS, The underlying goal of the STEM conference is to encourage young girls and women to pursue a career in STEM, to provide them with the necessary tools to be successful women leaders in STEM fields, and to overcome the institutionalized bias against women in STEM fields; and

WHEREAS, According to a 2015 American Association of University Women (AAUW) report, women only represent 12% of the engineering professions in 2013 and just over 25% of jobs in computing and math fields. AAUW suggests that to address this steady decline of women in STEM, educators, industry leaders, and researchers need to develop sustaining partnerships to encourage female participation in STEM fields; and

WHEREAS, The 2017 STEM conference will focus on the theme “Partnering for Impact”, exploring the power of partnerships, as well as the key ingredients for what makes a sustainable partnership. The 2017 STEM conference will also focus on the strength of STEM pipelines that encourage the building of sustainable infrastructure to support young girls and women interested in STEM careers; and

WHEREAS, The AAUW suggests that if young girls and women are exposed to the working environment of women in STEM, they will be more encouraged to pursue and overcome gender biases associated with women in STEM fields; and

WHEREAS, In the past, the STEM conferences have attracted several successful women leaders in the field of STEM to encourage young girls and women to participate. The 2017 STEM keynote speakers are Dr. Melinda Einsla, Research Scientist at Dow Chemical Company and Kim Cassidy, President of Bryn Mawr College; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby honor The Agnes Irwin School and its Center for the Advancement of Girls (CAG) in partnership with the Franklin Institute on the occasion of the 3rd Annual STEM Conference, Sharing Solutions 2017: Advancing Girls in STEM.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Mariandl Hufford, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Girls at The Agnes Irwin School, as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.

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