There is a shortage of women in the sciences in America. As more than 50% of the students in secondary education are women, we need to increase their interest in and keep them focused on the sciences beginning in the middle school years.
Young girls keep up with boys in the sciences-math, biology, ecology, etc. until approximately middle school when many lose interest and shift to other areas. As more than 50% of the students in our colleges are young women, this problem will be exacerbated unless we can have an impact at a younger age. We need more female scientists in the areas of mathematics, engineering, chemistry, physics, technology and other areas.
We are starting small by funding extra money for equipment for the middle school science classes and then by selecting several young women in their sophomore or junior years in high school and mentoring them in the sciences. This means meeting with them individually to help select courses, to help them with problems in specific classes, and to have them spend some time with women scientists as interns after school or during the summer. Their mentors will also help them with college applications.
We hope that long term we will have sufficient people in the sciences to help our industries succeed, whether it be in bio-medical research, bio-medical engineering, technology for the environment, developing new chemicals for medications or use in agriculture or in other areas of technology
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
