IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2012 - 39

female, I knew she was right. I had
seen the data showing that not only did
we have a problem with women being
underrepresented in STEM fields, we
also has a shortage of Americans studying STEM in higher education. Frances
had outlined her idea for an event that
would get the Xavier high school students preparing in advance to mentor
middle school girls and encourage
them in STEM before they lost interest.
The event would take on a festive and
encouraging, upbeat atmosphere. After
hearing Frances' plan, I said "Let's
go talk to Sister Joan." Sister Joan
Fitzgerald has been the principal at
Xavier for more than 40 years and she
has never ceased to be innovative and
open to new ideas.
Sister Joan enthusiastically supported the idea and Girls Have IT Day!
was born. We began to plan an event
that would create a structure of mentorship in which the Xavier students would
mentor the middle school girls-leading
to benefits for both groups. We lined up
young Xavier alumni who were working
in STEM careers to come in as guest
speakers and collaborated with Xavier
clubs to design hands-on activities for
our middle school guests.
We started with a young female
speaker working in a STEM field,
Tammy Greasby, who was finishing
up her Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis, in biostatistics. Her talk
was engaging and showed the girls the
different ways they could use math to
make the world a better place-from
studying the cause of tumors in cats
to predicting energy output from wind
farms. Tammy showed the girls' pictures of her friends-active, engaged
young women-working in STEM
fields. She sent the message loud and
clear that, "You can do it, too!" Following her talk, the girls were free
to explore from two dozen different
hands-on STEM activities, such as
using a green screen to create a movie
where they are chased by monsters to
learning about how to calculate the
circumference of bubbles. Our feedback
was extremely positive and a good time
was had by all.

Middle schoolers from across the valley participate in hands-on STEAM activities
facilitated by Xavier students.

We did not keep statistics in our first
year, but I believe that we had almost
300 middle school girls at our first event
on 27 March 2009. The feedback we
received was very positive. Sister Joan
gave us permission to make it an annual
event.
We did not have a budget the first year
but were grateful for our relationships
with local Catholic K-8 schools that we
could call and invite without the expense
of a campaign. A few weeks before the
event, we received a small grant that
enabled us to purchase "goodie bags" for
the event. A week before the event, the

dean of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Dr. Deirdre Muldrum, at Arizona State University, saw our press release
on the IEEE list serve. She instructed her
assistant to call us and offer to help.
We have also received support from
the School of Earth and Space Sciences
at Arizona State University (ASU). As
a result, I am frequently contacted by
professors from ASU looking to form a
partnership for one project or another,
which helps our students make connections to the college experience and we
believe builds a bridge that enhances
their transition to college.

Details of the Girls Have IT Day! catapult activity.

DECEMBER 2012

iEEE womEn in EnginEEring magazinE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2012