CRANBERRY TWP — Thirty five years ago, when Laura Livingston prepared to weld some components in an engineering module at college, her professor suggested she file her fingernails off before attempting what he considered a masculine task.

The story surprised the 35 sophomore and junior girls from 12 area school districts who attended the Introduce a Girl to Engineering event March 16 at the Westinghouse Electric headquarters in Cranberry Woods.

Westinghouse and Women In Nuclear partnered to host the event, aimed at encouraging science-minded young women to consider engineering as a career.

The students, along with teachers or guidance counselors from their schools, started the day with presentations titled “How Radioactive are You?” and “Nuclear Industry: Myths and Facts.”

In the latter, the students learned that a nuclear accident such as the 1986 failure of the Chernobyl reactor couldn’t happen in the United States, that a tiny fraction of the radiation humans are exposed to comes from nuclear plants and that a nuclear plant cannot explode like a nuclear bomb.

“It clears up the stigma of nuclear power,” said Lori Schmidt, a Westinghouse engineer and chairman of the Pittsburgh West WIN chapter. “We educate and break those myths.”

Several WIN members, clad in bright pink polo shirts, spoke during the morning session or sat at tables with the students who asked questions or commented during presentations.

The girls also toured the Westinghouse facility to get a feel for the workplace of an engineer, toured a nuclear plant mock-up and went inside a nuclear plant simulator.

Samantha Logan, a Seneca Valley High School junior, said she appreciated learning how to become an engineer, as well as the opportunity to meet female engineers.

“It gives us more knowledge and information about engineering,” Samantha said.

She hopes to major in chemical engineering in college with the goal of creating sustainable products.

Miya Paserba, a Seneca Valley Intermediate High School sophomore, said she was surprised and pleased to see so many female engineers at Westinghouse.

“It’s definitely really empowering to see that a largely male-dominated industry has so many women,” Miya said.

Meghana Jayaraman, a Mars High School sophomore, said she is not yet sure of her major after graduation. But she was interested to hear what the female engineers had to say.

“They are giving a lot of insight into the field of engineering,” Meghana said. “We can see what the real-world experience of an engineer would be like in the future.”

Her classmate, Ashley Parham, was particularly interested to learn the different types of engineering and their end products or objectives.

“It opened my eyes to the different fields of engineering,” said Ashley. “Engineering helps society by solving problems and designing new ways to improve technology.”

Ashley plans to major in business and minor in industrial engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sedona Rogers, a Mars High School junior, said she had attended a large STEM event in her native Virginia, but she was impressed with the Introduce a Girl to Engineering forum at Westinghouse.

“It’s pretty cool that girls are brought in and learn that it’s not too intimidating to be an engineer,” Sedona said.

One Westinghouse engineer who was particularly excited to be involved was Ashley Mazzoni, a 2006 Seneca Valley High School graduate and Westinghouse employee for the past six years.

Mazzoni, now a senior project engineer, said opportunities such as the Westinghouse tour did not exist when she was in high school.

“It was really hard, when faced with a lack of women in engineering, to stay motivated and not be intimidated,” Mazzoni said. “This demonstrates that it’s OK to be a girl and still be smart.”