Entergy Partners With the American Heart Association To Inspire Young Women To Pursue STEM Careers

Last week, Entergy partnered with The American Heart Association as the title sponsor for STEM Goes Red – an annual event aimed to inspire and engage young women to consider careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM. Although women fill close to half of all the jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold only 26% of jobs in STEM, with even less representation in engineering and math/computer sciences. Unfortunately, this gap is further exacerbated for minority women. The purpose of the event is to make significant changes to these statistics by empowering more young women to pursue careers in the sciences.

The event, held at Xavier University, brought together more than 90 young women from Einstein Charter Middle School, Alice M. Harte Charter School and Granville T. Woods Elementary School. The day kicked off with remarks from Patty Riddlebarger, Entergy’s vice president of corporate social responsibility, on the importance of increasing diversity in STEM fields for women.

"We are proud to partner with the American Heart Association on STEM Goes Red, aimed to empower and inspire young women to dream big and pursue careers in STEM,” said Riddlebarger. "Supporting opportunities such as STEM Goes Red means inspiring bright minds to lead and take action in the development of today’s economy and tomorrow’s future.”

Throughout the day, the young women participated in networking opportunities, speed mentoring, hands-on activities and breakout sessions with leaders from STEM industries, including Kenyon Webber, Entergy senior engineer, transmission design, basis standards.