The McLean area branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women) on March 14 announced the winners of its 2023 STEM Essay Contest during the group’s potluck dinner at the McLean Community Center.
The contest was open to seventh- and eighth-grade students (both girls and boys) at nine local public and private schools. The group asked students to discover and publicize women who had made a difference in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, but received little or no recognition for their contributions while they were alive.
The AAUW branch gave strong preference to essays about women who are not well-known. Each essay described one woman’s contribution and its impact, as well as why the student selected the woman.
Receiving certificates of merit and monetary awards were:
• First place: Jessy Lin, a Longfellow Middle School eighth-grader.
• Second place: Kylie Rudinsky, a Cooper Middle School seventh-grader.
• Honorable mention: Longfellow Middle School seventh-graders Michelle Lin and Elaine Zhang.
During the awards ceremony, Jessy Lin read her essay on Dr. Jane Cooke Wright. Subjects of the other award-winning essays were Alice Ball, Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu and Eunice Newton Foote.
Thirteen volunteers from the AAUW McLean Area branch served as judges: Pam Bacher, Marie Briones-Jones, Beth Cooper, Peggy Finarelli, Myrtle Hendricks-Corrales, Sherry Joslin, Nina McVeigh, Tom McVeigh, Judy Page, Phyllis Provenzano, Amina Sarif, Adarsh Trehan and Phyllis Yoshida.
The steering committee that managed the essay contest consisted of Marie Briones-Jones, Beth Cooper and Myrtle Hendricks-Corrales and STEM chairman Judy Page.
For more information on the AAUW McLean area branch, see the Website at mclean-va.aauw.net.
