Breaking News

Female engineers get new support group

By Ray Segebrecht

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Lauren Fitzpatrick, Overland Park senior, didn’t expect to encounter an overflow of females when she enrolled as an engineering student her freshman year. What she found wasn’t even close. For almost the last decade, women have accounted for approximately 20 percent of engineering undergraduates, the lowest female percentage of any school at the University, according to the KU Academic Information System.

photo

Photo by Chance Dibben

Melody Redburn, Wichita senior, and Laura Francoviglia, KU Alumni, share a laugh at The Society of Women Engineers’ Evening with Industry Tuesday night at the Kansas Union Ballroom. The program puts engineering students in contact with potential employers in the industry.

But even that knowledge could not prepare Fitzpatrick for when she enrolled in aerospace engineering and found only five other female students in her graduating class.

“I was terrified,” Fitzpatrick said. “In aerospace engineering, we have the fewest girls.”

Fitzpatrick said a formal female mentoring program didn’t exist when she began her freshman year, but she would have appreciated it.

“If I would have had that, there would have been a little less stress as a freshman,” Fitzpatrick said. “In the School of Engineering, you’re surrounded by males. You’re always questioning, ‘Am I supposed to be here?’”

Now a senior, Fitzpatrick has finally found an opportunity for this type of relationship, but instead of receiving advice, she is providing it.

She volunteers in the Society for Women Engineers Mentoring Program, new to engineering students. She has become, for three female freshmen, the resource she didn’t have.

Callie Statz, Ballwin, Mo. senior and coordinator for the program, said it would be part of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), which she was president of last year. The program paired any female freshman interested in the school with female upperclassmen on a similar degree path, Statz said. Boldridge said the 16 participating mentors give advice on extracurricular activities and student life, as well as offer tutoring for classes.

Rachel Robinson, Overland Park freshman and one of the students Fitzpatrick is mentoring, said they have already met multiple times this semester.

“She helped me plan out the next four years, including summer school,” Robinson said. “I’m so grateful for it. Without that, I’m pretty sure I’d be kind of lost.”

Heather Weed, Topeka senior and current SWE president, said the program was just one of a variety of new efforts this fall in the School of Engineering to make current and prospective female students feel more welcome. She said that this year she wanted to use SWE to promote engineering to high school women and help put those already involved in the program in touch with employers.

“I really want to make it go somewhere,” Weed said. “It can do so much to help women in engineering. It can be a unifying group to let us help each other.”

Weed said she made the decision to switch her major to engineering after receiving inspiration from female friends she met on a summer study abroad program in Germany after her sophomore year.

Weed said she recognized that studying engineering could be more intimidating for women without the support she had.

“We can’t reach out to enough girls,” Weed said. “You have to be strong and confident in yourself to be an engineer. It’s kind of that kind of field. For one reason or another, women don’t see themselves as being able to make it.”

But the women who have opted to study engineering have been doing fine. Jill Hummels, public relations director for the school, said the average grade point average of female graduates in 2007 was virtually the same as the male graduates. Last year, women made up 20.3 percent of undergraduate engineering students at the University, according to the KU Academic Information System. The School of Business had the second lowest percentage of female undergraduates¬– 37.6 percent– and the School of Social Welfare had the highest at 91.2 percent.

Boldridge predicted that the percentage of female undergraduate engineering students this year would drop down, between 19 and 20 percent, but she said she hoped reaching out to high school students this year would help bring the figure back up.

The University of Kansas isn’t the only university in the state trying to strengthen its female engineering community. Kansas State University, where women account for between 12 and 13 percent of undergraduate engineering students, has also implemented programs for attracting and supporting female engineering students, said Kimberly Douglas-Mankin, director of the Women in Engineering & Science Program.

“We have a pretty extensive set of programs at K-State,” Douglas-Mankin said. “What we’re doing right now is we’re looking at specific programs and whether those programs have an impact.”

Fitzpatrick said she hoped the new KU mentor program would have a positive impact on both current and future female freshmen in the School of Engineering.

Even though the percentage of women in engineering at the University has remained fairly consistent, Fitzpatrick said she thought the extra efforts the school was making this year could help it grow.

“We want to bump our female percentages from 20 to 30 to 40 percent,” Fitzpatrick said. “And I want to be a part of that.”

Comments

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.

Advertisement