We do plan on making this an annual event. For now, we see it as a way to provide opportunities for young women in our area, but we are open to building upon this format and lending our experience to others who might want to utilize this model as well.

Yes. Both formal and informal mentoring were part of the program. Several practicing women engineers presented to the participants about their careers and the uniques aspects of being a female in engineering. Informal interactions took place across the entire event as college students worked side by side with the high school participants.

Awesome. Thanks Ron. I really think that there are potential mutual benefits here including the mentors. As I listened to the mentors speak about their engineering stories, I couldn’t help but think that you were building an even stronger group of advocates. Any observations related to this positive effect on mentors?

Thank you Marcelo. We would definitely be willing to share our model for implementation in other areas. Amazingly, the entire event was planned and executed by two first year engineering students who organized a great body of volunteers and who recruited all of the participants.

Your comment about a more permanent infrastructure for continued communication with the participants is an excellent idea. We will look to implement this into the future.

Michel – we have those conversations with our undergraduate students on a regular basis as we embrace inclusivity as an outcome for our graduates. However, we did not go that deep with the K-12 participants in our #ilooklikeanengineer event.

Michel – You make a very good point. Although our location may contribute to this appearance, we are very open to making a continued effort to diversify our event even further. We strongly feel approaching the engineering profession with a spirit of inclusivity is at the heart of our mission. Open discussions on this matter would add even greater value to our event.

Hello Julie!
We felt that an overnight event gave us the opportunity to have a camp-like experience while still fitting into the student’s busy schedules. This format gave us an opportunity to have project time and fun time. We really wanted to expose the students to a variety of engineering disciplines. For example, participants assembled toys that were made with modern tools, for the purpose of donating to local charities. The girls were very involved with the Systems Engineering aspect of that particular project. The next morning they were able to engage in a mock oil spill, all while discussing Environmental and Chemical Engineering. At each meal time, we had a guest speaker join us. The guest speaker, a female engineer, would then stay for further discussion and to participate in the more informal events of the night/morning. It was a busy two days, but the girls loved it. Though we could have designed a program for just one day, this gave the girls time to get to know one another and our volunteers. The most common feedback we received was, that they wished it was longer. Though we may not be prepared to add another night soon, we were encouraged to repeat the event in 2017.

Thank you. The clarification helped. When I saw the words “overnight event”, I interpreted that as a lock-in type event where activities were being conducted in the wee hours of the morning. I understand now that “overnight event” meant it was a two day night. I apologize for my confusion.

No problem! Thank you for asking.

Thank you Tamara. We learned from the best.

#ironrangeengineering

Cynthia – This is an excellent idea. We have followed up by thanking each participant individually and asking them for feedback, but we would like to provide a short summer program for the young women as well. This concept is still in the development stage, but we feel that would reinforce our message and continue to encourage the young women to pursue their passions in engineering. What we found, was that it was much more challenging to draw the teenage girls. We noticed a gap in participation in Engineering programs at that grade level. This drop in participation was the motivating factor to create an event that they would feel comfortable with, and that would inspire them. Offering something with more technical depth in the summer would be ideal. Also, as Marcelo mentioned, providing an online presence for maintaining contact with the girls would be of great benefit. Thank you for your question!