As “Girl Day” Turns Four, Engineers Redouble Efforts

National Engineers Week participates in UN “Girls and Technology” briefing and invites online signatures to global education statement.

A company in Colorado taught eighth-grade girls how to build simple electronic circuits. Employees at a New York City construction firm began serving as engineering mentors to girls in three local schools. Industry engineers conducted one-on-one outreach to 200 girls in a Missouri school district. These and hundreds of other programs were part of the fourth annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day program, a centerpiece of National Engineers Week's outreach to encourage underrepresented groups to consider a career in engineering.

Thousands of women engineers – with support from their male counterparts – participated in the mentoring effort this year (dubbed “Girl Day” in engineering circles), led by 2004 National Engineers Week co-chair, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE / IEEE-USA), with major sponsors Agilent Technologies, Inc., and the Elizabeth and Stephen Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.

On March 25, Girl Day went global as National Engineers Week participated in a United Nations briefing, "Girls and Technology: New Educational Opportunities." Dr. Sylvia Wilson-Thomas, representing EWeek and IEEE, reported on Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics programs to promote education for girls and career opportunities for women, as part of the weekly UN Department of Public Information briefing for non-governmental organizations.

National Engineers Week has also invited organizations, educational institutions, and individuals to sign a statement supporting its initiatives, which can be accessed at the National Engineers Week web site at www.eweek.org:

“We, the undersigned, encourage all nations to seek the talents, viewpoints and intellects of women in engineering and related mathematics and science fields. Encouragement, education and work opportunities for girls and women in these fields are imperative to generate and turn ideas into reality for the health, safety, and welfare of all.”

For years, the engineering community has recognized the need to bring more women into its ranks. Currently, only one out of ten engineers in America is a woman. National Engineers Week launched Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day in 2001 to provide girls and young women with a firsthand experience in the engineering arena. An estimated one million girls have been involved annually in what is considered to be the first outreach program targeting girls ever established by a single profession.

A Pledge Roster of Girl Day events across the country can be viewed at www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/2004_nationalpledgeroster.shtml. Organizers and engineers are urged to continue listing their activities throughout the year to help make educational and career opportunities and mentoring programs available for girls and prospective women engineers nationwide.

Although Girl Day is officially just one day each year during National Engineers Week – this year it was Thursday, February 26 – the event is designed to have a long-lasting impact.

“The heart and soul of Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day are the young women we inspire,” says Joey Duvall, an electrical engineer at Lockheed Martin, IEEE member, and chair of this year's campaign. “I've had a great deal of support from key role models throughout my journey. I never doubted I could become an engineer, and that's the message I hope to give to my younger, future colleagues.”

Those involved in the program stress that Girl Day is much more than an attempt to diversify the profession and more than simply a numbers game. Besides broadening and increasing the ranks of engineers in America, engineers say the initiative helps in the long range, by opening up the profession – and, thus, its societal impact – to serve a larger need. Though the impact of any such an effort is not always easy to measure, few doubt that girls are up to the challenge.

This year, for example, the National Champion of the 2004 Future City Competition, another educational program of National Engineers Week, was an all-girl team. Students Cara Hartz, Natalie French, and Allison Garda of Riverview Junior/Senior High School in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, bested teams from 33 regions across the country for first place honors at the Future City National Finals in Washington, D.C. in February. More than 1,100 schools and 30,000 students participated in the 12^th annual competition.

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For photos from the March 25 UN Briefing, click here.