By Liz Coffin-KarlinThe Daily Northwestern

Allison Dining Hall was filled with the chatter of young girls Thursday.

The girls, many of them sporting backpacks reading “Northwestern University Cherishes our Daughters,” nibbled on chocolate chip cookies with Northwestern staff members while listening to Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance.”

About 200 girls, ages nine to 16, spent the day learning skills from making sushi to dissecting ovaries on NU’s Evanston campus. Another 90 girls participated in similar activities on the Chicago campus.

For the 13th year in a row, NU participated in “Take Our Daughters to Work Day: Revolutionizing the Work Place.” The event brought girls associated with NU staff members for an event aimed at exploring different career paths available to women.

Organized by NU’s Women’s Center, the event began as a response to disproportionately large numbers of women dropping out of math and science majors, as well as small numbers of successful women in professional fields, such as engineering and medicine, said Renee Redd, director of the Women’s Center and organizer of the event.

Redd said she believes such days give girls the opportunity to see successful female role models in their places of business.

She also said since NU has such a variety of activities available, having the event at the university “provides a unique opportunity.”

The girls could choose among 15 “tracks,” each of which included three separate tour activities.

Activities included watching a dance presentation by Graffiti Dancers, playing a soccer game with the NU women’s soccer team, and learning about robotics and their applicability to physical therapy through the mechanical engineering department.

The girls ate lunch at Allison and listened to mother-and-daughter speakers give advice about living successfully.

Debra DaRosa, a professor of surgical education at the Feinberg School of Medicine talked about her journey from criminology to medicine.

“When people say no to you … you don’t let them get in the way of what you want to do,” she told the girls.

The professor also spoke about women’s tendencies to limit their own career and personal options by judging themselves negatively.

“We’ve got to get over what we look like … and figure out how we can be the best we can be,” DaRosa said. “We have a bad habit of comparing ourselves to other people.”

Kristen DaRosa followed her mother’s presentation and talked about the importance of finding good mentors.

“Mentors are not old women with witches’ caps and crystal balls … they’re your teachers,” she said during her presentation.

Performance studies doctoral candidate Mshai Mwangola gave a presentation on participative storytelling using the book “Warriors Don’t Cry” by Melba Pattillo Beals. Beals was a member of the “Little Rock Nine,” the first group of black students to attend Little Rock (Ark.) High School after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1957.

During their time at Little Rock, Beals and her companions were subject to extreme racism and repeated instances of violence. The girls discussed both the daily challenges of Beals’ life and what it takes to be a hero.

“We talked also about what dreams they have, and what it takes to hold onto their dreams,” Mwangola said.

Cory Hall, a seventh grader at MacArthur Middle School in Prospect Heights, said she loved the event.

“I think (today) is important,” she said, “because it lets girls get a scope of what jobs are out there and lets them try new things.”

Reach Liz Coffin-Karlin at [email protected].