Principal Investigator: Dr. Christine

Project Team: Dr. Tuere Bowles (NCSU College of Education, Adult and Higher Education) and Dr. Jessica DeCuir Gunby (NCSU College of Education, Educational Psychology)

The original scope of the ADVANC-ENG¹ Girls to Women Summit included 40-50 underrepresented minority (URM) girls and their mothers (or other adult chaperones) to attend a day of engineering career exploration. The day was intended to be informative, but more critically, empowering and encouraging. It was an opportunity to meet real women of color who were engineering professors; real women who at one time were girls making a critical move towards an engineering career. The day was intended as a deviation from everyday existence, enabling the girls to take the time to envision themselves in the future, just like the faculty present, and for daughters and mothers to connect or re-connect to forge an alliance to sustain them through the challenges they will face as women in engineering. The prevailing Summit goal was to attract girls at a critical stage in the K-12 pipeline to engineering careers. The profession could benefit from the addition of them in the future and the girls could also benefit from the varied opportunities the profession holds. The response to the call for applications was far greater than anticipated. Well over 125 applications were received from students in North Carolina (primarily the Research Triangle Park area). In an attempt to include and impact as many girls as possible, the scope was adjusted and additional funding was obtained to accommodate 70 girls and their mothers.