Summer Camp Gives Girls a Glimpse of the Engineering World

Akron, Ohio, June 7, 2002 — Eighth and ninth grade girls will discover that engineering can be fun and being smart is cool at G.R.E.A.T. — Girls Rule @ Engineering and Technology Summer Camp for Girls — being held June 17-21 at The University of Akron's College of Engineering.

The University's Women in Engineering Program (WIEP) will conduct the program in partnership with the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center. The project is designed to introduce young girls to the myriad of opportunities for women in the fields of math, science and engineering.

Twenty-five girls from Cuyahoga and northern Summit counties will participate in on-campus activities and field trips to a chocolate factory, a polymer industry facility, an engineering design firm and a defense systems facility.

Camp projects include building model roller coasters, hands-on activities in the University's Polymer Science and Engineering Building and Smart Materials Lab, and designing and racing a small car built out of edible materials.

Lin Nugent, coordinator of Career Pathways at Cuyahoga Valley Career Center, sees the G.R.E.A.T program as a vehicle to help provide the Cleveland and Akron areas with women engineers for the future.

“Too often girls begin to lose interest in math and science in the middle school years,” Nugent says. “We look to programs such as this to motivate young girls in the pursuit of science and math courses and careers.

The University of Akron established WIEP in 1993 to recruit and retain women in engineering disciplines by providing the tools and resources students need to successfully complete their degrees. Since then, the program has grown to include outreach programs, student and professional mentoring programs, orientation programs, and community-based activities like engineering day camps for girls.

For more information call Donna Hrko, director of WIEP, at 330-972-7701.

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