Give a helping hand to an inner-city girl with an interest in math and science, and she may one day become a successful engineer, scientist or IT pro.
That's the philosophy behind the Femme program. This summer learning experience has been sponsored annually since 1981 by the center for pre-college programs at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT, Newark, NJ).
Program director Suzanne Heyman notes that about 80 percent of today's engineers are men. NJIT launched Femme to close that gap, she says.
"In high school a lot of girls stop taking advanced math and science," Heyman says. "We decided that if we worked with girls up through tenth grade we could keep them interested and thinking about technical fields."
A program and an academy
The Femme program is for grades four through eight, and the Femme Academy is for ninth and tenth graders. Both sections offer classroom lectures, hands-on lab projects and field trips. Subject matter is divided by age group, starting in fourth grade with environmental engineering and working through aeronautical engineering, ME, ChE and biomedical engineering to EE and computer engineering in the ninth and tenth grades.
Tuition ranges from $800 to $1,000, including books and lunch, but Heyman notes that some school districts will pay it outright for their students. The actual cost is more than $2,000 per student; NJIT and corporate donors pick up the rest.
Start with a good average
Participants need an A or B average and letters of recommendation, and must ace an interview and a placement test. Some forty girls apply in each age group and about twenty-five are accepted.
They had some exciting experiences this past summer, Heyman says. Fifth graders built and launched rockets and simulated a trip to the moon. Seventh graders visited local chemical companies.
Eighth graders, studying biomedical engineering, visited the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation to learn about designing wheelchairs for paraplegics. They also did some dissection, watched open heart surgery by video feed and talked with doctors and surgical staff.
An honest look
All the Femme instructors are science teachers with technical backgrounds; most are women. Heyman notes that the students are given an honest look at the pros and cons of various fields. They discuss gender differences and talk with female engineers on field trips.
National Science Foundation research finds that just 19 percent of the female population goes into engineering, math, science and technology. With nearly two decades of alumnae stats, Heyman is proud to report that 22 percent of Femme grads enter those fields.
"I tell them you have to be prepared, and being female, you have to be better," says ninth and tenth grade teacher Jennifer Ebert.
Meet alum/teacher Jennifer Ebert
Jennifer Ebert graduated from NJIT in 1997 with a BSIE and went on to an MSIE with a focus in ergonomics there. After she got her BS she found a job at Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) deploying software and hardware solutions. In 1999 she left to work as a usability engineer consultant designing websites. In 2001 she began teaching physics at a high school in Kenilworth, NJ.
This is Ebert's second summer as a Femme teacher. She says she observes a vast improvement in the kids' outlook over the five-week course.
"In the beginning they're afraid to ask questions on a field trip. They go on to ask good, penetrating questions, like 'What conditions do you test this under?'"
Her students focus on electrical and computer engineering. "It's difficult to do in five weeks," Ebert says. They practice taking apart electronic toys and old computers to learn about the insides, and also work on a robotics kit.
Once a week there's a field trip. A highlight this year was a jaunt to the Picatinny Arsenal to see what engineers do in the Army and how their work affects the fighting forces.
A class of overachievers
Ebert notes that program participants are mostly from the inner city. The girls have a strong work ethic, she says, and "are overachievers with parents who push them and care."
Some of the girls from the summer of 2004 class are considering engineering degrees. "The good news is they're almost all college-bound. You don't hear a lot of goals for silly careers, like being a music star. They're realistic," she says.
"There definitely will be jobs for them," Ebert believes. "America needs to produce more engineering grads to support the way we like to live as a technological society."
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