Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 24, 1994 TAG: 9402240419
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RENEE SHAFER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"College looks fun, but the classes are hard. They're so long and boring," said Neesha Patel, a seventh grader from Woodrow Wilson Junior High School, who is considering a career in math or medicine.
Patel and six other girls from Wilson joined 10 girls from William Ruffner and Stonewall Jackson middle schools for a day at Roanoke College. The seventh graders shadowed 11 female math and science majors who volunteered to give them a taste of college life and college classes.
"I'm sure it scared them,"said Kendall Emenheiser, a junior physics major. "I took a test in my chemistry class today and got six pages of notes in Numerical Analysis."
The day was organized by "Praise for Girls," a career awareness program run by Roanoke Public Schools. Praise stands for Project Roanoke's Awareness In Scientific Education. The aim was not to scare the girls but to show them there is a place for women in math and science.
"These are fields that very few women have chosen," said J. Gay Carpenter, project director for Praise. "The engineering and medical fields are typically white-male dominated. Not as many men are going into them as they use to and the space has to be filled. Women should know that they can do it."
A survey released by the American Association of University Women in 1992 found that girls were not encouraged to pursue careers in math and sciences.
"Girls don't get into it as much as boys, even though we're smarter than they are," observed Liz Hummel from Woodrow Wilson.
"All my math and science teachers in high school were men," Emenheiser said. "I was lucky to get a lot of support from my family when I decided to get into physics."
Emenheiser made a point of talking to the girls she escorted about careers and options they had in science. She also introduced them to some professors, "so they would know how open and friendly they are."
The program specifically targets girls in seventh grade, at an age when few of them have started to consider a career.
"We call it an early intervention program," Carpenter said. "It's important to influence them as they start making their own decisions about the classes they want to take in high school. Talking to women in college gives them a chance to see the kinds of choices other women have made."
Before coming to campus, Carpenter asked the girls to fill out a questionnaire. She asked them what kind of jobs they could get with a math and science degree. "Some said scientist, but some also said hairdresser and jobs at fast food restaurants. By the end of the day one of those girls changed her answer and told me she wanted to study biology," Carpenter said.
Though many of the girls admitted that they didn't understand most of what went on in the classes, they all agreed that college looked like fun.
"There's more freedom in college,"said Stacy Clark from Ruffner. "The people were nice, and I liked the Cave."
The Cave is a restaurant at the student union. And most girls agreed that the best part of the day was lunch. "It was real food, hamburgers, fries and soft drinks," said Liz Hummel.
"Even if they decide not to go into math or science, I hope that it would at least encourage them to come to college," Emenheiser said.
by CNB