This study examined the efficacy of a female engineering outreach program called, Women Engineers at the Beach. After participating in the program, 61.5% of female high school students performing at grade level in math and 90.1% of female students performing above grade level in math said they were interested in choosing engineering as a career.
Source: |
Gossage, L. (2009). A Four-Year Study of a Female Engineering Outreach Program: The Influence of Math Ability on Female Students’ Career Decisions for Engineering. Conference Proceedings of WEPAN 2009 Center Stage: Effective Strategies for Recruitment and Talent Development (pp. 1-12). Austin, TX: Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). Retrieved from http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu/DPubS?service=Repository&version=1.0&verb=Disseminate&view=body&content-type=pdf_1&handle=psu.wepan/1301340773# |
The WomenTech Educators Training got us thinking intentionally about who we were going to target for outreach, how we were going to target them, and how we would follow up to make sure we had actual results linked to the different programs and events that we were holding. Since then, it has grown organically and blossomed into something that our college just does naturally.
I think getting together as a team with intention—because we're all so busy—and developing a written plan that we could stick to was what made all the difference. I don’t think we would have ever done that if it wasn't for the WomenTech Educators Training.