Increase the number of women in your Information and Communication Technologies classrooms with the strategies you'll learn through the WomenTech Educators Training

In this video, your trainer Donna Milgram shares an important realization about recruiting women to STEM classes:

Source: Participants in WomenTech Educators Training. External evaluator’s report to the National Science Foundation for the CalWomenTech Scale-Up Project, March 2013.

Who Should Apply:

Community college administrators, professors, instructors, counseling and outreach staff from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) programs in which women are underrepresented in the Mid-Pacific ICT (MPICT) Center's region -- CA, NV and HI. Preference will be given to applicants who apply in teams; however, we also encourage individuals connected with ATE Projects or Centers to apply. We expect to have a mix of teams and individual participants in the training.Thirty fellowship spots are available.

Attend the Training in a Team:

The more people that you can get involved in this campaign, the more lasting change you're going to have. Yes, one teacher on their own can get more women in the classroom, but the schools that have been the most effective and had lasting institutional change have had more people involved. Together, you and your team members will work together to develop an action plan and provide support to each other as you implement it.

Who Should Be on Your Team:

Your team will be the most effective if it includes a variety of stakeholders from your college dedicated to increasing the number of female students in the targeted STEM program(s). Teams should have between 3-6 members. The larger the team the greater the likelihood for change. Ideally, a dean, department chair, technology center director, or Principal Investigator (PI) of an Advanced Technology Education (ATE) grant will act as key leader and an instructor from the targeted program will act as co-leader.

Recommended core team members:

• Dean or Chair of the Department of the targeted program;
• Director of the Technology Center (or equivalent if applicable);
• Principal Investigator of the ATE grant (if applicable);
• Minimum of two instructors in targeted technology courses, with one being an adjunct if possible (highly recommended);
• If you have math prerequisites for core targeted courses, a math administrator.

Other potential team members could include counselors, advisors, outreach and recruitment coordinators, learning center staff, curriculum developer, STEM coordinator, Workforce Development Director, and other key stakeholders. The NSF-Funded WomenTech Educators Training includes additional guidance on forming and working with a Women in STEM Leadership Team.

Career Pathways:

Targeted STEM career pathways must be in areas where women are under-represented.

"Participating in the IWITTS training refined my skills as an instructor and administrator to be an agent of change in this realm. Because Computer Networking and Information Technology was not on the radar of many women, the tools that were given to us by IWITTS for reaching out to students for our entry level class were very effective. And those changes have been institutionalized in my department. Thanks to our work with IWITTS, female enrollment in my department has risen from 19% to 33%."

"Completely made me re-evaluate the approach that we have been taking. I realized the many mistakes and plan to make changes that I learned from the training. Great information!"

"Last year, the Computer Science department held an Open House event for prospective students. Although a few female high school students came, none of our female faculty members could attend and there weren’t any women there representing the department.

After attending the workshop with IWITTS, I was committed to making sure that didn’t happen again. At this year’s Open House, the College of Sciences held a special Women in Technology event in partnership with the College of Engineering. The girls who came had a great experience, they learned a lot, and I’m confident that it strengthened their resolve to pursue careers in science and engineering. Our goal is to have enough female students in science and engineering majors so that the process can become self-reinforcing."

~ Fred Martin, Associate Dean of College of Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell

"The most valuable things I received from working with IWITTS were strategies that have been researched and have data to support them. There are also many inexpensive strategies; "inexpensive" is a key term in these difficult economic times. I anticipate additional increased retention in my programs. I have already implemented retention strategies from IWITTS with much success. The workshop has empowered me!"

This fellowship is free to community college ICT educators in the MPICT region (CA, NV and HI).
Limited travel stipends available. See below for eligibility.

Donna Milgram is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS), a national nonprofit organization, founded in 1994, that provides educators with a roadmap to increasing the number of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and math.

• Ms. Milgram developed the WomenTech Educators Training to help educators nationwide increase the number of women in their technology programs.
• A national expert on recruiting and retaining female students in STEM programs in which they are underrepresented, Ms. Milgram has personally trained educators in 44 states and Canada.
• Ms. Milgram is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and conference presentations including the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and Women in Engineering Proactive Network (WEPAN). Most recently, she received a reader's choice award from the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) for her November 2011 cover article, "How to Recruit Women & Girls to the STEM Classroom" published in the journal, Technology and Engineering Teacher.  The success of the CalWomenTech Project was featured in articles on the NSF "Discoveries" website in April 2012 and the Community College Times in May 2012. 
• Ms. Milgram has testified before the U.S. Congress and appeared extensively in the news media. Her media appearances include CNN, Fox Morning News, C-Span and National Public Radio. She has been quoted in major news outlets such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press.

Because it is still so difficult for many faculty to travel in these tough economic times, MPICT will provide stipends to qualified community college faculty and administrators teaching ICT related subjects, on a first-come, first-served basis, until funds are exhausted:

• a $50 stipend for educators whose community college is within 70 miles of San Francisco,
• a $100 stipend and two paid hotel nights* to ICT educators whose college is between 71 and 250 miles of San Francisco,
• a $250 stipend and two paid hotel nights* to ICT educators whose college is between 251 and 500 miles of San Francisco

*Note: Hotel must be booked at the conference hotel and paid directly by MPICT on a master bill. Room sharing increases the people MPICT can support to attend, and is encouraged.

Our funding source for this training restricts stipends to California ICT faculty and administrators only.

Instructions: Stipends will be available on a first-come, first serve basis so please apply early. You will be able to request a stipend in the online application for the training.

Stipend Questions? Please contact Elise Staples, MPICT Program Assistant, with any questions about travel stipends (email: EStaples[at]mpict.org; phone: 415-239-3600).

There are a limited number of spaces on the WomenTech Educators Training waiting list.

This fellowship is free to community college ICT educators in the MPICT region (CA, NV and HI).
Limited travel stipends available. See above for eligibility.

Female retention went from zero to 86% and male retention from 70% to 93% in required introductory programming courses after a WomenTech Educators Training

Female STEM students at Del Mar College are joined by STEM faculty including Barbara DuFrain,
who successfully increased the number of women in her programming courses.

Barbara DuFrain, an associate professor in Computer Science, Engineering and Advanced Technology (CSE& AT) at Del Mar College, had tried in the past to increase the number of women in her required introductory programming courses, but the recruitment strategies weren’t effective and the few female students that came on their own dropped out. These introductory programming courses are critical because students are required to complete them in order to get a certificate or Associate of Science degree in Computer Programming.

Barbara DuFrain participated in a two-day, in-person WomenTech Educators training in July 2012, funded by the National Science Foundation. The training was enhanced by six months of follow-up support -- including group Support & Strategy calls on plan implementation and access to an online learning community with other training participants. After the training Professor DuFrain said:

"I want to commend you [IWITTS] on the structure of the material and how when I walked out of the training I had a plan. If I had not had a plan, I would have gotten back and not done as much. Having a plan all laid out, when I walked in, gave me something I could work with."

All participants at WomenTech Educators trainings develop step-by-step strategic recruitment and retention plans for increasing the number of female students in their STEM courses.

Classroom Retention Strategies Worked Right Away

After losing a female student at the very beginning of the fall semester before she even had a chance to speak with her, Professor DuFrain realized she needed to make implementing the classroom retention strategies (from the WomenTech Educators training) a priority during the first critical weeks of the semester. So she started using the WomenTech Educators welcoming conversation talking points with her students. She retained all four of the remaining women in her introductory programming courses for the first time ever. A higher percentage of male students completed the courses as well. Completion rates for female students in the introductory programming courses went from a baseline of zero to 86% and male retention went from 70% at baseline to 93% for fall 2012. This means that retention of all students went from 61% to 88% – a 45% increase for all students on average. Professor DuFrain's strategies are working and she has the numbers to prove it.

The Three Main WomenTech Strategies that Professor DuFrain Employed Were:

• Icebreakers to engage and connect students early in the semester
• The welcoming conversation talking points from the WomenTech Educators training
• Teaming and pair programming

Barbara DuFrain used the welcoming conversation talking points in class lectures and one-on-one conversations with all of her students – both female and male. She saw the difference the talking points and other retention strategies made right away with one female student in particular. This female student was the only woman in one of Professor DuFrain's Fall 2012 programming courses, and she was feeling tentative and out of place in a class with all men.

Thanks to the training, Professor DuFrain recognized the warning signs for a woman about to drop a class. She immediately spoke with the student and connected her with three other women in another of her programming classes. Professor DuFrain also observed how the student was doing in teams and pairs with male students. The lone female student – who was tentative – didn't just successfully complete the course, "She ended up being a leader on her team," according to Professor DuFrain.

One of the many encouraging results of these retention strategies has been all the positive feedback from female and male the students. Professor DuFrain reported that, "Students have said that teaming has helped keep them in the class." Several of Professor DuFrain's female students have also showed their appreciation for her efforts to help women in STEM at Del Mar College by presenting her with flowers and a plaque at a Faculty Recognition Ceremony during a Del Mar College Board of Regents meeting.

Smart, Wonderful Women Outreach Campaign

Barbara DuFrain began implementing the strategies from her recruitment plan when she returned from the WomenTech Educators training and started seeing results the next semester. Professor DuFrain discovered at the training that her previous recruitment efforts had been unsuccessful because she’d chosen the wrong target audience. Now she had a target audience that mapped to her enrollment goals and included the low hanging fruit. She came back from the training energized and ready to start implementing her new recruitment plan with the support of other training participants and IWITTS's Executive Director Donna Milgram during monthly group Support & Strategy calls. During one of the calls, Professor DuFrain realized she needed to create an innovative and engaging recruitment campaign after she heard about a colleague’s recruitment email that flopped because it was dry and academic.

Spurred into action, she and a colleague came up with a Smart, Wonderful Women outreach campaign that uses real female role models to appeal to potential female students. Professor DuFrain has developed four YouTube videos featuring female role models in GIS and Computer Information Systems, and is in the process of rolling out a web strategy to more widely distribute the videos. So far she has worked with the college to get them posted on the homepage and shared them on the college's Facebook page. She says it was the support of her peers and colleagues that kept her going when she ran into challenges implementing the outreach campaign. "[During the support calls] I heard other people also encountered challenges," said Professor DuFrain. "It's something that is a problem and that will really take a change in how we recruit and talk about programs...I realized it's incremental. I'm having success. It's going to take time."

Female Role Model Events

What was one of Barbara DuFrain's most powerful recruitment strategies? According to Professor DuFrain:

"I decided to hold a Smart, Wonderful Women Meet and Greet for students in feeder courses. [...]The advanced students started telling the beginning students how great networking was or how much fun it was in GIS. Each one started selling their program to the other women. I just sat there and let them sell. [...] I had more women in my programming classes this spring than I’ve ever had."

To get women to the event, Professor DuFrain distributed glossy postcards and full page flyers featuring female role models to female students directly and to faculty to share with their students.

The WomenTech Educators training taught Barbara DuFrain how to put on a "Women in STEM" career event to recruit female students to her programs and the importance of female role models. Professor DuFrain started small with her own "Smart Wonderful Women Meet and Greet" and then scaled up her recruitment efforts by working with her college's Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) STEM Project to hold a half-day career event called "Encouraging Women in STEM". Close to 250 students from Del Mar College and the surrounding high schools attended. The career event featured talks by eight female role models working in STEM careers in the community and exhibit tables by seven Del Mar College STEM programs and five STEM companies from the college's career pathways. The keynote speaker was a female Commander in the Navy stationed locally who was both a chemical and civil engineer. Female role models are key to helping female students see themselves in STEM careers and the WomenTech Educators training teaches educators where to find them."

Find out More about the WomenTech Educators Training

For more information on the WomenTech Educators Training developed by IWITTS's Executive Director Donna Milgram, based on proven strategies culled from IWITTS's four National Science Foundation (NSF) projects and over 18 years of success in assisting educational institutions in recruiting and retaining female students in STEM programs around the country, visit our "WomenTech Educators Training" page.

Case Study Quick Facts

School: Del Mar College, TX

Instructor: Barbara DuFrain

Program Area: Computer Programming

Challenge: Females accounted for 13% of enrollment and had never completed the required introductory program courses taught by Professor DuFrain.

Solution: Apply strategies learned in a WomenTech Educators Training, followed by six months of group Support & Strategy calls. During this time she received help on implementing the recruitment and retention plan she developed during the training. The WomenTech Educators Training is offered by the Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science.

Results: Barbara DuFrain attended the training in July 2012 and began implementing her retention plan early the following semester. She was so happy when she retained 4 women in her fall 2012 introductory programming courses for the first time ever. As one of the components of her plan, she started a Smart, Wonderful Women outreach campaign and within two semesters she saw a 62% increase in female enrollment. She expects to see significantly greater increases as the school-wide campaign continues to expand and gain momentum.

Retention Increase: Completion rates for female students went from zero to 86% and male retention went from 70% at baseline to 93% for fall 2012.

Recruitment Increase: Enrollment of female students increased from a baseline of 13% to 21% on average over the fall 2012 and spring 2013 semesters.

Timeline: Barbara DuFrain saw improved retention of both female and male students the very next semester following the training.

Quote: "That was a big win for me, that I had an increase in retention of females in my introductory programming courses, which is what I was working on doing. [...] I was not retaining women until I went to the training."

Recognizing STEM educators for their successful efforts to recruit and retain more female students to STEM programs where they were underrepresented

Incorporate IWITTS WomenTech Educators Training and Support  

Bring the WomenTech Educators Training to your location to increase the number of female students in your STEM classes and improve retention of female AND male students.

IWITTS has been highlighted by NSF for demonstrating significant achievement and program effectiveness for increasing the number of Women in STEM. We have a history of working successfully with ATE Centers and Projects.

All proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation are evaluated through use of two merit review criteria:

1) What is the Intellectual Merit of the proposed activity? and,

2) What are the Broader Impacts of the proposed activity?

Proposal project descriptions include a separate section within the narrative that discusses the Broader Impacts — the potential of the proposed activity to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes. A strong example of a Broader Impact is implementing strategies to increase the number of women in STEM.

Contact us today: Due to time required for proposal plan development, inquiries received after August 30 for 2013 may not be considered feasible.

Include Our Proven System for Increasing the Number of Female Students in STEM in Your Proposal

Strengthen your Broader Impacts section with a detailed plan to increase the number of women in your STEM classrooms with the strategies provided through the National Science Foundation-funded Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science (IWITTS).

Based on proven practices, IWITTS provides expertise such as strategies for recruitment and retention of females in STEM. IWITTS WomenTech Educators Training and follow up implementation support is culled from our 4 NSF projects and over 18 years of success in assisting ATE Centers, Projects, and educational institutions around the country. Our work has been highlighted by the NSF for demonstrating significant achievement and program effectiveness.

How IWITTS Can Strengthen the Broader Impacts of Your Proposal

When you subcontract with IWITTS in your NSF proposal, we can provide our WomenTech Educators Training along with follow up, long-term support for educators in your targeted STEM career pathways.

1. An easy-to-implement recruitment plan to greatly increase the number of women and girls in your STEM classrooms.
2. A retention plan for your programs to increase the completion rate of your female (and male students), starting this semester.
3. The knowledge and confidence they need to put these plans into action, right away.

Training Formats:

Onsite Training at Your Location: Bring the WomenTech Educators Training to your location to increase the number of female students in your STEM classes and improve retention of female AND male students.

Dedicated Online Training: IWITTS can hold an online training just for your community, whether that's a state, region, school or department, to help you increase the number of female students in your STEM programs. With a dedicated online training, you can reach a large number of educators without incurring any travel costs, and accommodate everyone's busy schedule.

When you subcontract with IWITTS in your NSF proposal, we can provide our WomenTech Educators Training along with follow up, long-term support for educators in your targeted STEM career pathways.

With this ongoing support, you’ll receive help to implement the recruitment and retention plans that you develop in the training. Every month for 6-12 months you’ll have direct access to your trainer on live group Support and Strategy calls and unlimited email support to get feedback on your recruitment and retention plans and answers to your specific questions about implementation. Audio downloads of Support and Strategy calls will be emailed to participants the next day. In this way, all of your instructors, adjuncts and other educators can listen at any time, even if they cannot make the live call.

“The Support and Strategy sessions really keep you on task. It’s too easy for this to be just one project among dozens, and the calls give you just-in-time reminders. It’s very helpful when you’re in the middle of implementing your plan to be reminded of something from the training you might want to go back and look at, or to receive new information from Donna that you need just at that moment."

~ Patrick J. Enright, County College of Morris, Dean for Business, Mathematics, Engineering and Technologies, Randolph, NJ

Your WomenTech Educators trainer can work to facilitate a written recruitment and retention plan on Women in STEM for your ATE Center or Project complete with strategies, timeline and responsible parties.

Deans and administrators receive personal coaching from IWITTS Executive Director Donna Milgram so that they can be the catalyst for change in their ATE Center or Project. Executive Coaching is most powerful when combined with Long-Term Support for Implementation.

Clients: National Science Foundation ATE Projects/Centers

• Broadening Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC) ATE Center for Computing and IT
• Center for Advancement of Process Technology (CAPT), College of Mainland Texas, TX
• Consortium for Alabama Regional Center for Automotive Manufacturing (CARCAM), Gadsden, AL
• Convergence Technology Center (CTC), Frisco, TX
• Midwest Center for Information Technology, AIM Institute, Omaha, NE
• South Carolina Advanced Technology Education Center (SC ATE )Center of Excellence & National Resource Center for Engineering Technology Education, SC
• Technology and Innovation in Manufacturing and Engineering Center (TIME), Baltimore, MD
• The University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Engineering Technology Department, NC (ATE Project)

Increase the number of women in your technology, science and engineering classrooms with the strategies you'll learn through the WomenTech Educators Training

In this video, your trainer Donna Milgram shares an important realization about recruiting women to STEM classes:

Source: Participants in WomenTech Educators Training. External evaluator’s report to the National Science Foundation for the CalWomenTech Scale-Up Project, March 2013.

Who Should Apply:

Community college administrators, professors, instructors, counseling and outreach staff from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) programs in which women are underrepresented in the Mid-Pacific ICT (MPICT) Center's region -- CA, NV and HI. Preference will be given to applicants who apply in teams; however, we also encourage individuals connected with ATE Projects or Centers to apply. We expect to have a mix of teams and individual participants in the training.Thirty fellowship spots are available.

Attend the Training in a Team:

The more people that you can get involved in this campaign, the more lasting change you're going to have. Yes, one teacher on their own can get more women in the classroom, but the schools that have been the most effective and had lasting institutional change have had more people involved. Together, you and your team members will work together to develop an action plan and provide support to each other as you implement it.

Who Should Be on Your Team:

Your team will be the most effective if it includes a variety of stakeholders from your college dedicated to increasing the number of female students in the targeted STEM program(s). Teams should have between 3-6 members. The larger the team the greater the likelihood for change. Ideally, a dean, department chair, technology center director, or Principal Investigator (PI) of an Advanced Technology Education (ATE) grant will act as key leader and an instructor from the targeted program will act as co-leader.

Recommended core team members:

• Dean or Chair of the Department of the targeted program;
• Director of the Technology Center (or equivalent if applicable);
• Principal Investigator of the ATE grant (if applicable);
• Minimum of two instructors in targeted technology courses, with one being an adjunct if possible (highly recommended);
• If you have math prerequisites for core targeted courses, a math administrator.

Other potential team members could include counselors, advisors, outreach and recruitment coordinators, learning center staff, curriculum developer, STEM coordinator, Workforce Development Director, and other key stakeholders. The NSF-Funded WomenTech Educators Training includes additional guidance on forming and working with a Women in STEM Leadership Team.

Career Pathways:

Targeted STEM career pathways must be in areas where women are under-represented.

"Participating in the IWITTS training refined my skills as an instructor and administrator to be an agent of change in this realm. Because Computer Networking and Information Technology was not on the radar of many women, the tools that were given to us by IWITTS for reaching out to students for our entry level class were very effective. And those changes have been institutionalized in my department. Thanks to our work with IWITTS, female enrollment in my department has risen from 19% to 33%."

"Completely made me re-evaluate the approach that we have been taking. I realized the many mistakes and plan to make changes that I learned from the training. Great information!"

"Last year, the Computer Science department held an Open House event for prospective students. Although a few female high school students came, none of our female faculty members could attend and there weren’t any women there representing the department.

After attending the workshop with IWITTS, I was committed to making sure that didn’t happen again. At this year’s Open House, the College of Sciences held a special Women in Technology event in partnership with the College of Engineering. The girls who came had a great experience, they learned a lot, and I’m confident that it strengthened their resolve to pursue careers in science and engineering. Our goal is to have enough female students in science and engineering majors so that the process can become self-reinforcing."

~ Fred Martin, Associate Dean of College of Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell

"The most valuable things I received from working with IWITTS were strategies that have been researched and have data to support them. There are also many inexpensive strategies; "inexpensive" is a key term in these difficult economic times. I anticipate additional increased retention in my programs. I have already implemented retention strategies from IWITTS with much success. The workshop has empowered me!"

This fellowship is free to community college ICT educators in the MPICT region (CA, NV and HI).
Limited travel stipends available. See below for eligibility.

Donna Milgram is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS), a national nonprofit organization, founded in 1994, that provides educators with a roadmap to increasing the number of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and math.

• Ms. Milgram developed the WomenTech Educators Training to help educators nationwide increase the number of women in their technology programs.
• A national expert on recruiting and retaining female students in STEM programs in which they are underrepresented, Ms. Milgram has personally trained educators in 44 states and Canada.
• Ms. Milgram is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and conference presentations including the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and Women in Engineering Proactive Network (WEPAN). Most recently, she received a reader's choice award from the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) for her November 2011 cover article, "How to Recruit Women & Girls to the STEM Classroom" published in the journal, Technology and Engineering Teacher.  The success of the CalWomenTech Project was featured in articles on the NSF "Discoveries" website in April 2012 and the Community College Times in May 2012. 
• Ms. Milgram has testified before the U.S. Congress and appeared extensively in the news media. Her media appearances include CNN, Fox Morning News, C-Span and National Public Radio. She has been quoted in major news outlets such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press.

Because it is still so difficult for many faculty to travel in these tough economic times, MPICT will provide stipends to qualified community college faculty and administrators teaching ICT related subjects, on a first-come, first-served basis, until funds are exhausted:

• a $50 stipend for educators whose community college is within 70 miles of San Francisco,
• a $100 stipend and two paid hotel nights* to ICT educators whose college is between 71 and 250 miles of San Francisco,
• a $250 stipend and two paid hotel nights* to ICT educators whose college is between 251 and 500 miles of San Francisco

*Note: Hotel must be booked at the conference hotel and paid directly by MPICT on a master bill. Room sharing increases the people MPICT can support to attend, and is encouraged.

Our funding source for this training restricts stipends to California ICT faculty and administrators only.

Instructions: Stipends will be available on a first-come, first serve basis so please apply early. You will be able to request a stipend in the online application for the training.

Stipend Questions? Please contact Elise Staples, MPICT Program Assistant, with any questions about travel stipends (email: EStaples[at]mpict.org; phone: 415-239-3600).

There are a limited number of WomenTech Educators Training spaces available.

This fellowship is free to community college ICT educators in the MPICT region (CA, NV and HI).
Limited travel stipends available. See above for eligibility.