Sacramento State’s Center for STEM Excellence and the non-profit group Women of AT&T are hosting the fifth annual “Expanding Your Horizons” conference for young women on the Sac State campus.

Held on Saturday, Oct. 8, the conference will be focusing on encouraging and empowering science and math education for young middle school girls from sixth to eighth grade. There will be hands-on workshops and demonstrations throughout the day, along with keynote speaker Michele Wong.

Wong, a UC Davis alumni, is the President/CEO of Synergex International Corporation, a company that has grown from a 20-employee, one product company, to an internationally recognized software company that distributes to all 50 states in the U.S. as well as over 80 countries word-wide.

Sharon Puricelli, Program Coordinator of the event, expects 340 teens and approximately 30 adults to attend the workshop. Puricelli also said there will be over 50 Sacramento State student mentors, 41 workshop presenters, roughly 50 volunteers and 45 career/demo booth exhibitors.

Some activities the girls will be participating in include dissecting a real sheep heart, exploring how microwaves work, creating your own webpage, building a heart monitor, learning about food chemistry and many more.

The activities focus on a wide range of sciences, math and physics in order to get young girls involved in science, technology and engineering.

While the teens are going to be doing fun learning exercises, adults also have activities planned.

Adults will be given strategies and programs in order to help their children attend college and earn a degree in either math or a science.

The event will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will continue until 3:15 p.m., filled with workshops, speakers and activities for both adults and teen girls.