Elizabethtown College was recently awarded a Lancaster County STEM Alliance (LCSA) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Learning Grant to enhance learning and training opportunities for female high school and college students.
The grant will support existing programming that provides high-quality opportunities to female high school students interested in pursuing computer science and engineering careers, as well as offer leadership and professional development for current female Etown students.
“Elizabethtown College has a strong commitment to supporting inclusive excellence and providing access to degrees in STEM fields such as engineering and computer science where women have been historically marginalized,” Elizabethtown College Dean of Elizabethtown School of Engineering and Computer Science Dr. Sara Atwood said.
Funds from the grant will be used, in part, to enhance outreach for the College’s “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event, which invites local high school students to Etown’s campus to learn more about various engineering fields.
Two high school students engage in hands-on activities during March 2023 “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event
Hosted by the College’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE) club, the inaugural event was held in March 2023 with 27 high school students from Eastern Lebanon County, Palmyra, Lebanon, Elizabethtown, Shippensburg, and Penn Manor school districts spending the day on Etown’s campus to learn about engineering through hands-on activities facilitated by members of SWE.
Grant funds will also provide additional scholarships to female high school students to attend Etown’s annual Summer Engineering Academy. The week-long program inspires the next generation of engineers through creative projects, experiments, and demonstrations while exploring the newest innovations in the field and learning about various engineering career paths.
Current and future female Etown students will benefit from the grant through funds that will aid in the travel and attendance costs of a local STEM Women’s Leadership Summit, which will offer Blue Jays leadership development opportunities in their STEM field and connect with the region’s female STEM leaders.
“The grant will help grow our STEM talent pipelines for the school districts, colleges, and employers in Lancaster County,” Atwood said. “This work is critical to the prosperity of our region and has the potential to bring positive change to those community members who have been historically underrepresented in STEM occupations.”
Etown has long been recognized for its efforts to improve access to STEM education, having been named a recipient of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s PAsmart Advancing Computer Science and STEM Education Grant, and being honored through inclusion to the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) Diversity Recognition Program.