Student organization plans program for high school girls

Kelly Foster, a Wayne State University mechanical engineering major, wants to make things right. She and the other 27 members of her student organization, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), believe that even though her school ranks among the top in number of female engineering graduates, it is not enough.

Kelly Foster

So Foster and her group are wooing promising high school students to Wayne State's College of Engineering with a special daylong program later this month.

Participants will meet female faculty members, including Cynthia Bir, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and the lead scientist on the popular show, Sports Science, on Fox Sports Network.

Women's positions in engineering have come a long way since the 1950s when a female engineer was rare. The progress has been due in great part to the efforts of the national SWE organization. But Foster, this year's SWE student chapter president, says engineering is still a man's world. She feels it in engineering classes where male classmates significantly outnumber females, and industry experiences that provide few female colleagues and mentors.

"The only way to improve this situation is to train more females for the workplace," Foster says.

Supported by a $1,800 grant from SWE and ExxonMobil Foundation, Future SWE!, the Wayne State SWE section's program for high school girls interested in a career in engineering was conceived, designed and organized by these college women. These future engineers want to be mentors and to facilitate positive encounters with the college female engineering staff as well as educational programs, including the high-tech labs in the new Marvin I. Danto Engineering Development Center.

Foster and her fellow SWE members want to show high school girls what could be in their future. The high schoolers will see, for example, a world-renown smart sensor lab, and learn about other research and development taking place at the College of Engineering, which is producing alternative energy technologies that are helping the state of Michigan turn the corner toward becoming an economic engine once again.

Future SWE takes place from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, on the Wayne State campus. For a schedule of activities and registration, visit: https://events.wayne.edu/rsvp/futuresweprogram/

For more information, contact Kelly Foster at (586) 713-7649 or swewaynestate@gmail.com