Tech Savvy

The Tech Savvy event has not yet been scheduled

  Here are highlights from previous years:

 Tech Savvy is based on the latest research to encourage more females in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).   It has the proven power to change girls’ lives, and to guide them on a career path.  Tech Savvy leads girls to opportunities with amazing income potential and future job growth.  It helps ensure that a more diverse talent pool will be available to solve many of our world’s most perplexing problems.

Tech Savvy is an annual event designed to inspire girls in 6th – 9th grades to explore opportunities in STEM while guiding their caring adults in supporting those interests.  Tech Savvy is sponsored by the AAUW Gaylord Area Branch whose mission is to advance equity and education for women and girls in our local communities.


Tech Savvy 2019 Slideshow


From the Gaylord Herald Times: Tech Savvy 2018

Photo Courtesy of Gaylord Herald Times

GAYLORD — Girls from around the state made a beeline for the annual Tech Savvy STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) event for teen girls in Gaylord Saturday.

Carrie Miller, a math teacher from Tahquamenon Area Schools in the Upper Peninsula, said the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Gaylord area branch’s Tech Savvy event gives girls unique opportunities to develop connections with women.

She stressed the importance of the fifth-annual event’s full day of workshops for young girls and said Luce County, where her school is located, has very few examples of women with college degrees.

“What I have seen is some students who may have never considered going to college come here and hear that there’s opportunities for them that they didn’t know,” Miller said. “There’s just not opportunities for them to see professional women in our county … They don’t have a lot of positive female role models.”    Continue Reading


What is Tech Savvy?

Tech Savvy is a daylong conference designed for girls in sixth through ninth grade and intended to encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).  The program is also designed to inform families about STEM education and careers, and to expand awareness of educators and other adults in understanding the important role they play in inspiring girls in these fields.

Although the program focuses on exciting girls about STEM, Tech Savvy also includes a simultaneous track for parents and other adults in the girls’ lives. Presentations and hands-on- activities will engage girls and broaden their exposure to the world of opportunities available to girls in STEM fields.  Concurrent presentations will guide adults to reinforce the girls’ interest in STEM. Keep reading for more details on the program for girls, their families and other interested adults.


Tech Savvy Gaylord Videos

2018 Video

2017 Video

2016 Video

2015 Slideshow

2014 Video      2014 Slideshow 


Tech Savvy Gaylord Programs

2019 Program          2018 Program          2017 Program          2016 Program          2015 Program          2014 Program


Where It All Started

Tech Savvy was founded in 2006 by the AAUW Buffalo (NY) Branch, under the leadership of then- branch president and Praxair employee Tamara Brown. With the support of Praxair and community groups, this annual event has become a huge success, serving upwards of 700 girls and 200 parents each spring at the University of Buffalo in New York.  The AAUW Gaylord Area Branch is honored to have been selected as one of ten sites chosen nationwide as a pilot for the expansion of this successful program.  Working with the University Center in Gaylord (a unique collaboration among many College and University programs throughout Michigan),  the AAUW Gaylord Area Branch seeks to reach girls, their families, and their teachers throughout Northern Michigan to inspire them to attend the day-long Saturday conference each year.

Girls in STEM

In an era when women are increasingly prominent in medicine, law, and business, why are there so few women scientists and engineers? A 2010 research report by AAUW presents compelling evidence that can help to explain this puzzle. Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) presents in-depth yet accessible profiles of eight key research findings that point to environmental and social barriers — including stereotypes, gender bias, and the climate of science and engineering departments in colleges and universities — that continue to block women’s progress in STEM. The report also includes up-to-date statistics on girls’ and women’s achievement and participation in these areas and offers new ideas for what each of us can do to more fully open scientific and engineering fields to girls and women.