Above: More than 450 area middle school girls packed the Sid Richardson Center gym for the STEM-focused conference on April 1.

Since 1988, Texas Wesleyan University has collaborated with North Texas area middle schools to bring the Expanding Your Horizons program to young women in North Texas. Participating public schools include Azle, Aledo, Kennedale, Keller, Joshua, Fort Worth, Handley, and Euless ISDs and more.  In addition, there are several charter and private schools who come to the event, Grand Prairie and Fort Worth Young Woman’s Leadership Academies and the International New Comers Academy are among the attendees.

The EYH program is an annual conference of math and science workshops created for seventh- and eighth-grade girls. Each year, about 300-400 young women attend and seventy professional women from the metroplex present STEM-related workshops and more.

This year’s conference was from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 1.  The conference opened in the Sid Richardson Center with registration and a Chemistry Magic Show then the workshops took place in classrooms on the Texas Wesleyan campus. The workshops covered everything from “Women in Police”, to “What’s in your toothpaste”, to “Dancing Robots”, all presented by local women professionals. 

Jane Moore, professor of mathematics at Texas Wesleyan, leads the charge for the conference. 

This year’s conference is sponsored by the following community partners:

• Texas Wesleyan University – West Library, Chemistry Dept., Upward Bound
• Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
• Texas Instruments
• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority-Fort Worth Alumnae
• Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains, Inc.
• Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust
• Tarrant County College District
• Fort Worth Independent School District
• Mama’s Pizza
• Vending Concepts
• Girls Inc. of Tarrant County
• FireStick Productions
• IMedia
• Jackal Oil Company
• Keller Printing & Graphics
• Mrs. Bairds
• Purpose Driven Youth Empowerment
• See’s Candies
• Texas Department of Transportation
• University of Texas at Arlington – School of Engineering
• Calvin Harris, State Farm Agent