Chartiers Valley's Women of Pittsburgh event inspires students to forge their own career paths

Caelyn Murray’s goal when coordinating this year’s Women of Pittsburgh event at Chartiers Valley High School was to encourage her peers to dream big with their future plans.

“I hope they take in a different experience and broaden their ideas in what they want to do as a career,” said Murray, a senior.

“There’s vast varieties of opportunities for females especially, that they might not have thought of before.”

This year’s event was held Friday, March 7 — a day before International Women’s Day — and had 130 students participate.

Students were assigned to groups and rotated through five stations to listen and ask questions of guest speakers in various fields.

Presenters included Dr. Kayleigh Mort, a dentist; Anastasia Markiw, a project manager for DesignGroup; Rachel Casper, medical student; Christina Debski, systems engineer; and Caroline DeFrank, a senior accountant for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“As women, there’s a lot more opportunities than they think there would be, particularly in STEM career fields,” Mort said.

Mort said it’s important for girls to have a strong, female mentor.

“If I can be that to someone else — or plant that seed, at least — that’s really rewarding,” she said.

Murray plans to attend Robert Morris University and study manufacturing and mechanical engineering.

She said she learned a lot working with applied engineering and technology teachers Charles Barber and Chris Sherman.

“Both taught me leadership and how to work as a team, and pushed me to be the best I can be,” Murray said.

Junior Laura Noguiera said interacting with accomplished women and seeing them as role models makes entering those fields seem more achievable.

“STEAM careers are male-directed,” she said. “I don’t think that’s bad, but women should have the opportunity, too.

“This event shows that we have representation, too, and if they can do it, we can also do it.”