To: High School Teachers or Administrators
From: Joanne Chang
MIT Women’s Initiative, Co-Director

I would like to introduce you to an exciting program called the MIT Women’s Initiative that my fellow directors and I would be pleased to bring to your school district. As a joint effort between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Chapter of Eta Kappa Nu and the Microsoft Corporation, our goal is to encourage and increase the number of female high school students to consider careers in engineering. We choose to achieve this goal by sending bright, enthusiastic, and articulate women from the School of Engineering here at MIT to speak with students nationwide.

In our presentations, we explain what engineers actually do, dispel common myths and stereotypes about engineers and their work, and share our passion about careers in engineering. The presentations also involve interactive activities designed to teach simple engineering concepts, and include detailed discussions and demonstrations of everyday technologies.

All of the presentations take place during the month of January; one week selected by all the schools in the area that we visit. We usually visit anywhere from 8 to 10 schools, and do around 15 presentations in the span of that week. These presentations last approximately 1.5 hours, with the last 20-30 minutes reserved for answering questions. We prefer to visit classrooms with no more than 40 students to ensure that we can effectively interact with all the students. Furthermore, we prefer to visit groups of just female students because our messages are conveyed more effectively in this setting. We also look for regions of the country where we can visit culturally and economically diverse high schools.

If you are interested in bringing this program to your school district and can help us contact at least 6-7 other schools in your area at which we can present, please send email towi_schools@mit.edu, and we will forward you more information about the program. From there, we will need your help contacting other schools so that a week in January can be selected, and a presentation schedule can be worked out.

Please Note: This program is fully funded by Eta Kappa Nu and the Microsoft Corporation. No costs are incurred by the schools or the presenters.

Joanne Chang, Alexandra Chau, and Nydia Clayton
MIT Women’s Initiative, Directors
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
wi-directors@mit.edu