They say science isn’t about why, it’s about why not.

And even though she hasn’t always considered herself STEM adjacent, Teen Coordinator for Girls Inc. of Metro Denver, Amariah Jean-Baptiste, will tell you she has always been a nerd.

“For Christmas, my favorite things were National Geographic books and bugs,” she said with a smile.

So, when an externship experience offered through the Colorado Department of Education presented itself, Amariah didn’t let the fact that the program was geared more toward ‘traditional’ educators deter her. Rather, she took the ‘why not’ approach as her curiosity, leadership skills, and experience as a nonprofit educator guided her application, and she was eventually selected to join the cohort.

“Getting selected for this experience definitely placed me outside of my comfort zone,” she told us. “But nonprofit educators carry valuable perspectives and add value to group experiences like these. Getting outside of the perception of what you think you are versus what you can be is something I encourage everyone to try.”

The externship, which offers to host teacher externs, focuses on teaching educators about environmental learning and aquatics. Selected applicants receive the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities and learn a wealth of knowledge they can transform into STEM-related activities and lesson plans for their students, thanks to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The experience is also designed to showcase how Colorado Parks and Wildlife addresses water life nuisance issues, while offering educators a space for free activities and resources that support their work.

One day of the experience included a field trip to Brush, Colorado, where externs got to spend the whole day sampling and testing fish to see if they had diseases, specifically Whirling Disease – a disease that affects juvenile salmonid fish – caused by a parasite that they eat. Through their testing, externs discovered very high levels of Whirling Disease in the fish and the bodies of water they studied. They concluded the day by conducting a fish dissection to extract cells from fish to identify if there were any invasive species in their environment.

“What made this an amazing experience was seeing a lot of women in the Colorado Parks and Wildlife lab,” Amariah shared.

One of the biggest takeaways Amariah and her cohort took from their coursework was the importance of washing items like paddle boards, kayaks, and other water sports gear, before exposing them to different bodies of water. Doing so ensures you aren’t transferring invasive species from one body of water to another, a decontamination process coined, Clean/Dry/Drain by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

But perhaps the most exciting takeaway for Amariah was knowing that programs like these exist so that more young girls and women can be exposed to lessons and activities that power their curiosity and promote their interest in the sciences.

“My hope is that we’re able to create more representation in the field of STEM so that as the world progresses, our girls can step into these roles more confidently,” she shared.

And we’re confident more girls will follow in Amariah’s footsteps as they explore, engage, and propel themselves into brighter, bolder futures.