Fifty seventh-grade girls, including Breona McConnell from Kingfisher Middle School, have been accepted to the second annual Southwest Alliance for Girls’ Enrichment in Science, Technology, Engineering the Arts/Humanities and Mathematics (SAGE STEAM) Camp at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) in Weatherford.

More than 150 girls were nominated by a teacher and interviewed as part of the selection process.

Campers will participate in hands-on activities on the SWOSU campus, interact with role models from a variety of fields, and travel to Oklahoma City to experience STEAM in the real world.

The camp also provides exposure to college life, increasing girls’ confidence and interest in pursuing degrees in STEAM fields, said the camp’s director.

“The SAGE STEAM Team is looking forward to camp this year,” Camp Director Lisa Appeddu said. “We are incorporating new workshops and field trip stops to better demonstrate how the STEAM fields are integrated with one another.”

The SAGE STEAM team added arts and humanities to the STEAM camp in 2018. The program, which runs June 9-15, also emphasizes communication, critical thinking, collaboration and creativity.

“We are enthusiastic and confident that the continuing evolution of the program will provide even more impactful experiences for all camp participants,” said Appeddu.

Campers pay a nominal registration fee, but most costs are covered by donations from individuals, Devon Energy, the City of Weatherford, the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), and Oklahoma’s National Institute of Health (NIH) IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE).

During the selection process, the SAGE STEAM team interviewed McConnell by phone, which happened to be during spring break while she was visiting the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo. She took the call while at the base of the arch waiting to go up.

McConnell, the daughter of Eric and Lisa McConnell, has already visited Yale University, Harvard and MIT this summer. She’s also the granddaughter of Ray and Rose Nice and great-granddaughter of Eldon Hatch, all of Kingfisher.

She has already taken the ACT as a part of the Duke TIP program and said she is getting excited about all the possibilities she faces in high school and college.

Currently, McConnell said she is interested in becoming a pharmacologist to make medicines that will help heal the sick, and SWOSU is one of several Oklahoma colleges McConnell wants to tour this summer as she looks forward to a possible future STEAM career.