Banning-Beaumont 8th-Grade Girls Attend Mt. San Jacinto College For Day

About 300 8th-grade girls from Banning and Beaumont visited Mt. San Jacinto College on Thursday to learn about careers in math and science.

The youngsters came for the American Association of University Women's annual Math & Science Conference at MSJC's San Jacinto Campus.

Dr. Dennis Anderson, MSJC's vice president of instruction, welcomed the youngsters and encouraged them to start thinking now about attending college.

"The future is yours, ladies," he said.

The girls heard from motivational speaker Amber Jazairi Price, a documentary film maker, and broke out into sessions to get a hands-on feel for various careers.

Cheryl Hayashi, assistant professor at UC Riverside, presented information in biology. Patty Romero, from American Medical Response, shared career tips in the emergency medical services field.

Kathleen Springer, senior curator in the Division of Geological Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum, helped the youngsters understand more about seismology. Linda Hanley from the Bank of Hemet talked to the girls about jobs in the financial sector.

Other presentations covered conservation, nursing, forensic science and more.

Kristina Rush, 14, of San Gorgonio Middle School in Beaumont, said she learned how to "de-poison" a snake, among many other science and math related things.

"I got a lot out of it," Kristina said. "I want to go to college and help animals."

Pass area educational leaders attending the event included Banning Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Lynne Kennedy, Dr. Barry Kayrell, superintendent of Beaumont Unified School District, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Maureen Latham and MSJC trustee Eugene Kadow.