Event tries to engineer interest in the science field
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK - Members of the Business and Student Development Club at DeVry University participated in a global networking event in late March.

The National Engineers Week Foundation's 2008 Global 24-Hour Marathon, "For, By and About Women," at the Verizon Corporate Center in Basking Ridge was a women's-only event, designed to connect women from around the world with diverse educational and career backgrounds within the fields of engineering.

There was a series of sessions of Internet broadcasts, workshops and questionand answer periods. Although the North Brunswick students did not watch consecutively for 24 hours, they still heard the experiences of engineers and scientists from Australia, India, Mexico, China, Africa, Argentina and Europe.

Analiese Cartier-Mejia, 23, is a senior student at DeVry. Her degree is in technical management with a concentration in sales and marketing. Because she is interested in how new technology comes into the market every day, the seminar showed her "how you can get a strong hold of a career in technology and engineering. It motivated me to see how strong and courageous [women] are to take a man's role in the work force."

She enjoyed the story of a math teacher who realized teaching wasn't for her so instead pursued a master's degree in engineering.

The only real difference she noticed among all the women was a language barrier, she said. However, no matter what the country, Cartier-Mejia said that "women's rights are about the same."

"I thought sometimes they can have different cultures and different social factors and I thought that would stop them, but they're more out there than us and nothing will stop them.…And they're encouraging women to … do more and take action in life," the Edison resident said.

Timamu Wilson was also empowered by the event, especially since she is an adult student returning to school after 10 years in human resources. Now pursuing a degree in science and technical management with the goal of opening her own professional development center, she said she was inspired by "seeing young women from all over being interested" and by the "faith girls in America, and globally, continue to have in their careers."

Wilson said it was interesting to learn about the products made in the United States that are sold globally, and that customer service training across the world is similar because a person asking about a product sold here may reach a representative overseas.

She said she also learned about new patents and how certain products cannot be accessed elsewhere because of limited natural resources.

On a personal note, she said as a 34- year-old businesswoman with a husband, she heard from other women that "There will be pressing times, but I have to put a line between family and business."

The Bayonne resident also said the conference helped strengthen her resolve "to keep going, to keep striving to get to my goal … and keep with the flow of technology in the world,"

According to Forough Ghahramani, the dean of business programs at DeVry, this aspect is especially important because females tend to shy away from science and technology.

"The issues are based more on cultural factors, I believe," she said. "It is a result of external influences, including a lack of confidence, biased environments, lack of role models and mentors, and discouraging experiences with teachers, peers and curriculum. …Also, the educational environment needs to be monitored to make sure teachers who teach advanced math and science courses are not actively discouraging girls from participating. Also, a guidance counselor may steer girls away from more demanding science and math courses, or direct girls who are good at math into fields such as accounting despite the students' other potential interests."

DeVry is trying to eradicate these instances by providing technology, biomedical, health care and business programs; implementing outreach programs to middle school and high school girls through the HerWorld program; creating a community for students to network with one another; and offering mentoring programs.

"If you really look at how many students are in engineering and technology programs, the percentage is 20-percent female and 80-percent male. If you look at the global economy for the United States to remain competitive…we really need to get more girls interested in engineering, science and technology. If we compare the growth rate of jobs in these areas to the number of students graduating … the interest level and participation of students in those [fields] have leveled off," Ghahramani said.

"For us to remain competitive with the rest of the world, we need to encourage more women into this field," she said.