Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mara R. London, Gonzaga University; Jillian Rae Cadwell, Gonzaga University; Alexander Maxwell, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

toolis three-fold, (1) women in engineering study abroad at approximately twice the rate of men4, (2)a desire to support the university’s mission to provide service in remote parts of Africa5, and (3)the opportunity to incorporate into the curriculum a direct connection between engineering andpublic service.Program DevelopmentDevelopment of a quality study abroad program, let alone one in a remote area, requires asubstantial amount of planning and navigation. During the summer of 2010, two civilengineering faculty, one recent alumnus, and one staff member spent five weeks traveling andresearching in communities throughout Zambia, Africa, to investigate program potential. Anassessment of program feasibility was made at three potential sites: the

Conference Session

Engaging Students in Engineering (ENGAGE)

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Staffin Metz, Stevens Institute of Technology; Sheryl A. Sorby, Michigan Technological University; Tricia S. Berry, University of Texas, Austin; Carolyn Conner Seepersad, University of Texas, Austin; Ana Maria Dison, University of Texas, Austin; Yosef S. Allam, The Ohio State University; John A. Merrill, Ohio State University; Wally Peters, University of South Carolina, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Erica Pfister-Altschul, University of South Carolina; Sarah C. Baxter, University of South Carolina; Guangming Zhang, University of Maryland, College Park, Department of Mechanical Engineering; James A. Leach, University of Louisville

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

spatial skill-building through an introductory course, may be just as important interms of their overall success and achievement.III. ENGAGE Schools Discuss Their Approach and Experience of Implementing Spatial Skills Visualization Assessment and TrainingThe first cohort of ENGAGE schools supported by the intellectual arguments, research, dataand professional development provided by Dr. Sheryl Sorby at the ENGAGE StrategyImplementation Workshop in February 2010, developed their plans to assess students’ spatialvisualization skills and implement a training course. ENGAGE provided schools with a numberof electronic resources (see Section IV), technical assistance, and a minigrant. Five schoolsincluding the University of Texas at Austin, The

Conference Session

Panel on Recruiting and Retaining Women and Underrepresented Minority Students

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hyun Kyoung Ro, Pennsylvania State University; Rose M. Marra, University of Missouri, Columbia; Ardie D. Walser, City College of the City University of New York, Grove School of Engineering; Patrick T. Terenzini, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Lois Calian Trautvetter, Northwestern University; Susan M. Lord, University of San Diego

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering

and grouptutoring sessions as well as personal, professional and academic mentoring. Four of our six casestudy institutions also offered “living and learning” communities that used an all-inclusiveapproach to support student retention. For this panel session, we also examined if engineering seniors’ plans to work in oroutside of an engineering profession differed by gender and race/ethnicity. The P2P surveycontains three measures for this analysis, tapping students’ expectations that after graduationthey will: 1) be a practicing engineer in industry, government, or non-profit organization; 2)work in engineering management or sales; and 3) work outside engineering. We found thatwomen students were less likely than men to plan to be a

Conference Session

Reports from ADVANCE Institutions

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Susan Ruth Geier, Purdue University; Chris Sahley, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

femalefaculty, through career coaching. The first coaching cohort of female post-tenure STEM facultybegan in the spring of 2010. Initial reaction was positive and the cohort decided to continue in2010 - 11. Due to popular demand, a second cohort was also established in fall 2010. This paperwill discuss the motivation, implementation, initial assessment, and future plans of the CareerCoaching Cohorts. Evaluation data and participant demographics will be presented.IntroductionWomen have been present in the academy for years, but their numbers remain stunningly low.Much work has been done to increase the number of female professors, especially in the STEMdisciplines where their numbers are the lowest, but the increases have been steady but slow.3Also

Conference Session

Reports from ADVANCE Institutions

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristen P. Constant, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

include the role of the college Equity Advisor, the use of Institutional Researchdata and surveys as a dashboard for progress, and the process of departmental collaborativetransformation. Training activities that have been identified as crucial to sustainability includedepartment chair training, search committee training, and training to avoid systemic unintendedbias. Additionally, ISU has been awarded an NSF Innovation through Institutional Integration(I3) grant entitled “Strengthening the Professoriate at ISU”, (SP@ISU) which includes goals incommon with the ISU ADVANCE program. The plan for transition and institutionalization willbe described and the anticipated challenges discussed.Institutional ContextIowa State University of Science and

Conference Session

Managing Dual-Career Issues

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adrienne R. Minerick, Michigan Technological University; Beena Sukumaran, Rowan University; Jacqueline A. El-Sayed, Kettering University; Donna Reese, Mississippi State University; Brian P. Kirkmeyer, Miami University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University. Her career has spanned industry, academia and state government appointments. In 2008-2009, she was selected an American Council on Education Fellow and completed her internship at Harvey Mudd College with her ACE mentor, President Maria Klawe. Currently she serves as the founding chair of the Kettering University Planning and Assessment Council and treasurer of the ASEE Women in Engineering Division. She is married with three children.Donna Reese, Mississippi State University Donna Reese is a professor and interim head of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Mississippi State University. She has been at Mississippi State since 1989 and served

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Emiko Hirose Horton, Shibaura Institute of Technology; Kumiko Miki, Nihon University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

to basic information such as the ratio ofmale and female students, faculty members, or workers. As for the academic institutions, 24questions were asked including the questions regarding the plans to increase the number offemale students and the support for female faculty members. On the other hand, 31 questionswere asked of the member corporations related to their efforts to improve the workingenvironment for female workers as well as some basic questions such as the ratio of femaleworkers, and present conditions regarding maternity/nursing leave.Ratio of female engineers The number of responses (=14 of 98) received from the member corporations wassmall and not really an adequate number to investigate the present conditions of women

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jorja Kimball, Texas Engineering Experiment Station; Margaret Hobson, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

of women (3.17 GPA) to that of men (3.09 GPA) was statisticallysignificant with a p =.009, with the findings currently under review for use in the College’sdiversity plan metrics. This diversity plan is required by the university and ties to the College’srecruitment plan to increase engineering enrollment of underrepresented students, which includesall women.10, 11 These findings are not unique, since research indicates that women inengineering are well prepared and perform well academically,9, 12-16 but are now documented forfurther study by the College. This continuation study was undertaken, in part, to comparefindings at Texas A&M to recent research on persistence and graduation, particularly for womenand women of color.17, 18

Conference Session

Recruitment & Retention of Women II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth T. Cady, National Academy of Engineering; Norman L. Fortenberry, American Society for Engineering Education; Catherine Didion, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

EngineeringThe Engineering Equity Extension Services (EEES) developed a research-based approach toencouraging more gender equity in engineering, specifically in the mechanical and electricalfields, with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of women attaining baccalaureate degreesin these fields. We envisioned a “train-the-trainer” project based on an extension services model,with our Experts providing research-based guidance on practice to Extension Agents whoprovide practical guidance of “gender-friendly” instructional and outreach practices, informed byresearch on engineering education and project management, to teachers, faculty, and outreachvolunteers. Over the 5-year course of the Project, the original plan evolved into one employingExpert

Conference Session

Recruitment & Retention of Women II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary R. Anderson-Rowland, Arizona State University; Armando A. Rodriguez, Arizona State University; Anita Grierson, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

planning and a career in engineering or computer science?” This question wasrecently asked of university professors who had just visited a non- metropolitan communitycollege where students grow up and are familiar with only two or three careers available in theirarea. Earlier we had tried to talk to community college students by holding a meeting andinviting the students and their parents to come and hear about “exciting opportunities‟ inengineering and computer science. This did not work well. Very few people came. Weassumed that if students and their parents knew this information was available they would come Page 22.1032.2to receive it. We were

Conference Session

Recruitment & Retention of Women II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John J. Duffy, University of Massachusetts, Lowell; Linda Barrington, University of Massachusetts, Lowell; Manuel A Heredia, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, anddemonstrated deeper understanding of subject matter. They found that service-learning is moreeffective over four years and that the messiness inherent in helping solve real community-basedproblems enhances the positive effects  (Eyler & Giles, 1999).Astin et al. found with longitudinal data of 22,000 students that service-learning had significantpositive effects on 11 outcome measures: academic performance (GPA, writing skills, criticalthinking skills), values (commitment to activism and to promoting racial understanding), self-efficacy, leadership (leadership activities, self-rated leadership ability, interpersonal skills),choice of a service career, and plans to participate in service after college. In all measures exceptself-efficacy

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elaine R. Millam, University of Saint Thomas; Ronald J. Bennett, Univeristy of Saint Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

women‟s strength in relationships, they are often organizational connectors, able tobring diverse ideas and peoples together to work together, plan together and build prototypes ofnew possibilities whether in products, in ideas, or in approaches for work design. They have aninnate ability to see connections in ways that reflect systems thinking and functioning. Theyhave a knowing of when something is missing or something is being excluded that needs to bepart of the equation. They are more often than men able to demonstrate an introspectiveapproach, are better listeners, and more collaborative and/or inclusive in their ways ofleading24,25,26.Other commonly noticed female attributes are about seeing through a different lens, bringingforth new

Conference Session

Reports from ADVANCE Institutions

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marisol Mercado Santiago, Purdue University; Alice L. Pawley, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jordana Hoegh, Purdue University; Dina Banerjee, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

participants expressed a limited availability of childcare facilities on-campus.A female assistant professor, case A9, used the metaphor of ―unicorns and rainbows‖ to describehow childcare facilities appear to exist, but in reality either they are rare to find or cannot befound at all. She also noted that there are staff members who help parents locate childcare intown, but without way to assess the quality of those facilities. She suggested that the universityshould have a system to help the childcare facilities plan for additional resources in order to meetthe high demand of these services on campus. Lastly, she felt that twelve weeks of parental leavewas not enough to find suitable child care for her. In the box below, a dashed line was

Conference Session

Reports from ADVANCE Institutions

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Margaret B. Bailey, Rochester Institute of Technology; Carol Elizabeth Marchetti, Rochester Institute of Technology; Elizabeth A. DeBartolo, Rochester Institute of Technology; Jacqueline R. Mozrall, Rochester Institute of Technology; Gina M. Williams, Rochester Institute of Technology; Sharon Patricia Mason, Rochester Institute of Technology; Maureen S. Valentine P.E., Rochester Institute of Technology; Stefi Baum, Rochester Institute of Technology; Steven LaLonde, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

women? 6) How successful are existingstructures at addressing these barriers? Climate survey results, in conjunction with objectivehuman resource data review and benchmarking of policies and benefits against peer schools witha focus on elements that have been tied to potential barriers are used to address each question.This paper explores answers to each research question and summarizes accomplishments madeover the grant period and plans for institutionalizing various initiatives.BackgroundRIT currently employs 95 women tenured and tenure-track (T TT) faculty in the science,technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, or 22.8% of the total STEM TTT faculty (Table 1); this is significantly below the 30.10% represented by the 2006

Conference Session

Recruitment & Retention of Women I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Ayre, University of South Australia; Julie E. Mills, University of South Australia; Judith Gill, University of South Australia

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Page 22.1103.9Intentions to leave the professionApproximately one quarter of both the ATU respondents and the CREW2 women indicated thatthey were likely or very likely to leave their current job in the next 12 months. Of these 13respondents in the ATU group: five (35.7%) responded that they would seek another engineeringposition, three (21.4%) planned to leave the profession, and the remainder were undecided. Incontrast 58.2% of the CREW2 women contemplating leaving their current job planned to seekanother engineering position, 7.6% would leave the profession and 34.2% were not sure.Although this appears to indicate that more of the ATU women are planning to leave theprofession in the future than the CREW2 women, any analysis of these data

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cassandra Groen, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Jennifer Karlin, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Andrea E. Surovek, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

developed various ways of pairing mentors to protégés. Activities such as SpeedMentoring25, personality surveys, and protégé chosen mentors13 have been utilized in forming amore cohesive mentoring pair. Although these pairing mechanisms have assisted programcoordinators in slowly diminishing stated flaws within a program, these flaws are still notcompletely overcome.Myth #2: Informal Mentoring Programs are Always More Effective than Formal MentoringProgramsFormal mentoring is the term used to define a planned mentoring process3. Individuals aregenerally placed together in various mentoring groups and attend scheduled meetings3. Meetingtimes and other scheduled events are logged, and financial costs may be documented to help theinstitution assess

Conference Session

WIED Olio

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jenna P. Carpenter, Louisiana Tech University; D. Patrick O'Neal, Louisiana Tech University; Lori L. Bakken, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

female audiences, efforts to institutionalize programs from thebeginning, and seeking opportunities to build early on-campus partnerships. This paper willreview successes and lessons learned as the project nears its halfway point, including feedbackfrom formative assessments, as well as plans and adjustments for years two through four. Inaddition, the paper contains recommendations on aspects of the program that can be adopted byother institutions.BackgroundLouisiana Tech University is a medium-sized state university with an increased emphasis onhigh-quality interdisciplinary research in key focal areas over the last 20 years. The College ofEngineering and Science emphasizes and utilizes an interdisciplinary, team-based model in allaspects of

Conference Session

Myths About Gender and Race

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peggy Layne, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering

personal path led me from a [university] BS/MS in 1969/70 to industry experience in [state]. After balancing family obligations and career motivation in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I returned to school and received my PhD from [different university] in 1985. My continued commitment to education led me to the newly created chemical engineering department at [another university] in 1986, where I started as an assistant professor just before turning 40.” – Diane Dorland, dean, Rowan UniversitySally Ann Keller gained leadership experience at the National Science Foundation and LosAlamos National Laboratory before becoming dean: “When I look back on my career, I can honestly say I did not spend much time planning

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Maria M. Larrondo-Petrie, Florida Atlantic University; Martha Elicia Beltran-Martinez, Organization of American States, Office of Science, Technology, and Innovation

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Social Development Manager at Owens-Illinois de Venezuela, and in the public sector, as Director of Interna- tional Cooperation of the National Library and Director of Planning and Programming of the Ministry of Youth. She also worked in the Social Planning area at Corporacin Venezolana de Guayana, a regional development agency. She holds a Graduate Degree in Human Resources Planning from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in Paris, France, and M.A. Degrees in French and Spanish from Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. She obtained her B.A. at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. . She can be contacted at: mbeltranmartinez@oas.org

Conference Session

Myths About Gender and Race

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carroll Suzanne Seron, University of California, Irvine; Erin A. Cech, University of California, San Diego; Susan S. Silbey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Brian Rubineau, Cornell University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering

about essentialism, meritocracy, individualism,and exceptionalism trump the opportunity to take a feminist critique to its logical conclusion.We end by exploring the irony of their simultaneous adherence to and rejection of feministcritiques of engineering.IntroductionAt each career stage, engineering is persistently white and male.1 Whether in the classroom2,3 orthe workplace,4,5 research continues to show that women confront a “chilly climate”6,7 wherethey experience token status.8 At the stage of credential acquisition, where engineers encounterprofessional socialization for the first time and earn their degree, research has also shown thatthis climate has consequences for women‟s career plans, whether measured by the likelihood oftheir

Conference Session

Recruitment & Retention of Women II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna Milgram, National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Sciences (IWITTS)

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

school(s)The leadership team and all program instructors receive WomenTech training on recruitment andretention and participate in development of a strategic plan, which is updated annually. The keyleader, co-leader, and sometime other members of the leadership team meet with IWITTS on thephone once a month for an hour—for coaching and assistance on strategic plan implementation.Between calls, assistance is offered by IWITTS to the colleges via in-kind support—and rangesfrom development of marketing collateral such as posters to additional follow up sessions onretention training to instructors on-site. Annually all of the colleges come together for a one-dayProject Partner Meeting to share their successes and strategies with one another. In the

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aura Tuulia Paloheimo, Aalto University, School of Science and Engineering; Kaisa Pohjonen, Aalto University; Pirjo Helena Putila

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

] …”At some point of the senior year in high school, I simply decided that I will become a medical doctor or an engineer. I didn‟t know which I‟d like better or did I like either actually, but a decision had to be done and I applied for both.”…It is also interesting that there can be seen a tendency that majority of male students decidetheir preliminary plans for future earlier than female peers. Over a half of the sample groupwomen, who covered the issue in their narratives, wrote that they had started the decisionmaking process concerning their future earliest during earliest the last two years beforematriculation: females appear to keep other options open until they are either forced to decideor drift into the field of

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lorelle A. Meadows, University of Michigan; Denise Sekaquaptewa, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, while male students were more often presenting moretechnical material. This observation led to the development of a research plan to assess whetherthis gender difference did indeed exist in student presentation groups, and what implications thismay have on active participation.Research MethodologyThere were two primary components to this research investigation. The first involved asystematic investigation of the roles adopted by students as a function of students’ gender andthe gender composition of their presentation group in the videotaped presentations. A codingscheme was developed for analysis of the archived videotapes of the group project presentations.Two independent judges were trained on the coding scheme and each judge evaluated each

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Silvia Carreno-Castillo, Universidad de las Américas, Puebla; Aurelio Lopez-Malo, Universidad de las Américas, Puebla; Enrique Palou, Universidad de las Américas, Puebla

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

“attribution of selected characteristics to an institution(i.e., to its practitioners, methods, stock of knowledge, values, and work organization) forpurposes of constructing a social boundary that distinguishes some intellectual activities asoutside that boundary.Faculty members expressed a clear idea about the types of intellectual and collaborative “work”done within their own department in order to contribute to the goals or expansion of their“disciplinary space”. A full professor described the strategic planning that his department hadengaged, and used in a first year class that works at the same time theory, modeling andlaboratory experiences by means of specific design projects: “At the beginning it was difficult to believe that students

Conference Session

Recruitment & Retention of Women I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew J Miller, University of Maryland; Robert Lent, University of Maryland, College Park; Paige E Smith, University of Maryland, College Park; Bevlee A. Watford, Virginia Tech; Gregory M. Wilkins, Morgan State University; Matthew M. Jezzi, University of Maryland; Kayi Hui, University of Maryland, College Park; Robert H Lim, University of Maryland, College Park; Nicole A Bryan, University of Maryland, College Park; Helena Mimi Martin, University of Maryland, College Park

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

underutilized as a wellspringfor STEM workforce development planning. Page 22.1209.2 While it is useful to test SCCT using nomothetic, quantitative methods, it is valuable tocomplement such research with idiographic, qualitative methods capable of elaborating specificself and environmental percepts that could inform educational interventions. For example, priorwork on SCCT has established that social supports and barriers generally have been linked topersistence in engineering majors (largely indirectly, through their relation to self-efficacy), butthe mostly nomothetic research on this issue has focused on global aspects of supports andbarriers

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anna M. Zajicek, University of Arkansas; Shauna A. Morimoto, University of Arkansas; Aparna S. Terdalkar, University of Arkansas; Valerie H. Hunt, University of Arkansas; Joseph J. Rencis, University of Arkansas; Rodica Lisnic, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

of the Cohort 1 institutions, the University of Colorado at Boulder represents themost interesting case. Similar to UW, the University of Colorado at Boulder had recruitmentefforts in place before they received the ADVANCE grant, but in contrast to other strongperformers, its ADVANCE program did not contain any comprehensive set of recruitmentinitiatives. Specifically, in 2001, Colorado reported on the efforts of their Faculty Recruitmentand Retention task force (http://www.colorado.edu/academicaffairs/fac_recruit/findings4.html).Further, in 2003, Colorado’s engineering college implemented a Strategic Plan for Excellence,which included efforts to “hire outstanding and diverse candidates through targeted recruitment,competitive salaries and

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa M Frehill, National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

soonas possible, J. Stanford Smith, a Vice President of General Electric in 1972 stated the logicbehind this need succinctly: [I]t takes fifteen to twenty-five years for people to rise to top leadership positions in industry. So if industry is getting one percent minority engineers in 1972, that means that in 1990, that’s about the proportion that will emerge from the competition to the top leadership positions in industry….(J. Stanford Smith, Page 22.1085.6 speech at Engineering Education Conference, June 25, 1972, quoted in The Planning Commission for Expanding Minority Opportunities in Engineering

Conference Session

Reports from ADVANCE Institutions

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jan Rinehart, Rice University; Eden B. King, George Mason University; Mikki Hebl, Rice University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

(1.95 inNatural Sciences; 2.08 in Engineering, 1.8 in Humanities, and 1.68 in Social Sciences). Womenalso reported higher quality mentoring than men across all the schools.Expansion of MentoringThe Provost has placed faculty mentoring as a high priority at Rice University. As such, thedepartment chairs and deans are developing a plan concordant with their faculty and perceivedneeds to meet this clear mandate for mentoring — and this priority is being reinforced both fromthe highest levels of the institution and from the faculty. In response to the Provost’s request formentoring, the ADVANCE Program developed a Department Grants Program in summer 2009.ADVANCE and the University leveraged resources to fund six grants totaling $23,400.Although the

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Natalie Fabert, Arizona State University; Marilyn Cabay, Ph.D., Argosy University, Phoenix; Melissa B Rivers, Arizona State University; Mary Lee Smith, Arizona State University; Bianca L. Bernstein, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Page 22.660.2of their dropping out or dropping down is vital for planning ways of promoting retention andsuccessful degree completion.The background characteristics of students (such as grades and grade point average) have notproven to be helpful in predicting student persistence in graduate school.10 Claims that womendo not persist in STEM because of innate or inferior abilities are unfounded. [6, 11 for review]Researchers have turned attention to the role of the department and academic environment in thehigh attrition rates of doctoral students.[e.g. 12, 13]Isolation in graduate schoolThe limited literature on the graduate student experience depicts an academic and social climatethat is at best contradictory to female socialization, and at

Conference Session

Myths About Gender and Race

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alice L. Pawley, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jordana Hoegh, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering