2021 Camp Schedule
Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, July 11-17, 2021 (Dunbar)
Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, July 18-24, 2021 (McClintock)
Eastern Washington University, Cheney, July 25-31, 2021
Tech Trek growth in Washington has been phenomenal! since 2013, Twenty-two of AAUW-WA’s 34 branches selected 188 campers to attend in 2019. Combined with numbers from 2013 through 2018, a total of almost 1,000 girls in Washington have been served by this program in it’s fist seven years of existence. Over $1,000,000 has been raised within AAUW Washington to support this program.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 camps were canceled nationwide. AAUW Washington will have three weeks of camps at two sites in 2021 — two weeks at Pacific Lutheran University and one week Eastern Washington University.
Branches will be contacting local 7th grade STEM teachers this fall, seeking recommendations for potential campers.
All campers must have a recommendation from a STEM teacher (preferably both math and science), complete the Tech Trek application form (including writing an essay) and be interviewed by local AAUW branch members. Families are expected to provide transportation for their daughter to/from camp and are asked to pay a $50 family fee. The remaining cost — estimated at $1,000 per camper for 202 — is covered by AAUW-WA fundraising efforts at both the branch and state level. For more information, contact your local AAUW branch or AAUW WA Tech Trek at techtrek@aauw-wa.org.
AAUW Washington currently has 34 active branches with approximately 1700 members. In 2013, 15 branches selected 50 campers to attend. In 2019, 22 branches participated in Tech Trek by nominating, funding and selecting 188 campers to attend. AAUW WA Online branch became involved in soliciting nominations, reviewing applications and interviewing camper candidates from areas of the state where there is no local AAUW branch in 2015 when Tech Trek WA added the camp at EWU. AAUW Idaho and AAUW Coeur d’Alene Branch joined the Tech Trek WA family in 2017, selecting and funding two campers from the Coeur d’Alene area (25 miles from Spokane, WA). We look forward to having these same 22 branches, plus additional Washington branches support campers for 2021.
Programs that specifically foster girls’ interest to consider the STEM fields as potential careers are few and far between in Washington state. Since 2001. AAUW Washington has had a statewide initiative for Recognition of STEM Scholars. Since the early 1980s, individual branches have held Expanding Your Horizons conferences in their local communities; in 2011-12, approximately 1,000 of the 3,200 total students attending EYH programs in the state attended AAUW sponsored conferences.
Tech Trek is unique among Washington’s STEM summer programs in that it provides full financial support to campers, is a residential camp held on a college/university campus and is one of the few programs designed specifically for girls going into the 8th grade.