Energetic music and colorful lighting set the tone of excitement for Ma’ayanot’s STEAM Talks on Monday, November 11. Organized by Sara Resnick of the Ma’ayanot science and STEAM departments, the talks were an opportunity for students to meet Orthodox women in STEAM careers. Leora Platt Mishan, creative director at Teri Jon, encouraged students to take professional risks. She urged them, “When opportunity knocks—take it!” Dr. Aviva Wolff, an occupational therapy clinician and researcher, and mother of Tali (‘20), told students, “Physics and calculus are useful” in studying human movement. She showed how the same motion-capture technology used in filmmaking is used to help pianists, baseball players and patients with motion disorders. Shana Katzenstein, senior manager for a company in the ad tech industry, explained how she is constantly learning on the job, and encouraged students to pursue coding and engineering as careers, because “gender diversity in the workplace allows people to solve problems more creatively.” Dr. Bat-Sheva Lerner Maslow, a reproductive endocrinologist, director of research at Extend Fertility and director of curriculum for Nishmat’s Yoetzet program, was “determined to become the person she sought in the world of fertility medicine”—an Orthodox, female fertility specialist. Abbie Sophia, an award-winning photographer who runs her own business, shared digital photography techniques and the encouragement that it is doable to change careers. Chana Fuhrmann Greenspan, a process engineer, discussed how her work building chemical plants has taken her all over the world, and given her confidence in her ability to effectively share her professional knowledge. Ma’ayanot students can envision a possible future for themselves in STEAM fields. Said senior Peri Fogel, “It was great to see a religious Jewish woman doing what I want to do!”