Women in Science Project

Introduction

This program hopes to promote women in sciences by

1. Establishing mentoring programs that connect high school women with college science women and college women with professional women scientists,
2. Making an impression on college students of both genders by providing highly visible examples of successful women scientists, and
3. Creating a forum in which women can discuss gender-specific career issues in science and develop a supportive network.  

Although we hope to create opportunities specifically promoting women in science, this project does not intend to divide students along gender lines.  Rather, we hope to educate and enculturate both men and women on the issues to create a healthy understanding that will spread upward through academia and industry as students graduate from Kutztown University. 

Two-pronged mentoring program – High School Mentoring and Professional Mentoring

The goal of the mentoring programs is to establish a clear communication link for women interested in sciences with experienced people in the next stages of their respective careers.

The High School Mentoring Program pairs high school women with college science women.  This program has the goals of counteracting negative societal programming that undermines self-esteem (e.g., peer pressure to pursue traditional roles), encouraging young women to pursue college educations in science, and empowering them before they get to college so that they are more successful coming into the program.  Many high school students in rural Pennsylvania come from families without college educations, so higher education is a mysterious and potentially forbidding unknown.  Such intelligent young women may not even consider higher education, let alone very exciting and enriching careers in science.  Here, a little bit of knowledge can change an entire life.  Since many high school students are more likely to trust the advice and information from college women with actual experience, as opposed to the "adults" in their lives, the High School Mentoring Program establishes a link between these two groups of young people.  In addition to personal contact between mentor pairs, several social events will bring the group together as a whole, and the high school women will be encouraged to spend the day in college with their college partner for the days we host the Setting an Example Speaker Series.

The Professional Mentoring Program creates a direct, private, and therefore potentially frank and open environment for experienced professional women scientists to discuss potential issues with Kutztown University science students and give guidance on how to deal with problems as they graduate from school out into the working world.  College women graduating in science face daunting questions and would benefit from the support of those who have gone before them.  This program also has potential to establish a network for job leads in industry. 

Finally, we are planning fieldtrips to major museums that would bring together participants in both mentoring programs, thus introducing the high school students to professional women in science through their common friend (the college student).  These fieldtrips are intended to be a social activity that cross-pollinates many mentoring pairs.

“Setting an Example” Lecture Series

The Setting an Example Lecture Series will bring professional women scientist speakers in from industry and academia to present their scientific research.  These talks will be open to the public.  By presenting their science, these scientists demonstrate to the general public that women can be powerful forces in science, thus counteracting traditional, negative stereotypes.  We will also invite two-career couples with families to give some of the presentations, which will act as a springboard for discussing two-career family issues.  We plan to have two speakers each month: one from a local scientific industry and one from a broader, national pool. 
Following the speaker’s scientific presentation, this project would host a pizza lunch to which all science students would be invited.  Gender-blindness of all pizza lunches is important because it helps prevent the perception that the program shows favoritism.

On days that we have speakers, high school students participating in the program will be encouraged to shadow their college student mentors from breakfast through dinner so they get a first-hand feeling for what life is like as a college science student.

Who's invited?  How can I participate?

• Are you a woman in high school in the greater Allentown-Kutztown-Reading area who enjoys your science classes, but doesn't know if college is right for you?
  
  
• Are you a professional woman scientist who would like to lend a helping hand to a someone in the next generation of scientists?

If so, please contact Dr. Friehauf at:


Potential participants will be invited to meet with Kutztown University faculty to identify specific,

Links to great organizations

• Earth Science Women's Network
  
  
• Association for Women Geoscientists
  
  
• American Physical Society - Committee on the Status of Women in Physics
  
  
• American Chemical Society - Women Chemists Committee
  
  
• Association for Women in Science
  
  
• National Science Foundation – statistics for women and minorities in sciences and engineering
  

Recommended Reading

• Biographies
• Sea Legs - Tales of a Woman Oceanographer by Kathleen Crane
• The Octopus's Garden: Hydrothermal Vents and Other Mysteries of the Deep Sea by Cindy Lee Van Dover
  
• Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
  
• Non-biographies
  
• Lynn Margulis
• Symbiotic Planet : A New Look at Evolution 
• What Is Sex?
• Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution
• Acquiring Genomes: The Theory of the Origins of the Species
• Marcia Bjornerud
  
• Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth
• Natalie Angier (not a scientist, but a good science writer)
  
• The Beauty of the Beastly
  
• Woman: an Intimate Geography
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