October 6, 2006 Source: :
http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4783 Go Eng Girl engineering
awareness event to be held at UW on Oct.
14 WATERLOO, Ont. (Friday,
Oct. 6, 2006) -- Go Eng Girl, an annual event seeking to encourage young
women to become interested in engineering, will be held at the University of
Waterloo on Saturday, Oct. 14. It's part of a provincial initiative at universities offering programs in
engineering to host these events for girls in Grades 7 to 10. "The goal of the event is to show the wide range of undergraduate programs
and careers that are available in engineering and to encourage young women
to consider studying engineering," said Devon MacDonald, one of the event
organizers with UW's faculty of engineering. "We want to help young women and their parents understand what engineering
is all about and how you can make a difference in society by studying and
practising engineering." She said the event is one way for universities to spark the interest from
women in the field of engineering. "We find that many women are tapping out
of the math and sciences early in high school so we want to help them
understand that exciting options, like engineering, exist for them later if
they stick with it." It is open to students and their parents/guardians. Last year, 88 young
women participated in the event, along with 81 parents. MacDonald expects
more than 200 people to attend this year. The day begins at 10 a.m. in the J.R Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall with a
keynote address by Susan Tighe, UW professor of civil engineering and
associate director of UW's Centre for Pavement and Transportation
technology. The address will be followed at 10:40 a.m. with "hands-on" activities so the
students can understand, through experience, what engineering can be and how
it is a caring profession. As well, those in Grades 9 and 10 will have a
mentoring session where they can talk in small groups with a current female
engineering student. Parents and guardians will be able to hear a series of
speakers. At 12:45 p.m., there will be a lunch, which is provided to participants, as
well as an information fair featuring student groups, admissions information
and engineering corporations. The participants can visit different booths
for information related to women and engineering. Participants must pre-register on the website www.ospe.on.ca/ goenggirl as
there is no on-site registration available. For more details about UW's event, visit link
admissions/Admissions/GoEngGirl.htm. Parking is free in Lot A.
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