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\u201cWe have worked for many years with multiply your options and the School of Engineering to make engineering a more interesting and viable career for young women. UConn has the fastest growing percentage of women in engineering of any public engineering school in the country,\u201d Reis said.<\/p>\n
Reis has worked with engineering officials because many girls shy away from science careers even though they have an aptitude. The reasons are as varied as fear of peer criticism, societal pressure to select careers considered more feminine, or just lack of visible role models. Multiply Your Options seeks to combat bias and encourage girls to fulfill their potential by exposing them to women who are enjoying success in STEM careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEighth grade is a big year in their lives. They\u2019re going to high school, picking their classes, and deciding who to interact with. We want to encourage them to be ambitious. To take a chemistry or physics or calculus course, even if it\u2019s an elective. Then they\u2019ve multiplied their options,\u201d said Kevin McLaughlin, the Director of the Engineering Diversity and Outreach Center, which organizes Multiply Your Options.<\/p>\n
McLaughlin said that it\u2019s important to provide role models that are as close as possible to the eighth-grader\u2019s age.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to show them there are undergraduate and professional women in exciting STEM fields who are very successful. If you want them to envision something, there shouldn\u2019t be a quantum leap in age,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The girls take part in a number of fun activities designed to encourage them to consider STEM careers and think scientifically, such as making a robotic hand out of straw. There\u2019s also a portion where they guess the career of young professional women based on the tools they work with. After the girls leave, the undergraduate women have a social networking event with the professional engineers.<\/p>\n Multiply Your Options is part of a larger initiative at UConn Engineering to increase the involvement of women in STEM fields. The Engineering Alumni Office has sponsored four annual Women in Engineering events, and many of the undergraduates who participate in Multiply Your Options come from UConn\u2019s Society of Women Engineers<\/a> chapter. Many of the Society members who participate as undergraduates come back as young professionals. The conference also has a networking event for the undergraduate and professional women to connect. This effort has led to the record growth that Reis mentioned.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/MYO-5-cropped.jpg\")