Engineering Industry Trends in 2014 – Expert Insights for Engineers from Women Deans

6. Why do you think high school students should study engineering?

Cherry Murray

It’s a great way to learn how to design something from scratch and to solve problems – something that is essential for nearly any field you would want to go into in life. You get a good grounding in math, the sciences, and at Harvard, we also stress a strong grounding in liberal arts and humanities. You are incredibly well rounded!

Dr Barbara Boyan

Engineering is demanding, but it is one of the best ways to get a solid education that can lead to a job right after school and is a spring board for further advancement.

Nada Marie Anid

My mission in life is engineering education, and in particular the education of female engineers as evidenced in this story: “NYIT STEMs the Tide”, which highlights all the women in engineering at NYIT, and their likelihood to devise smarter, more efficient, and more helpful solutions to engineering problems. 

It is clear that there is a national engineering shortage and to meet the high workforce demands, engineering deans are actively reaching out to middle and high school students to strengthen the engineering pipeline into college and beyond. At NYIT, STEM outreach initiatives and partnerships abound. Most notable is our “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” event that took place in February 2014 during National Engineers Week. At the event, young girls from the Girl Scouts of Nassau and Girls Inc. of Long Island flew drones with assistance from our engineering students (watch video).

At NYIT I created a High School Showcase Competition in partnership with Connect-to-Tech, designed to encourage girls participation as the criteria requires each team to have a girl amongst its members.

At NYIT, we call attention to targeted programs geared towards the recruitment of minorities and to the need for strong support systems to boost minorities retention and graduate rates.

https://www.facebook.com/PathwaysToCleanerProduction/posts/268056686639485

Our Pre-College Summer Camp offers workshops in Hacking, Robotics, Digital Music, Gaming, and Nanotechnology:

Dr. Candis Claiborn

High school students need to take advantage of their opportunities by taking as much math and science as possible. Then, if they have room in their curriculum, and engineering or computer science courses are available, they might consider taking them.