Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!agate!mhnadel@gryphon.cts.com
From: mhnadel@gryphon.cts.com (Miriam Nadel)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: responses to career days etc.
Message-ID: <12001@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 10 Jul 88 17:53:53 GMT
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I missed the original article (having been off on a business trip) but I
gather Marla wanted advice on high school visiting programs.  I've been 
involved for the past two years in a program sponsored by AMITA (Association
of MIT Alumnae), SWE (Society of Women Engineers) and AWIS (American Women
in Science); we're being joined by the Caltech Alumni Association in planning
for fall visits and Harvey Mudd College has also expressed interest.

Our focus has been on visiting inner city schools throughout the Los Angeles
area.  The usual visit is to a 10th grade math or science class; this is the
last year the students are required to take math or science so we're catching
them at a critical time.  In addition, we've found that younger students aren't
thinking yet of the future so tend to pay less attention.  Some schools will
set up assemblies for girls only which we prefer as the girls tend to ask
more questions if there aren't any boys there.  Some schools prefer having us
talk to their career guidance class (a peculiar California phenomenon) which is
less desirable in general.

We try to have teams of 3 women visit 2 or 3 classes at a school (essentially
2 hours) and aim to have a balance of professions (still within science/
engineering for the most part) and a balance between married and unmarried
women with and without children so we can discuss how people balance career
and family.  A typical visit involves each member of the team talking for
about 10 minutes about her career and how she got where she is.  Then we open
up the floor to questions and faint from the shock if there are any :-)
Usually more questions come from the teachers than from the students.  We also
try asking the students questions about what they want to do.  Talking about
money is a good motivator for them too :-).

How successful are we?  One of my friends from the program saw a news telecast
a few months after she had visited a school.  The news team was talking to
students and asked them what they wanted to do when they "grew up"  (a
phrase I suspect most high school age kids hate).  One girl said she 
wanted to be a civil engineer and when the newscaster said, "Gee that's an
unusual goal for a girl; how did you decide that?" replied that a woman from
MIT had visited her school and talked about it.

BTW, if anyone in the greater LA area is interested in volunteering, we'll be
visiting some schools in the fall and you can send me e-mail for more info on
getting involved.

Miriam Nadel

-- 
"This letter is meant to impress, not to put him at his ease.  We must have
long words."                              -E.C.Bentley
mhnadel@gryphon.CTS.COM    !gryphon!mhnadel