Dublin resident Deborah Lemon serves to build STEM interest in local youth

Dublin resident Deborah Lemon (aka “Profe Lemon”) participated in two recent events in the Bay Area that encouraged students of all ages to explore careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

Microsoft sponsored “CodessHack Silicon Valley – Hack for Good” in October, part of their “Codess” initiative (www.codess.net). Codess partnered with the International Women’s Hackathon, Black Girls Code, Coder Dojo, the Grace Hopper Conference and the Anita Borg Institute to bring forth their first Codess Hackathons, held in London and Silicon Valley. As part of the hackathon, teams of female students and engineers of all levels collaborated intensively on software projects for great causes. These hackathons help inspire women around the world to learn, invent and create the future. Here’s a link with more details about the event > http://cpo.st/1z3TOXI. The Oprah Winfrey Network was also on hand filming the event.

Deborah, a skilled technologist and avowed “maker”, was invited by Amber Bush of Codess to be a judge at the event. At the end of the event, Deborah and fellow judges – Saila Talagadadeevi (Skype), Alexander Ryzhov (Skype), Vela Sivasankaran (Verizon), Stephanie Lucas (LinkedIn), Claudia Galvin (Society of Women Engineers in Silicon Valley) - chose the winning teams. All of the girls that participated created terrific projects. Deborah reflected, “It is so inspiring to see the level of energy and focus that these women bring to problem-solving and to creative application building.” Here’s a link to the results > http://bit.ly/1z3TTL0. Here’s a link to a video with highlights of the event > buff.ly/1s5XTFf

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Silicon Valley (http://shpe-sv.org/v2/) recently held their bi-annual “Noche de Ciencias” (Night of Sciences) event in November. This event was held at an economically-challenged middle school in San Jose. 6th and 7th grade students participated in a variety of STEM-related workshops. One of the activities featured circuit building. It demonstrated how circuits work and taught the students about a new material called graphene that is starting to be used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Deborah led the graphene activity, showing groups of middle schoolers how to build the circuits themselves. The response from the students was wonderful. They enjoyed the hands-on activity, being able to see the results of their efforts. Deborah laughs, “We all learned about the importance of a resistor!” Here’s a link to a video from the event > http://on.fb.me/1z3RRdP.

Deborah is a tenured professor at Ohlone College where she teaches languages, educational technology and social media, not only to Ohlone’s diverse student population but also to fellow educators, administrators and businesses. She presents around the country at conferences, sharing her teaching and technology talents.

Deborah enjoys opportunities to give back to the community, and especially to encourage young girls to pursue interests and careers in STEM. Deborah believes “it’s important that students discover that STEM is approachable and exciting. You can explore your world through tinkering. We all like to pick stuff up and mess with it. It’s what humans do best.”