UW mentors reach out to high school girls interested in math, science, technology

By Steve Hill
University Week

Several curious high school students will visit the UW campus later this month. Their goal - to learn about lotion.

Making Connections, a program sponsored by the UW Women’s Center, will bring about 100 area high school students - mostly minority girls - to campus on Saturday, Jan. 20 where many of them will go hands-on into hand lotion. The workshop is one of several this academic year associated with Making Connections. The purpose, according to program coordinator Carmen Goldsmith, is to expose the students to career opportunities in math, science and technology.

“For the longest time there’s been a glass ceiling for women trying to break into these fields and now the opportunities exist,” Goldsmith said about the program that is targeted at but not limited to high school girls. A handful of boys also participate. “I always tell the students to take advantage of everything that’s available to them, especially when they’re trying to decide which path they want to take for their educational career, as well as their professional career.”

Tiffany Myles gets a look through the microscope as several other girls wait their turn during a hands-on lab session of the Making Connections program. UW Women’s Center Photo

The program has a three-pronged approach to help guide students down that path. First there’s the hands-on approach intended to pique students’ interest in the fields that have for so long been dominated by men. Second, there’s a college-preparation component. Students learn how to manage their time, how to pick a college or university and how to apply to that school. Finally, students in the program pair up with a mentor, who offers support on an ongoing basis.

The idea for Making Connections occurred during an informal discussion between Women’s Center Director Sutapa Basu and her board members. “The board members were talking about their daughters and the daughters’ education and somebody asked, ‘Is anybody doing any work like this, particularly with girls of color?’ The answer was no,” Basu recalled recently.

But there’s definitely a need. In fact, there’s a cavernous gap between the number of men and women studying and working in math, science and technology. According to numbers provided by the Women’s Center, only 16 percent of working women are scientists and engineers. The gap is even wider for African American and Hispanic women.

But in just its third year, Making Connections already has some success stories. Three students who went through the program are now pursuing college degrees in math, science or technology. One student is at Yale, another is at Western Washington and one is at Clark Atlanta. Another student was so taken by the workshop on surgery, she called Women’s Center board member Pat Dawson and asked if she could spend a day observing in her workplace. Dawson is a surgeon at the Providence Comprehensive Breast Center.

With 40 seniors in the program this academic year, Goldsmith expects very soon to see a big increase in the number of students from the program attending college in one of the three disciplines.

“I’m really expecting some great success stories from this group,” she said. Specifically, she hopes about 75 percent will go on to college and that a third of those will study math, science or technology.

The upcoming lesson in lotion is just one small part of the program, intended to involve students in the intrigue of science. By getting the students actively involved in a scientific pursuit, Basu hopes they will gain confidence and an interest in math, science and technology.

“We’re just trying to make science more accessible rather than an abstract idea,” she said. “We want to make it real for them and interesting and fun.”

But if it turns out that science isn’t the field of choice for the students - who receive a $75 stipend for participating in the program - that’s OK, according to Basu.

“Many of these girls had never entertained the idea of going to college,” she said. “The emphasis for this program is just to plant the seed and encourage them to pursue higher education. I think many of these girls will go on to college and I think that’s how we would define success.”

The mentoring aspect of the program puts the students in touch with a professional who’s somewhat familiar with college life. In addition, many of the mentors can show the students how math, science and technology translate into a career.

One of the Making Connections mentors is Jennifer Hoffman, a program manager in health sciences. Hoffman said the relationship she’s developed with her student during the past two academic years has been beneficial to both.

“I don’t find it to be work at all,” she said. “It’s one of the highlights of my week. I really feel like I get as much out of it as she does.”

Most of the mentors are UW students and Seattle-area professionals. But Goldsmith is hoping for an infusion of UW faculty and staff in the near future.

“We’re always recruiting mentors,” she said. “We have training for potential mentors. We’re not asking them to be a best friend, we’re asking them to expose the students to things outside of their everyday environment.”

That’s been one of the keys to Hoffman’s successful relationship with her student. Just by virtue of working on campus, she said she’s able to point her student in the right direction as she considers where to attend college.

“I know the University and I know where to direct her if she has a question about admissions or other things on this campus,” Hoffman said.

Faculty and staff interested in mentoring a student in the Making Connections program can contact Goldsmith by telephone at 616-2366 or by e-mail at crgold@u.washington.edu.