Women's Mentoring Program

Getting the Word Out that Engineering is for Everyone  

Drs. Shihui Shen and Jennifer Adam met with students at SWE faculty tea.

Come up with solutions to the most critical and challenging problems of our time in energy, the environment and health. Improve lives. Make money. Best of all, find a job after graduation, even in a difficult economic climate.

But, mention engineering as a field of study, and almost half the population runs the other direction. Engineering remains one of the most segregated fields.  WSU, for instance, is inline with national statistics, with approximately 15 percent of certified engineering students who are women.

“We are underutilizing half of the population -- at a time when we particularly need engineers to address the critical issues of our time,” says Candis Claiborn, dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture.

Working to attract and keep students – especially women -- in engineering, the College of Engineering and Architecture has started a mentoring program that matches students with women engineers in the field.

The program matches freshmen engineering students with a practicing engineer who is a woman from their hometown. The aim is for the mentor and student to keep in touch throughout the college years, says Cara Poor, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and advisor for the WSU Chapter of the Society for Women Engineers (SWE). The mentor is meant to provide support and answer questions about the engineering field as well as to help students see how what they’re doing in their classes relates to what they may want to do in their careers. Mostly, she says, the mentor serves as a way for a student to connect with the engineering community. 

The mentors and students communicate via e-mail throughout the year. Then, during school breaks, the students and their mentor meet. The student may do a job shadow for a day, tour a facility, or simply meet with her mentor for coffee. Last year, 38 students participated in the program.

And, is it making a difference?

“Well, I don't know what to say except that I wouldn't have the future career path I'm on right now without the mentorship program,’’ says Samantha Damiano, a junior in electrical engineering. Damiano met her mentor, Marla Greenlund, an analyst at Lee & Hayes, a law firm specializing in patent law, through the mentorship program.

“When I went to the mentor luncheon, I had never heard of patent law before. The idea of combining my interest in English as well as engineering and law was fascinating to me,’’ says Damiano. “ After Dr. Poor paired me with Marla, I had a great source of information on the possibilities of the patent law and how to go about becoming an agent.’’

In addition, Damiano says she has received critical support and encouragement from Greenlund as she has navigated being one of just a few women in several difficult classes.

The program is supported through a gift from Gary (’68, ME) and Sandy (’69, ME) Fryer. Sandy Fryer has been very active in the College of Engineering and Architecture for a number of years, and she currently serves as a member on advisory boards both for the College and for the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. When she was a student attending WSU, Fryer recalls that several mechanical engineering professors served as mentors for her, and she is now participating in the program as a mentor.

“I don't believe I would have made it through the program without their encouragement,’’ she says. “I would like all engineering students, but particularly women, to have the support of a mentor.

“I hate to see young women miss out on all the potential benefits of having an engineering degree because of stereotypes that make it seem uninteresting to them,” she adds.  “The range of opportunities for engineers is so diverse that there is a job out there that would interest almost every woman entering college this year.

The program came about with the unique opportunity presented when Claiborn became dean, one of just a few women deans of engineering colleges in the U.S. While encouragement of students needs to start in middle school and continue through college, starting the mentoring program at WSU was the best way to provide an immediate difference in helping to retain students, says Poor. The WSU student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) participated in planning the project, and a letter was mailed to engineering alumni asking for volunteer mentors. The response was “tremendous,’’ says Fryer.

The program is among a number of efforts that the college has undertaken to attract and retain students, especially women.

Earlier this month, the college also held a faculty tea, in which students, particularly female students, were invited to meet with female faculty members in engineering.

Their efforts are starting to pay off. Since 2004, the number of women in the college has increased by 54 percent, and the number of underrepresented minorities has increased by 28 percent.

The program continues to look for mentors and students. For more information, www.cea.wsu.edu/mentorprogram.