Expanding Your Horizons

Saturday was the 30th annual Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) Conference at Skyline College. EYH is a yearly conference for 6th-12th grade girls with the goal of exposing girls to viable careers using math or science. Every year since 1980, women come to Skyline’s campus on the third Saturday in March to engage young girls in hands-on workshops, giving them a “taste” of three different careers. Resuming work on this conference was very important to me as I went through my recovery. The first conference following my surgery was in March 2007. I was still in the hospital, but a friend came up to the hospital in Marin to drive me to Skyline College for the conference. I went to the conference in a wheelchair, and interacted with my colleagues for a short time.

By the following year’s conference, I was working again, and I helped run the conference to the best of my abilities. I helped register presenters, answered questions, and generally tried to solve problems as they arose.

In preparation for the 2009 and 2010 conferences, I took a much more active role in planning. I coordinated the presenters’ requests for their workshops, planned the presenters’ lunch, helped check in presenters and helped to solve problems on the day of the conference.

In addition, I helped Cindy run a workshop from my past life as a marine biologist. Funtastic Whales is a program we previously offered regularly through the SF Bay Chapter of the American Cetacean Society. This program offered hands-on activities created to help teach the public about whales and other marine mammals.

My career has taken some significant turns in the past few years, but my passion for whales is still strong. Thanks to Cindy’s willingness to take on the leadership role for this workshop, I was able to show kids real whale baleen, watch them wonder at the size of a whale’s vertebrae, and see their faces light up at the mention of dolphins!

Even though my life and career has changed so dramatically, participating in EYH as a planner, presenter and marine biologist ensures that I don’t completely lose myself in this transformation.