Introduce a girl to Engineering Day

The 2001 celebration of Engineers Week will feature "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" on Feb. 22, as part of its efforts to encourage more young women to consider careers in engineering.

It will be the first annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day — a nationwide project of engineering societies, corporations, government agencies and other service organizations to redouble efforts to bring the world of engineering to girls during the week of Feb.18-24.

According to National Engineers Week 2001 co-chairs IBM and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the engineering profession is facing not only a dearth of engineers in general, but a lack of diversification.

Only nine percent of engineering positions and 27 percent of computer science and programming jobs are currently filled by women, and the number of women graduating from college with engineering degrees has leveled off in the past few years. That underscores the urgency, they say, of encouraging girls to excel in math and science as early as elementary school — and continue to excel — so they'll be ready for formal engineering courses in college.

While there has long been a strong interest in engineering among the boys, the committee is determined to make that the case for girls, too.

ASME members, particularly women, are encouraged to participate by reaching out to elementary, middle and high school girls in their local communities. The Engineers Week goal is to reach one million girls.

The program kicked off on Oct. 25 at NSPE's headquarters in Alexandria, Va., when representatives from some 30 societies, corporations and organizations made plans to ask 100 organizations to pledge as many engineers (preferably women) as possible to the effort.

In turn, the volunteering engineers each will be asked to personally reach out to girls on Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day or at some time around Engineers Week. IBM will lead the effort by pledging 500 engineers from its Women in Technology program.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is only part of the legacy of Engineers Week 2001 co-chairs IBM and NSPE. For its part, NSPE will also establish a new Web site, www.engineeringsights.org.

For suggestions on activities with young women, as well as a special E-Week kit for the event, go to www.eweek.org/2000/News/ Eweek/girlsday.shtml.

To assist ASME in providing feedback to Engineers Week, ASME members are being asked to let us know of your plans, before or after the event, by filling out a short survey at www.asme.org/eng_week/survey.html.

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