With registration already underway, middle school and high school girls should act early to secure their spot in the 2014 Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics Conference at MTSU.

The 18th annual event will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, on campus. The registration fee is $18. The deadline to register is Sunday, Aug. 31.

Freneka Minter

To register, go to www.mtsu.edu/wistem/eyh/index.php and click on “Registration.” A link for the parent or guardian release form is included on the registration page.

Expanding Your Horizons is a hands-on math and science event to help girls consider careers in these fields as well as engineering and technology, said Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, EYH and WISTEM (Women in STEM) Center director.

Katrina Smith

Iriarte-Gross, who is a chemistry professor at MTSU, added that the EYH event gives them opportunities to talk with women in science careers and attend this type of conference with other girls who share their interests. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

MTSU alumna Freneka Minter, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center program coordinator in the Center for Health Services Research, will serve as keynote speaker for the middle school and high school girls. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university.

Alumna Katrina Smith, a research assistant in the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, will be a second keynote speaker for the high school girls later in the day. She graduated from MTSU in December 2013.

Up to 275 middle school girls and up to 75 high school girls from across the region are welcome to attend the event, Iriarte-Gross said.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)