‘Girls in STEM’ Empowers Next Generation of Analytics Professionals
Growing the number of women represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) starts by showcasing the possibilities that a career in the field could hold.
LeBow’s Center for Applied AI and Business Analytics hosted 20 middle school students from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for “Girls in STEM,” a free, multi-day program designed to teach participants about data analysis, interpretation and storytelling through instruction, experiential learning and team collaboration.
Reflecting the Center’s commitment to educating girls and encouraging them to pursue STEM programs and careers, the initiative marks its sixth iteration of providing STEM programming to youth in Philadelphia though analytics workshops, summer camps and other offerings.
Guided by Murugan Anandarajan, PhD, senior associate dean of academic programs and faculty affairs, five undergraduate students — Grace Cicali, business analytics and legal studies ’26, Liliya Loda, business analytics and management information systems ’25, Marissa Lux, business analytics and finance ’26, Chloe Mshana, business analytics and economics ’28, and Doris Phan, business analytics and marketing ’26 — served as youth instructors, developing and delivering content to teach the participants data analysis.
“This program helped me further develop crucial leadership skills. We had to communicate well with the girls to make sure they were understanding the difficult concepts they were learning, which involved strategic thinking to keep the difficult lessons as engaging as possible,” Cicali said.
In partnership with Anthropologie, participants completed social media analyses and visited the retail company’s corporate headquarters to learn from Ian Dewar, senior director of global strategy, Liz Diehl, senior manager of analytics, and other leaders in the organization.
During the first two days of the program, participants came on campus to Gerri C. LeBow Hall for lessons on sentiment analysis, product performance, customer personas and other topics, while also preparing their analyses and presentations that capped the experience.
The third and final day brought the program to Anthropologie headquarters, where participants met with a six-woman panel of employees introducing the girls to a variety of STEM careers, toured the site and received a presentation from Stephanie Campbell, director of social media, on the company’s digital engagement initiatives and her career. The experience concluded with the participants presenting their work to Anthropologie.
“With exceptional leadership from LeBow students, the middle school participants brought creativity and critical thinking to their work — activating their existing knowledge and strengths while exploring new concepts and techniques,” said Diana Jones, executive director of the Center for Applied AI and Business Analytics. “Through these experiences, we aspire to show girls the power of their contributions and redefine the future of the STEM workforce.”
