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Advocates out to prove girls and math a good mix
(New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 16--The Girl Scouts of Connecticut are collaborating with a national organization to raise awareness about ways girls can achieve in science and math.
Using an $18,000 grant from two national groups, the Girl Scouts will work with the National Girls Collaborative Project to steer more female students toward the areas of science, technology, engineering and math.
By offering networking opportunities to educators statewide, the Collaborative Project hopes to make school officials more aware of programs that can attract young girls to those disciplines and keep them there as they head off to college and into the workplace.
The project, which locally will be called the Connecticut Girls Collaborative Project, kicked off its efforts with a recent conference at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford that attracted about 80 educators.
The group's grant money is provided by the National Girls Collaborative Project and the National Science Foundation.
"We see this as a way to match up needs with resources," said Ellyn Savard, program initiatives manager for the Hartford-based Girl Scouts of Connecticut.
The Connecticut Collaborative has created a Web site to serve as a networking tool and clearing house for information, Savard said. The group is also offering grants of up $1,000 to support initiatives that help advance the goal of bringing more girls into science- and mathfocused fields.
Some efforts to steer young women into those fields are well established.
Choate Rosemary Hall has had a summer enrichment program for girls entering grades 7 through 9 -- The Math/Science Institute for Girls -- for more than a decade, said Mary Verselli, director of strategic marketing and communications for the private prep school.
But more programs that expose young women to the range of technical careers available to them are needed, said Jayne Douglas, vice president of development operations for Pfizer Pharmaceutical's global research and development unit in New London.
"I was very lucky when I was growing up," said Douglas, who was the keynote speaker at the Connecticut Collaborative conference. "I had supportive parents who had a technology background. But not all parents are as supportive or as aware of what's available to their daughters. And as a parent, it's hard to help your child find what is right for them."
Douglas' daughter, a sophomore at Waterford High School, has an interest in working with children, but at the same time has good grades in math and sciences. Douglas said she has tried to make her daughter aware of careers that might play to both her strengths and her passion for working with children.
"There are a variety of pediatrics fields, like medicine and speech," Douglas said. "She could design buildings for children. Recognizing the breadth of opportunity out there is sometimes hard for kids."
During the conference, participants took part in workshops on obtaining grants as well as classroom strategies designed to keep girls engaged in science, technology, engineering and math courses.
Michele Dischino, an assistant professor of technology and engineering education at Central Connecticut State University, said the type of subject matter is an important factor in keeping young women interested in the sciences.
"It has to be something we're interested in," Dischino said. "It's not a coincidence that bioengineering has a 50-50 split between male and female students."
Among the participants in the ConnecticutCollaborativeconference were representatives of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven.
The station is looking to establish a mentorship program for middle school girls from urban schools and underprivileged environments, according to Tess Foley, grants and contracts manager for the New Haven-based state agency. Officials at the experiment station are hoping to launch the internship program at the start of the 2009-10 school year and are seeking funds, Foley said.
"It's designed to introduce the girls into what it's like in a real world environment," she said. "And at the same time, it would provide the girls who participate with an impressive credit on their resume when they prepare to apply to colleges."
Josh Bohmier, assistant project manager for overnight programs at Mystic Seaport, attended the conference looking for ways to raise the profile of some of the science-based programs offered aboard the Joseph Conrad, a refurbished 1882 square-rigged sailing ship.
"We have some programs that are not being promoted in such a way that people who might benefit from them know about them," Bohmier said. "I'm looking for ways to change that."
To see more of New Haven Register, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nhregister.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, New Haven Register, Conn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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