Clemson program honored
for mentoring women engineers
Forty-five percent of Clemson University
students are women, yet some still feel alone. Imagine being
the only girl in your classes. You may wonder if there was
anyone on campus you could relate to, and you may want to change
your major from engineering to -- anything.
Retention of women engineering majors
is a national issue. One Clemson program, however, is receiving
recognition for its success in attracting and retaining women
to science-based majors.
The Women in Engineering Programs and
Advocates Network will honor Clemson's Women in Science and
Engineering program.
Serita Acker, WISE director, will accept
the 2005 Women in Engineering Initiative Award at the national
meeting.
" Since 1995, WISE has reached out
to girls in area schools while lending a helping hand to women
on campus," Acker said. "Women can and should have
a leading role in discovering and designing the future. For
the ones that do choose engineering, we have established a
networking program to eliminate and reduce the problems that
lead to a change in major."
To Clemson students, WISE offers Sneak-a-Peek
Week, a one-week orientation for incoming freshmen who plan
to major in science and engineering; Big Sister, a mentoring
program that matches groups of freshmen with upper classmen
in their majors; and Women in Science and Engineering Residence,
a living and learning community of freshmen.
For K-12 students, WISE offers a variety
of activities, including Project WISE, a one-week summer camp
for rising eighth-grade girls that gives them hands-on learning
through practical applications of math and science, and WISE
Choice, where high school students visit the Clemson campus
for a live-in opportunity to attend classes and extracurricular
activities with an undergraduate mentor. WISE also sends current
students to career day programs around the state to talk about
careers in engineering, science and math.
WEPAN is a national non-profit organization
representing more than 600 members in 200 engineering schools,
Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations.
WISE is an outgrowth of Clemson's award-winning
Programs for Educational Enrichment and Retention. PRISM magazine,
a national engineering education publication, cites Clemson
as fourth in the nation in percentage of engineering Ph.D.s
granted to women.
