Expanding Your Horizons

Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) is a one-day conference put on by volunteers in the community (primarily women) to promote middle school girls' interest in science and mathematics, encouraging them to continue taking science and math courses so that these fields become real alternatives as they are in the process of choosing a career and a degree program in college. This program was put on here in San Antonio from 1985 until 2003. Each year, it attracted between 1200 and 1400 girls from all over south Texas, as well as a couple hundred parents, teachers, and counselors.

Volunteers from a number of local businesses, including Southwest Research Institute, led the workshops. Faculty, staff, and students from St. Mary's University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, Our Lady of the Lake, and the School of Pharmacy at the University of the Incarnate Word volunteered together to run the conference. The program was revived in January 2010, held on the UTSA campus. This initial revival was kept on a smaller scale than in the past, targeting only 6th - 8th grade girls in the immediate San Antonio area. Almost 400 girls attended, and about 75 adults; some coming from as far away as Corpus Christi. 2011 was the first year that EYH was held on St. Mary's campus, under the auspices of St. Mary's School of Science, Engineering and Technology. St. Mary's is hosting EYH again in 2012 and HEB has given its generous support so that there will be no registration fee.

One of the key components of the conference is the set of hands-on workshops led by local women who maintain a career in a field considered "non-traditional" for women. This includes not only the technical and scientific fields of engineering and the natural and physical sciences, but also psychology, emergency rescue, intellectual property law, law enforcement, etc. The primary goals of the workshops are to allow the girls to learn about non-traditional career paths, see what education is required to enter the field, experience an activity related to the career field, and meet real women who can serve as mentors and role models, showing the girls that it is possible for them to have a career in any field that they wish. The workshop size is kept small, no more than 15 girls, so that direct interaction among the girls and with the workshop leader(s) is possible.

Learn more about Expanding Your Horizons on the national website.