Sixteen young women from Redmond and Kirkland schools were honored as STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) scholars by the Kirkland/Redmond American Association of University Women (AAUW) at its annual celebration April 22 at the Lake Washington School District Resource Center.

After hearing from Redmond tech role model Cheryl Platz, who has a background in video games and human-computer interaction and currently works at Amazon while also acting and doing improv work, all the awardees were presented with certificates and small gifts, then enjoyed a dessert buffet with their families.

The Redmond girls are Tesla STEM High School’s Sonia Murthy (math), Emma Morrison  (technology) and Miranda Pehrson (science), and Redmond High School’s Allison Collier (math), Jessie Liu (technology) and Priya Nakkiran (science).

As longtime advocates for women and girls in education and pay-equity issues, AAUW has released important research this spring, “Why So Few,” on the challenges and recommendations for women in STEM fields. It can be accessed at www.aauw.org/research/why-so-few.

Locally, the Kirkland/Redmond AAUW branch actively organizes the annual Expanding Your Horizons conferences for 500 local middle school girls held each spring at Bellevue College, and is supporting the new Tech Trek, a one-week, immersion summer program for eighth-grade girls nominated by their teachers. For more information on the Kirkland/Redmond AAUW branch, visit: http://kr-wa.aauw.net.