160 Girls Control Minnesota Skies During 'Flight Night,' July 19
18 June 2000
DEARBORN, Mich. - A pseudo flight team of 160 girls, ages 12-13 tighten
their grip on their remote controls and maneuver airplanes they designed,
molded and manufactured for a maiden flight into Minnesota's blue sky. The
scheduled event is part of the Open House festivities at the University of
St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday, July 19 from 4 to 7 p.m.
Women and minorities will have a better chance at becoming tomorrow's
engineering heroes thanks to a (STEPS) Summer Technology & Engineering Preview
Summer camp for girls, a program funded by the Society of Manufacturing
Engineers Education Foundation (SME-EF).
Randy Maiers, SME Education Foundation director said, "Do you remember
building one of those balsa-wood airplanes when you were young? The STEPS
program shows girls how to build a plane from scratch; casting the mold,
pouring the nose cone and becoming involved in science, math, physics and
technology. Could this change their life? Could they become future
engineers? The Education Foundation is betting that it will."
STEPS is the nation's first coordinated and integrated approach to
attracting girls and minorities into careers in manufacturing and technology.
The tuition-free, summer residential program targets girls and minorities in a
two-tiered approach, first as they enter the 7th grade, and then again in the
10th and 11th grade. The concept of the program is to reach girls early
enough to influence their choices of math, science and technical courses in
middle and high school and prepare them to succeed in college level
engineering programs. Integral are new concepts, ideas, and activities
including manufacturing the product, either the airplane or the rocket
payload.
Minnesota is one of the first states in the country to organize a
coalition of multiple colleges and universities from different educational
systems in a coordinated, technology-based outreach approach. The University
of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., and Alexandria Technical College, Alexandria,
Minn., are hosting the STEPS program targeting 7th grade girls. The
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., is hosting an Advanced STEPS for
girls in the 10th and 11th grade. Over three years, the program will reach
approximately 1,400 young girls. The program was made possible by a $372,000
grant from the Bush Foundation.
SME's goal is to make manufacturing and companies more effective by
developing its workforce -- providing technical information, professional
development tools and access to industry leaders. In tandem, the SME
Education Foundation provides support to the manufacturing community through
the Manufacturing Education Plan and is advancing manufacturing for K-12,
college students, graduates and professionals. The SME Education Foundation
is partnering with industry and education to provide what they need to be
successful.
The SME Education Foundation's mission is to serve the manufacturing
community by providing support for the advancement of manufacturing education.
Since the launch of its Manufacturing Education Plan in 1998, the SME
Education Foundation has made 19 major awards totaling over $4.4 million to
colleges and universities throughout North America including $1.4 million for
the year 2000. Scholarships totaling $246,000, more than any other
professional engineering society in America, will also be awarded in 2000.
Since its inception in 1979, SME's Education Foundation has made cash grants
of over $12.8 million and In-kind grants of more than $80 million to 380
different colleges and universities.
SME, headquartered in Dearborn, Mich., is the world's largest professional
society serving the manufacturing industries. Through its publications,
expositions, professional development resources and member programs, SME
influences more than 500,000 manufacturing executives, managers and engineers.
Founded in 1932, SME has some 60,000 members in 70 countries and supports a
network of hundreds of chapters worldwide.
