CalWomenTech Secrets to Recruiting & Retaining Women in STEM
- Team members from CCSF and EVC CalWomenTech Sites receive WomenTech Hall of Fame Awards
This October, IWITTS held the third Project Partner Meeting of our NSF-funded CalWomenTech Project and two of the community colleges present were inducted into our WomenTech Hall of Fame!
Read on to find out how they achieved success …
Secrets to Recruitment Success — Computer Networking Program
The Computer Networking and Information Technology (CNIT) Program at City College of San Francisco went from a female enrollment baseline of 10.3% in 2007 to 36.1% in spring 2010.
Key strategies included:
- Obtaining the buy-in of all CNIT instructors, counselors and career staff.
- Putting up recruitment posters and tear-off flyers with female role models all over campus. A survey of enrolled female students showed these were the top two ways they learned about the program.
- CCSF has a very large counseling staff with over 100 counselors. The Project key leaders made a presentation to all of the counselors at their monthly meeting, providing them with recruitment brochures and posters so they could assist with recruitment efforts. In fact, distribution of recruitment materials by counselors was written into CCSF’s annual strategic plan to ensure it has become a regular practice.
- Learn more about CCSF in this case study.
Re-create CCSF’s success at your school with Ready-to-Use Recruitment Tools:
- Our Outreach Kit based on the CalWomenTech Project, includes easy-to-customize recruitment materials.
- Our Poster Sets feature female role-models working in seven different engineering or trades occupations.
Secrets to Retention Success – Automotive Technology Program
Evergreen Valley College of San Jose had a baseline retention rate for female students of 57.6% in 2008 that went to 100% for two nonconsecutive semesters. In the aggregate, the average female completion rate went to 88.3%, an increase of 30.7%. Male completion baseline was 61% – also low – and now the aggregate is 86.4%, an increase of 25.6%.
Key strategies included:
- A change in culture from it’s okay if some students are “weeded out” to a more supportive environment where instructors focus their efforts on every student’s success.
- Bringing female role models into the classroom to make presentations.
- Teaching to female learning style as well as male.
- Rewarding successful female completers with a “CalWomenTech Tool Scholarship” — an engraved professional wrench with a lifetime guarantee.
- Visible support of female auto tech students in the classroom, where female and male students can view women in auto technology banners and posters in the classroom.
- Learn more about EVC in this case study.
Here’s how you can achieve Evergreen’s success, too:
- Attend our upcoming WomenTech training for educators in San Francisco to learn more about female learning style – sign up now for early-bird savings!
