Middle school girls invited to Rowan engineering workshop

May 19, 2009

Rowan University invites middle school-aged girls to Attracting Women into Engineering (AWE), a program designed to expose them to the broad field of engineering, on July 21 and 22.

Females entering the 7th and 8th grades in Fall 2009 may participate in either of the two, one-day sessions, during which they may work with and learn from College of Engineering faculty and students. The workshops will focus on hands-on engineering laboratory experiments, professionalism, gender sensitivity and computer training.

The non-refundable workshop fee is $25 for one day, and a pizza lunch will be provided.

This is the 10th year Rowan will offer the AWE workshops. According to the Rowan AWE website, there is a dramatic decline in middle school females’ self-esteem as they enter adolescence, and they confront a culture “that both idealizes and exploits their sexuality as young women while assigning them roles that are clearly less valued than male roles.” The program is designed to combat the trend of gender inequality, starting in the classroom.

Many Rowan AWE participants have pursued engineering and several have attended Rowan’s College of Engineering, crediting their initial interest in engineering to the AWE program, according to Dr. Kauser Jahan, the AWE program co-director and professor in and chairperson of the Civil & Environmental Engineering Program at Rowan.

“In its 10th year, AWE has continued to cultivate young girls’ interest in engineering through a hands-on approach to engineering, exposure to diversity of paths an engineer can take and the impact an engineer can have in shaping the future,” Jahan said.

For more information on AWE, visit www.rowan.edu/awe, or contact Kathy Urbano at urbano@rowan.edu or 856-256-5309.

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