Engineers Change the World: A Hands-on Workshop for 13- to 18-Year-Old Girls

The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and The University of Florida (UF) collaborated with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), and Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) to introduce engineering, particularly transportation engineering, as a viable career option for girls. This project used a series of one-day workshops targeted at middle and high school-level girls in North Carolina and Florida. Girls at these levels are taking classes to meet requirements for college admission and they may decide to take more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses if they can see a benefit. Experiential hands-on activities, speakers, role models, and mentoring opportunities served to engage and inspire. An accompanying website was created to help market the events as well as continue the learning experience by providing resources to supplement the workshops. A companion piece to this project is to foster the establishment of a student chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar at NCSU to help provide an additional network of role models for younger girls as well as the student members.