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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFebruary 22, 2013CONTACT:Betsy DougertMarketing & Communications ManagerCountry Day School of the Sacred Heart480 S. Bryn Mawr AvenueBryn Mawr, PA 19010Tel. 610-527-3915 x 227Fax 610-527-0942Sacred Heart Celebrates Engineering WeekCAPTIONS: Left - L to R: Biomedical engineer AnnMarie Feury, physics teacher and former ceramics engineerMeg Tredinnick, civil engineer Ginger Pulhman and aeronautical engineer Peggie Kacergis.Right – Designers Jamilah Guess’14 and Glenna Gobeil’19 write the directions for assembling their Legowidget.Country Day School of the Sacred Heart celebrated National Engineering Week with a series of on and offcampusactivities designed to develop students’ learning in the field.Activities began on Monday, February 18th, when biology teacher Joanne Dougherty and chemistry teacherMarie Polce took a group of 9 th and 10 th grade students to Drexel University’s, “Introduce a Girl to EngineeringDay.” There, they met with Katie Falcone '11 and other engineering students who ran over 500 hands-onengineering activities.On campus, physics teacher Meg Tredinnick arranged several activities designed to engage students inengineering. The subject is close to her heart, as Mrs. Tredinnick herself worked as a ceramics engineer for 25years before joining the Sacred Heart faculty. “Girls don’t always know what engineers do, exactly,” Tredinnicksaid. “Only 30% of engineering students are female, which is better than it was decades ago, when that numberwas closer to 10%. Still, it’s my goal to encourage even more women to pursue careers in the field.”On Tuesday, February 19th, Middle and Upper School students attended an assembly entitled Women inEngineering.The panel of speakers consisted of: AnnMarie Feury – a biomedical engineer currently working for SiemensMedical in the area of MRI systems. Ginger Pulhman - a civil engineer working for a female-ownedenvironmental consulting firm. Peggie Kacergis - an aeronautical engineer and former CDSSH science teacher.Each guest briefly discussed her history and the factors which led her to study engineering in college, as well asthe highlights and challenges of her career. Then, students had a chance to ask questions.

Feury reminded students, “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” She also reassured students thatengineering doesn’t always mean working in a lab. “I’m a people person,” she said, mentioning how much shehas enjoyed traveling throughout the US in sales and marketing for Siemens. She said that her math andscience background has helped her to understand and explain the technology involved with CAT scans toclients. Past work has included radiology and research with several local hospitals including Bryn Mawr andLankenau.Peggie Kacergis is a former Sacred Heart teacher whose other resume credits include NASA. As an aerospaceengineer, Kacergis said the integration of math and science appealed to her. She enjoyed studying data andlearning how to solve problems, and credits the study of engineering with sharpening her analytical abilities,which have proven useful throughout her diverse career. Kacergis found it easy to return to school and earn herM.B.A. in finance because of her transferable skill set. “Engineering is a platform of learning for other areas ofstudy,” she said.Kacergis cited going through astronaut training as one of the most interesting experiences of her career. Goingthrough the training herself helped her to analyze the process and then teach the astronauts how to followprocedures and properly use the instruments onboard the space shuttles.Other career experience includes working as Lead Systems Engineer in the area of military satellites forGeneral Electric, where she specialized in problem solving, including telemetry and technological issues.Ginger Pullman is a civil engineer for a small environment consulting firm called Bluestone, where theleadership consists of all female scientists. In high school, her science teacher’s passion for the environmentinspired her to go into the field, and today she consults on pollution, waste and environmental impact issues.“People have always told me that I don’t look like an engineer,” Pullman said. “I’m stubborn and I’ve enjoyedproving them wrong.” She attributes her success to hard work, a supportive group of friends who are alsoengineers, and her passion for making a positive impact on the environment.“I once asked a college professor what exactly engineers do,” she said, “and he answered, ‘Solve problems.’Even today, I think that’s a great answer.” Pullman then highlighted the importance of problem solving andlogical thinkingShe said, “There are lots of engineering opportunities in the working world. It’s hard work, but it’s doable.”Students said they were surprised to learn how many subject areas are affected by engineering, from road andbridge design, to packaging and manufacturing, biomedical and computers, transportation, electrical and thegrowing field of green energy technology such as windmills and new kinds of batteries.Sarah Conway’19 said, “It was really cool to see what I can do with math and science.”Jannell Jeffers’15 hopes to pursue a career in either new materials or biomedical engineering. She said, “It wasvery interesting to hear how these women got to where they are, in a male-dominated field.”On Wednesday February 20th, most of the MS and US science classes participated in a cross-class mockmanufacturing engineering challenge. Two classes from different grades were mixed together into teams of twoor three, which gave students from different grades – in one case juniors and 6 th graders – a chance to worktogether. Each student then received a business card with her name, the name of a Phineas and Ferbcharacter (which served as team name), and a job title relating to either design, manufacturing, transportation orquality control.Tredinnick said, “The fun of this is for the students to ‘think’ and tackle the challenge.”

The process began with each team’s designers, who wrote instructions on assembling a Lego widget, then sentthe directions “via Fed Ex” down the hall to manufacturing. There, the manufacturing engineers assembled thewidget, and sent it to quality control for inspection. If the manufactured model perfectly matched the designer’smodel, the challenge was complete, but if not, the model was sent back to design so they could redo theinstructions and send them back to the manufacturing department for a second try. Ms. Tredinnick drew aconnection to the real world by pointing out the logistical challenges of going through this process withmanufacturing companies in China, where time zone and language differences complicate matters further.The top team completed the challenge in 14 minutes, but some teams did not finish at all.The challenge highlighted the importance for clear communication and impeccable attention to detail on both thedesign and manufacturing sides of the process. Most teams quickly realized that drawing pictures was moreefficient than writing directions. Tredinnick pointed out that pictures, as opposed to written directions, workbetter for cross-cultural communications.Also on Wednesday, the 8th grade class participated in a technology and engineering literacy pilot for theNational Assessment of Educational Progress. The results will be used to prepare for the NAEP 2014 TELassessment.Country Day School of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic, independent, college preparatory school for girls, gradesPreK-12. The goals of Sacred Heart’s education have remained the same for over 140 years: to produce selfconfidentwomen, to provide a challenging intellectual environment, to develop a love of God, and to create a desireto help others. The school is part of a national network of 21 Sacred Heart schools, which share a common heritageand vision. There are over 150 Sacred Heart schools around the world, providing the benefits of an internationalcampus while maintaining a small class size. Country Day School of the Sacred Heart is conveniently located at 480S. Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA. For further information, please call Admissions at 610-527-3915, ext. 214, orvisit www.cdssh.org.