The 2005 FEMME participants.

Courtney Hughes's brain is filled with algorithms, schematic drawings and big dreams of one day putting all of her newfound math and scientific knowledge towards an engineering career.

While many 15-year-olds look forward to summer for its long and languid days, Hughes, a sophomore from Columbia High School in Maplewood, N.J., is eager for it to start so she can return to an intensive engineering training program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

Hughes participates in the FEMME program, a summer learning experience that has been offered since 1981 by The Center for Pre-college Programs at NJIT. The goal is to close the gap for inner-city girls so that they can one day become successful engineers, scientists or information technology professionals, says director Suzanne Heyman. Heyman notes that about 80 percent of engineers are men, and that students from affluent backgrounds have generally achieved more success in technological fields than those from poorer communities.

Hughes, who started in the program last year, says no matter which engineering field she chooses, she's confident that career opportunities will abound. "In a world of technology, you can adapt to what's changing. There are other fields where it's really hard for people to find work. But with things like science, there will always be jobs, and you will always be able to use your skills," Hughes says.

Changing Attitudes

That's exactly the attitude that Heyman and other instructors hope their young protégés will adopt. All the program instructors are New Jersey science teachers with technical backgrounds. Most are women. Heyman says that usually by ninth grade, most girls stop taking advanced math and science courses. FEMME teachers immerse participants in complex scientific and technological concepts early on so that by the time they reach college age, the knowledge is almost second-nature—and so is the habit of inquiry and learning.

Program participation does seem to make a difference, though a statistically modest one. Nationally, 19 percent of the female population goes into engineering, math, science and technology, according to National Science Foundation research. By contrast, about 22 percent of FEMME alumnae enter the fields, Heyman says.

To try and measure the impact of the program, students are given pre- and post-tests in each subject area. Teachers write evaluations of each student, and the program surveys alumnae every couple of years to see what they are doing.

Nathalie Castillo and Pooja Balsara create a chemical engineering “scavenger hunt” using Hyperstudio software.

A Clear Look at Career Reality

Heyman notes that besides the technological education, students get an honest look at the pros and cons of various fields. They also discuss gender issues in the workplace and are able to have open discussions with women engineers on field trips to real corporate environments.

Tara Alvarez, assistant professor in NJIT's Department of Biomedical Engineering, says the technology job outlook for women is "moderately improving."

"We're not quite there yet, which is why I think the FEMME program is excellent," Alvarez says. "The program encourages girls to investigate the possibilities. They don't necessarily say, ‘This is what I'm going to do,' but they do look into it. They make an informed decision… It's a multi-year camp experience that's interactive and fun."

The program is divided into two groups: the FEMME Program is a day camp for girls in grades four through eight, and the FEMME Academy is for ninth graders who live on the NJIT campus for three weeks. Each subject is taught by one teacher with two teaching assistants—college students, some of them alumnae of the program themselves.

Girls participate in hands-on lab projects, field trips and classroom lectures. While the program ends after 9th grade, NJIT offers 10th through 12th graders a co-ed college engineering preparatory class.

Looking at Tech Careers from Many Angles

Each year the girls go deep with a different subject. Fourth graders have environmental engineering. They look at owl pellets and look at the different bones they have eaten, raise tadpoles into frogs and visit an environmental education center in the Poconos.

Fifth graders, who focus on aeronautical engineering, build and launch rockets. They also visit the Buehler Challenger & Science Center on the campus of Bergen Community College in Paramus, N.J., and get to simulate a moon trip.

Mechanical engineering is the focus for the sixth graders. "We do everything from building bridges out of Popsicle sticks to making roller coasters out of materials they can find," says teacher Tracy Gordon. During the rest of the year, Gordon is a 7th grade science teacher at Roosevelt Middle School in West Orange, N.J.

She notes that before the girls start on a project, she covers topics such as motion, velocity and speed, as well as the potential of kinetic energy. The roller coaster project is a big hit, because the girls get to visit Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, an amusement park in Allentown, Pa., and see how what they've learned applies to the rides.

The mechanical engineering course was Katherine Osorio's favorite. Osorio, a 15-year-old sophomore at Union Hill High School in Union City, NJ, is considering majoring in either mechanical or aeronautical engineering. "Airplanes interest me, because it amazes me how something that size can fly in the air," she says.

Seventh graders learn chemical engineering. Among their activities: a visit to chemical companies such as L'Oreal, where they learn how to make hair dye, and National Starch & Chemical Company, one of the funders of the program.

Biomedical engineering is for the eighth graders. Alvarez says that of the engineering disciplines, women often choose biomedical engineering because "they don't just want a paycheck. On average, they want to have an impact on society and women's health." Brenda Altamar is 16 and one of Osorio's classmates at Union City High School. She has most enjoyed the biomedical engineering year for the same reason that Alvarez stated. "And it's important for women to enter the field, to show we're just as good as men," Altamar says.

For one of the field trips, eighth graders visit Alvarez's lab for the day, where "motor learning" is studied. Motor learning investigates methods and technologies for teaching people to regain motor function, due to a stroke or other event. "We study how the brain works," says Alvarez. "The long-term goal of my work is to...gain insight into how the brain relearns after impairment." Alvarez uses a movement monitor that tracks eye motion, looking for improvement after patients are exposed to various kinds of visual stimuli.

Altamar most enjoyed the day when she got to dissect a cow's heart, because, she said, "it was really similar to a human heart." She's thinking about becoming a surgeon.

Ninth graders in the FEMME Academy study electrical and computer engineering. For their projects, they build robots and program them to perform tasks, such as getting through a maze. Girls also take things apart to learn about circuits—from toys that they find around their houses to entire computers.

Growing Demand, High Standards

Hughes, whose first year in the program was this past summer, enjoyed being the robotic project manager. She also liked watching movies having to do with engineering ethics, like, "I, Robot." "It's cool to be interested in education at a young age and to like math and science," Hughes says.

To get accepted to FEMME, each student has to have an A-B average. She also must do well on a placement test and have three letters of recommendation from a math teacher, a science teacher and a guidance counselor. Each applicant also goes through an intensive interview process. The program accepts 26 students at each grade level; in recent years, about 40 have applied in each age group. Former program participants are given preference for admission.

"Most of them do stay with the program from the fourth grade, all the way through. As long as they keep their grades up, we accept them first," Heyman says. Participants can also opt to come back to NJIT during the school year for Saturday sessions to prepare for the New Jersey Proficiency Tests, as well as the SATs, Heyman adds.

Tuition is $850 per girl per year for the fourth-through-eighth grade program and $1050 for the FEMME Academy, although the cost to attend actually is about $2,000, Heyman says. Some school districts pay tuition outright for their students, but for most students, the cost is born by their families. "Our corporate sponsors, grants and NJIT cover the costs that exceed the tuition,” says Berliner. FEMME is one of six groups in the country to receive an annual $30,000 grant from the Junior Engineering Technology Society (through the U.S. Army Research Office). That funding has allowed Heyman to extend the residential program to three weeks from two weeks, as it was in the past. The grant also allows instructors to buy extra supplies, Heyman says.

Gordon, the science teacher, says she has seen first-hand how the summer program enriches a girl's academic experience the rest of the year. One of her 7th graders is a FEMME participant. "If you ask the girls what they want to be, the sky is the limit for them," Gordon says. "They don't seem to have many hindrances. They don't hold back. They feel honored to be in the program, and they do a great job with it."

Heidi Russell Rafferty specializes in stories about technology and small businesses and is an 18-year media veteran. She lives in Augusta, GA.