ERIE, Pa. — As the water drip-drip-dripped through a makeshift filter — a paper towel, some pebbles and a cardboard tube, tied together with string — the high-schoolers at Penn State Behrend’s Women in Engineering program experimented with different setups.
Maybe some more pebbles would help. Maybe the paper towel would be stronger, folded over onto itself.
Women represent less than 25% of the workforce in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To increase that number, said Melanie Ford, director of Youth Education Outreach at Behrend, girls need hands-on access to STEM activities — and mentors who look and sound like them.
Nearly 175 high-schoolers from 32 schools attended this year’s Women in Engineering program. In a series of workshops, they built model pipelines and ball-launchers and analyzed the DNA of a strawberry. The workshops were led by female engineers, including employees of Wabtec, Zurn, Parker LORD and National Fuel.
“They really just want to give back and encourage this generation to explore STEM as a career,” Ford said.
For Laura Wilson, a Behrend graduate who is now enrolled in an early-career program at Wabtec, it helped to have parents who were engineers. They inspired her to make a career change, in her 30s, after working for a veterinarian.
“Showing younger women that they can be a part of engineering is important,” Wilson said. “My mom inspired that in me. My dad was always taking things apart to see how they worked, and having him instill that curiosity in me was key.”
In another workshop, volunteers from Zurn Industries encouraged the high-schoolers to think about their aptitude for STEM careers as they built tensile sculptures with popsicle sticks and dental floss.
“If the engineering process is something that is engaging for you, that’s a good sign,” said Hannah Olanrewaju. She was hired by Zurn in June, after earning a degree in mechanical engineering at Behrend.
She credited her father and an older sister, who also attended Behrend, as mentors.
“I understand firsthand the importance of being able to help people, and especially people who look like me,” she said. “I had that support, and I definitely want to give back. It is so important to keep pushing the narrative that there is room for you in these careers.”
The day’s keynote speaker, Amanda Hinkson, is a software engineer at Wabtec. She fully understood the appeal of the Women in Engineering, or WIE, program: She attended the program when she was in high school.
“I thought that mechanical engineering meant being a mechanic and getting greasy,” she said. “Then I came to WIE. It opened my eyes to what engineering could be.
“I love this program,” she said.
Hinkson develops software that is used to operate locomotives. Her career could have led her in many other directions, however.
“That’s why I love engineering,” she said. “If you are ever bored, there are 10,000 other problems in the world you can solve.”