Local Girl Scouts explore Ford Cleveland Engine Plant, futures in STEM

BROOK PARK — Girl Scouts from Lorain County and the Cleveland area went on a first-of-its-kind tour on Friday, getting an up close look at the inner workings of Ford Motor Company's Cleveland Engine Plant. The girls, all in fourth or fifth grade, were shown the assembly and testing process by Ford employees, several of them former Girl Scouts themselves. Plant Manager Tom Reeber said the visit was, to his knowledge, the first time that a group of young people had toured the plant, and the first time that a group of Girl Scouts had ever toured a Ford manufacturing facility. Reeber said that the visit was a collaboration between Ford and the Girl Scouts, which was intended to build the girls' interest in auto manufacturing and STEM careers more broadly. "I think this was the first time that we've hosted young people, we thought it could work if we had the right people to do it, and I think it was fantastic," Reeber said. "… STEM is so important, because we need young people, really at the high school age or even younger, to start thinking about science and technology and what they need to do to get their education in that. That's how we progress forward." Jane Christyson, CEO of the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio, said that the tour was an extension of efforts to introduce girls to STEM careers that began in 2017 when the Girl Scouts launched new badges for engineering, auto manufacturing, space science and dozens of other STEM fields. At the conclusion of the event, Ford also donated $200,000 to the Jane Norton Girl Scout DreamLab, which was opened this year as a place for Scouts to learn about and earn STEM badges. "We really went to town after that (2017)," Christyson said. "Building places like the DreamLab, but also collaborating with companies that wanted to see more women in their workforce. They earned an automotive design badge, which is one of those new STEM badges, and what better place to earn it than here? … The girls have to see it to be it. To really be inspired by somebody you have to have somebody who is doing that job translate their excitement about what they do every day." The Girl Scouts' day started with a tour of the Cleveland Engine Plant guided by several plant workers who were once Girl Scouts. Tracy Gardner, a United Auto Workers quality representative at the plant, said that the five years she spent in Girl Scouts were formative for her, and she wanted the girls currently involved to get even more out of it than she did. "To me it's all about girl power, because sometimes women do not think that they can work in certain professions that are male-dominated," Gardner said. "So this is a great opportunity, and I had one girl tell me 'I want to work here,' so that was exciting for me. … When I heard the Girl Scouts were coming in I was so excited, because I used to be a Girl Scout. Back then, you weren't allowed to come to places like this, so times have changed." Once the tour was complete, the girls went into a STEM lab where they were able to practice working on a mock engine of the ones they had just seen on the floor, and participate in a number of other hands-on activities testing their problem-solving skills and STEM knowledge. Madison Duncan, 10, and 9-year-olds Harper Hendrix and Maura Smith of Girl Scout Troop 50086, based in Lorain County, said that they had fun in the STEM lab, but that the best part of the trip was seeing the factory in action. "I just thought that there was going to be weird machines just one-by-one lined up, I was imagining that," Duncan said. Seeing that there were actually people working the line, especially former Girl Scouts, was not just a surprise, but exciting, the girls said. All three said the experience had opened them up to new careers to consider. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.