Hi, Everyone this is Kevin Cooper. This work is part of an NSF Center, RCNET, focused on increasing female enrollment in nuclear fields but we have worked with a host of other colleges (+100) and  NSF ATE Centers and Consortiums focused on increasing minorities and women in STEM fields such as:

1. RCNET - A Nuclear Center headquartered at Indian River State College (www.gonuke.org)

2. CREATE - A Renewable Energy Center headquartered at Madison Technical College (www.createenergy.org)

3. Project Vision - A NAF ATE Mentoring Organization (www.projectvis.org)

4. CA2VES - An Center for Aviation and Automotive Technological headquartered at Clemson (https://cecas.clemson.edu/cucwd/ca2ves/)

5. NEVC - An national electric vehicle consortium headquartered at Indian River State College 

Please check out our youtube channel and if you'd like to use any of the material such as our videos with custom beginnings or endings or marketing material with your logos and contact information that can be arranged.

Kevin Cooper

kcooper@irsc.edu

Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeBADt6D...

Excellent video, important work, and good resources. Thanks!

Thank you for sharing your video.  You framed the challenges and barriers related to recruitment of women in nuclear fields well--it was clear why the RCNet approach is needed.  I also appreciated your reminder about generational differences that create barriers.  Could you share suggestions, from project research, that would help scientists, engineers, and others in STEM fields to increase interest and access for younger generations?  In addition to tracking increases in female enrollment (which is great!) are you also collecting other data about the pipeline--for instance, after enrollment, what strategies enable girls and women to persist and stay in the pipeline and, ultimately, move into a career in a STEM field?  Thank you for helping to change the narrative! 

Thank you Karen and great questions, our evaluator, Ben Reid, actually did a longitudinal tracking analysis and I have asked him to respond to you on some of those takeaways.  Also, his email is ben@impactallies.com. To answer your first question, I think it is communication and open-ended surveying of your customer combined with working with marketing experts,  Scientists, engineers, and educators who are great at science, engineering, and education.  While marketing and advertising personnel are great at marketing and advertising.  We should work better together to solve this challange. 

Your project is using the resources of a very broad consortium to address important elements of systems change.  It is good to see how you deal directly with the root causes of the status quo in female representation and create strategies that listen to the voices of the young women you want to recruit--and then have young women serve as ambassadors of the messages they help to create.  You also are tailoring messages that promote institutional change and policy changes over time.  Our work in equity systems change promotes dialogue that  examines these elements and works toward continuous improvement.  I will be interested in the longitudinal analyses and your continuing efforts.

Hi Kevin, very valuable work here. Do you have female colleagues on the project team?  What about mentoring and advocacy that includes the voice of the women you are recruiting and working with? How are you then working to ensure the historically male-focused culture is inclusive and safe for the female students and future nuclear practitioners with a clear sense of belonging?  

Kevin - Thanks for your work! In thinking about sustainability, what are your data telling you about what interventions are working most effectively? I love that you are drawing from young women and their strengths to "change the narrative."  Have you also been partnering with graphic and other designers to help you create materials that are more inclusive/reflective of the expanded career professionals?  Very interested in what you are learning as you move forward that might inform how others expand similar efforts. 

thanks for what you are doing!

Thanks, Catherine. The data is showing that it is challenging.  Each initiative my home institution or a partner institution launches takes a lot of bandwidth and moves the needle for that initiative.  But is it sustainable - not without continued reinforcement that takes bandwidth and money.  We are fighting 150+ of industrialized world legacy effects.  And yes, all the material, logos, flyers, and videos (on our video channel) are designed, made, and edited by young women.  

Thank you for this excellent video on female recruitment. Much needed!

Really great video that serves an important purpose.  Having worked on a STEM curriculum for littles for the last ten years, I've learned quite a bit about the way gender stereotyping can push girls away from STEM in the earliest grades.  It takes programs like this one to give girl students another look at the STEM career option.  The project that my team and I are presenting this year is K-12 curriculum funding by the U.S. Department of Defense that explores the science behind BioFabrication.  (You can have a look here: https://stemforall2022.videohall.com/presentations/2489 ).  Along with the actual lessons, we did video profiles of recent college graduates who are now working for BioFab startups and, to help address the gender stereotyping issue, six of the graduates are women!  You can view them here: Building a Strong Workforce Alliance for Biofabrication & Bioengineering through K-12 Education

 Yes Kevin!  We are pushing to engage more females and various under-represented populations! The female population is certainly gearing up with recent news and the timing is perfect to show the world we are equal, engaging, and effective in all career and leadership pathways! Happy to collaborate and move this long-standing issue out of the sidelines!