'My best student is female'

This year, there are a total of 47 students in the Principles of Engineering classes, but only 10 are females.

For Principles of Engineering and physics teacher Ray Radlinsky, this disproportionate number of female participation has always been a problem in the engineering electives.

“It's a stereotype that in science, there’s guys with big lab coats,” he said. “I'll tell you my best engineering student is a female, and I think that's wonderful, so we would like to improve, but it's hard.”

Radlinsky and the other engineering teachers who teach freshmen are reaching out to middle schools and freshman-dominated STEM classes every year to talk about the engineering electives and recruit future students.

“It hasn’t proven to be the most effective, but I can’t think of a better way,” Radlinsky said.

“If other women that were in engineering chatted with their friends and said they should take digital electronics next year, that might help better get the word out.”

Although Radlinsky said that the number of female students in his engineering electives is better than the national average —10%-15% of the STEM workforce is female — he said it is “nowhere near” where he would like it to be.

“Any career path that doesn't show the participants in that career path and isn’t matching the demographics of the general population means there's a lot of talent that could be missed,” he said. “There are a lot of other demographics I can think of that even make up 0%.” y said that for any students carrying concerns or questions about the Principles of Engineering classes, they are free to drop by his classroom at J201 and talk to him at any time.

From the students Schremp has talked to, what is important in recruiting more female students is that they have the support of friends and teachers who have similar backgrounds to them.

“We need to continue to recruit teachers who represent a diverse field, as well as encouraging students to try it,” she said. “If you're a little bit concerned, come talk to the teachers because there's always a class we can find that will work for you. It's never too late.” said. “There is no experience long as people are creative engineering and robotics student all pursue a future in STEM. She is engineering design and developengineering and was pushed to the grew, so did her passion. robotics and the engineercan actually be fun to work new design,” she said. being in the field, but there is a wide gender gap among her engineering classmates.

“When you go into an engineering class there's always gonna be those four girls that are there and then the rest are guys,” she said. “So in the beginning you're always stuck with those girls because there's just so few of them, and it’s off-putting because it feels like there's no one there that you know.”

Though she said that more women are becoming involved in STEM, the gender participation gap is still prevalent. Vasant said the number of female students in her engineering class has decreased over the years, possibly due to elective credits and lack of promotion among girls.

'“Most people are trying to get credit for engineering or college electives, so they take those at the very beginning, which makes the people actually interested in engineering dwindle down,” she said. “And for girls…it's hard to get their attention in seeing how cool it can actually be.”

Vasant plans to major in aerospace engineering with the goal of being a mechanical engineer and building spaceships. This has been a goal of hers