2025 Mah-Jongg Tournament Winners
The top 3 winners from left to right:
3rd place: Mary Ann Bone
2nd place: Elaine Brandenburg
1st place: Dianne Marsh
STEM and Digital Divas at the Ann Arbor Branch
Founded in 2010, Digital Divas is an annual series of two one-day conferences introducing, engaging and encouraging young women to consider a future in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)-related disciplines and related careers. The conferences are hosted by Eastern Michigan University and held at EMU’s Student Center, and, due to the generous support of corporations, foundations, and organizations like the AAUW-Ann Arbor Branch, are offered at no charge to participants.
Since the program’s inception, more than 10,000 middle and high school girls from southeast Michigan have attended a Digital Divas conference – high school girls in November and middle school girls in April. These in-person events kick off in the morning with a warm welcome from an EMU administrative leader and a motivational talk from a keynote speaker. The speaker usually works for a technology-based company and is a leader in her field. The participants then take part in a series of hands-on breakout sessions led by women working, teaching or studying in STEM fields, followed by lunch on campus and the opportunity to hear from a panel of female EMU STEM majors.
Digital Divas offers exposure and hands-on experience with the latest technologies, as well as opportunities to visit and experience college campus and classroom environments, in an effort to:
· Introduce middle and high school young women to careers in technology
· Recruit young women into technology majors in post-secondary education
· Develop underrepresented female populations in technology
· Breakdown gender stereotypes regarding careers in technology
· Encourage ethical and safe behaviors in texting, e-mailing, social media and online.
EMU and the Ann Arbor Branch
EMU is one of the three College-University partners of AAUW in Washtenaw County. In addition to providing support for Digital Divas, the Ann Arbor Branch has also funded an endowed scholarship and regularly sponsors EMU students to attend the NCCWSL conference.
A number of EMU faculty and staff are members of the AAUW-Ann Arbor Branch and are proud to support the Branch’s efforts in raising funds for Digital Divas, regularly providing door prizes and silent auction items for the Mah-Jongg Tournament, as well as other Branch initiatives.
To ensure the continued success of the Digital Divas fundraising efforts, the Ann Arbor Branch welcomes and appreciates partners, donors, and all other supporters. As a valued sponsor, the Branch logo is included on the Digital Divas T-shirts given to all program participants, and in the program publicity activities along with GameAbove, AT&T, ITC, DTE Energy Foundation, Consumer Energy, and others.
