SheTech Explorer Day (February 24, 2026) will bring 3,500 Utah high school girls together with 1,000 industry mentors, strengthening the state’s STEM workforce pipeline. It seeks additional professionals to participate as mentors.
Sandy, Utah — February 16, 2026
With SheTech Explorer Day just over a week away, organizers say there is still time to become an industry mentor at the event to help guide what has become Utah’s largest industry-led STEM career event for high school girls.
Hosted by the Women Tech Council, SheTech Explorer Day is now in its 13th year. More than 3,500 students from 150-plus high schools across the state — from St. George to Logan — are expected to attend. Onsite, more than 1,000 industry professionals and representatives from 150-plus companies will lead workshops, facilitate tech challenges and connect students with education pathways and internships.
For companies like CHG Healthcare, participation is no longer a one-off volunteer effort. It’s part of a broader talent pipeline strategy.
Dani Weigand, manager of product management at CHG Healthcare, has been involved with Women Tech Council and SheTech events since joining the company more than five years ago. What began as individual participation has evolved into coordinated corporate engagement.
“It’s not just showing up as a volunteer,” Weigand shared with TechBuzz. “We’ve built alignment internally around this.”
CHG’s Women in Tech Council has increasingly focused on deepening partnerships with SheTech — not only to support women already working in technical roles, but to invest earlier in the pipeline.
“We’re looking for ways to partner more closely,” Weigand added. “Not just to support women in technology, but to get young students interested in tech careers and expose them face-to-face with people who are actually in the industry.”
She emphasized that many students simply haven’t had direct access to someone working in product, engineering or data roles.
“Tech can feel abstract,” she said. “Students use technology every day, but they don’t always see the people behind it. When they can sit at a table with someone who does this work — ask questions, hear their story — it makes the possibility tangible.”
That face-to-face exposure is the core of Explorer Day. Industry mentors guide tables of students through facilitated tech challenges — helping them problem-solve, ideate, develop solutions and pitch their ideas. The structure is organized, but the interaction is personal. Mentors are expected to engage directly, answer questions and help students envision career paths they may not have previously considered.
The scale of the effort underscores its ambition. Since launch, more than 40,000 students have participated in SheTech programs statewide. According to Women Tech Council leadership, SheTech alumnae entering the workforce have generated an estimated $250 million in aggregate economic impact, with roughly $32 million annually from graduates entering STEM careers each year.
Approximately 400 SheTech alumni graduate from college and enter STEM fields annually, organizers say. Annually, about 90% of participants report plans to pursue a STEM degree or career after attending.
Those numbers position SheTech as more than an inspirational event. It is structured as the first step in a long-term workforce development pipeline — one that now engages 500-plus tech companies annually, connects 2,000 educators and operates in every Utah school district.
For employers facing persistent talent shortages in engineering, AI, aerospace, energy and other high-growth sectors, early engagement has become a strategic necessity.
“Exposure is everything,” Weigand said. “When students can talk to someone working in the field, it makes those careers real.”
With 3,500 students arriving at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy on February 24 and approximately 1,000 mentors expected onsite, organizers say the remaining mentor spots are critical to maintaining the student-to-mentor ratio that makes the event interactive for all participants.
“You don’t have to have all the answers,” Weigand said of the mentor role. “You have to be willing to guide the conversation, help them think through a problem and encourage them. It’s about showing them what’s possible.”
SheTech interns throughout the state will be at Explorer Day and have the opportunity to interview professionals and leaders who are making an impact on the Utah tech scene. If you are interested in being interviewed by a SheTech-TechBuzz Media Intern, contact info@techbuzz.news.
If you are interested in serving as a mentor at Explorer Day, please fill out this form.