Mobilizing Tomorrow’s Engineers
Posted on February 21, 2007 Comments (0)
Girl Day And Global Marathon: Mobilizing Tomorrow’s Engineers:
“Girl Day,” as it’s known among engineers, is the only outreach of its kind aimed at a single profession. On February 22, and then in programs continued throughout the year, women engineers and their male counterparts reach as many as one million girls with workshops, tours, speaking engagements, on-line discussions and a host of other activities that showcase engineering as an important career option for everyone.
Girl Day’s cornerstone philosophy is its direct introduction of engineering to girls, often by women engineers. A 2005 study by the Extraordinary Women Engineers Project – a coalition of engineering associations and the WGBH Educational Foundation – found that exposure to role models is among the most effective ways to draw young women into the profession. That emphasis is a departure from typical appeals to girls that stress math and science acumen, messages shown to have little resonance with the target audience and that may, in fact, be counterproductive.
The study revealed that high school girls, instead, react positively to informative, first-person stories about how engineering makes a “difference in people’s lives” and offers a monetarily and personally rewarding career. The study also notes that since few parents, teachers, guidance counselors, media personalities, peers or others who typically influence young people understand or even have knowledge of engineering, outreach by engineers themselves is especially critical.
Related: University of Texas at Austin – Argonne National Laboratory 2007 and 2006 – Caltech – Girl Scouts get first-hand look at Motorola careers – Exxon – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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