Girls in grades six through 12 are invited to come to UNLV on March 8 to meet and talk with a number of women who currently are working in a variety of math- and science-related fields.

The 10th annual Expanding Your Horizons Conference will take place Saturday, March 8, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the UNLV campus.

More than 30 workshops designed to spark the interest of young women in science- and math-related careers are scheduled. A "Guess My Job" segment in which conference participants try to guess the jobs of the panelists also will take place.

The deadline to register for the conference is Feb. 28. The $7 registration fee will cover the cost of materials and refreshments. To register, call UNLV's Educational Equity Resource Center at (702) 895-1380.

"The reason this conference is so important is that girls tend to stop taking math and science courses at an earlier age than boys. What that means down the line is that young women often are prevented from pursuing a variety of higher paying jobs because of decisions they made in high school or even middle school not to enroll in certain classes," said Kathy Lauckner, program coordinator for UNLV's Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies, who also is one of the coordinators of the Expanding Your Horizons Conference.

"It is our hope that this conference will expose girls to interesting women who are working happily in non-traditional jobs that the students may never have considered and that, as a result of meeting these women and getting a chance to talk with them, the students will take more math and science courses," she said. This year's conference is designed to meet the specific needs of each age group. Girls in grades six and seven will be assisted in "Developing Awareness," while the theme for girls in grades eight through 10 will deal with "Clarifying Choices." The "World of Work" will be introduced to the participants in 11th and 12th grades, who also will hear about college opportunities.

Lunch will be served and there will be a Resource Fair after the conference at which students and their chaperones can explore programs that help students to learn more about careers or assistance to help them get through school. Parents and teachers are invited to attend a special adult conference session on careers and educational opportunities available for young women.

Expanding Your Horizons conferences are held in more than 32 states each year, and have helped more than 300,000 students prepare for their futures.

A major goal of the conference on the national level is to involve young women who have less exposure to successful women and limited access to positive math and science experiences for any reason, including chronic poverty, language and cultural barriers, and physical handicaps. In years past, the Las Vegas conference has had an average of 33 percent minority participation, resulting from an intensive recruiting effort.

For additional information about the Expanding Your Horizons conference, call UNLV's Educational Equity Resource Center at (702) 895-1380.