Sara Ambry is used to being in the minority: She’s one of four girls in her AP Calculus BC class of about 30 students. That wasn’t the case on Saturday when she was one of 276 young women attending the Society of Women Engineers’ Career Day at Northwestern. The 38th annual event is geared toward female middle school and high school students, who, like Ambry, are interested in math and science.
“What we want to do is expose as many girls to the field as possible and break down negative stereotypes,” said Ellen Worsdall, McCormick’s assistant dean of student affairs.
Career days help McCormick reach out to young women looking to translate their academic strengths in math and science into a career, said Worsdall, who is also the faculty adviser for SWE. About 30 percent of McCormick students are female.
This year was the second-highest turnout in the event’s history. Though many participants live near Evanston, Ambry and her mother drove about an hour from Indiana to attend.
The most important part of the day for participants, Worsdall said, was the chance to interact with female engineers and undergraduates.
SWE invited female graduates of McCormick to serve as panelists for high school attendees. They discussed their experiences majoring in engineering at NU and finding jobs after graduation.
Female undergraduates also gave tours of the labs for various engineering disciplines, offering participants the chance to view demonstrations or take part in experiments.
The biomedical lab showed prosthetic limbs, and the environmental engineering lab discussed ways to reduce algae on a pond, said Claire Boland, outreach director for SWE.
In the chemistry lab, Prof. Eberhard Zwergel, who is well-known for his beach explosion shows, did a demonstration, said Boland, a McCormick junior.
Participants also attended a keynote address given by Eva McGoey, McCormick ’00. McGoey, former SWE president, received her degree in industrial engineering and now works in health care.
McGoey’s speech showed “what you can actually do with engineering instead of working in an engineering firm,” Boland said.
SWE invited McGoey to speak because she could prove there are multiple options for women engineers, Boland said.
Julia Slezak, a high school freshman, is strong in math, and her parents said they thought she should learn more about math- and science-related careers.
“We admire the outreach that women’s engineering does,” said Kathy Slezak, Julia’s mother.
Worsdall said she got a lot of positive feedback from the middle and high school students throughout the day who were excited to see they aren’t the only ones interested in the field.
“They thank us for providing the opportunity to meet girls who are also interested in math and science,” she said. “We want to build a sense of camaraderie because a lot of the girls here are the only girls in their calc class.”
Ambry said the day made her more determined to pursue a career in engineering.
“(This day) is an incentive to go into engineering and say, ‘Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t do this,'” she said. “To be exposed to engineering and see what it offers … and talk to a few people was a great opportunity.”
