JACKSON TWP — Colleen Smith knows that careers in science and engineering are still dominated by men, but that doesn’t mean the gap isn’t closing.

She told that message to about two dozen Seneca Valley Middle School students Wednesday night as part of an end-of-year celebration for the STEM Fems group.

In its second year, the group exposes students to careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Smith was one of the many professionals brought in this school year to talk to the students about careers in those fields.

As the outreach coordinator for Penn State’s Electro-Optics Center, she travels around the region talking about the benefits of early exposure to STEM careers.

“There’s clearly a need for groups like this because women are not showing up in the STEM arena much beyond high school,” she said. “We need to do an intervention to clear that pathway.”

The STEM Fems is a collaboration between Principal Andrea Peck and 8th grade science teacher Julie Smith, both of whom wore bright pink shirts with the group’s logo inscribed Wednesday night.

Peck said it’s increasingly important for the young girls to hear from and talk to women in STEM professions, if only because those women serve as role models for the students.

Smith said student attendance fluctuates sometimes in the STEM Fems, but that it isn’t a big concern.

“I’m happy if one girl comes and that experience maybe creates a spark that wasn’t there before,” she said.

Morgan Aloi of Cranberry Township attended the event with her mother Wednesday night and said joining STEM Fems was an easy choice.

The eighth grade student said her father is an engineer and she already plans on pursuing architectural engineering in college, even though that’s still several years away.

“We do some pretty cool activities,” she said about the group. “But mostly it helps us get interested in subjects we didn’t know about.”

Parent Kelly Hurst sat with her daughter Sarah at the event and told a similar story. Both she and her husband are in the medical field, which in turn created interest for her daughter.

“They don’t tend to steer toward math and technology,” Hurst said about young female students. “But maybe now they’ll see other girls doing it and be intrigued.”

Ashley Berman of Cranberry Township also spoke at the event and, like Smith, understands the importance of exposing young girls to the sciences.

Berman, a junior at the Seneca Valley High School and vice president of the school’s Science Honor Society, said she plans on attending Westminster College to learn how to be a veterinarian on large animals.

“You should never give up on your dreams,” she said. “Keep pushing forward and you can do anything.”