Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (Girl Day for short) in 2001 was the first national call to professionals to get more girls focused on engineering and technology. The founding partners — the Society of Women Engineers, MentorNet, IBM, the Association for Women In Science, Women in Engineering ProActive Network, and the National Engineers Week Foundation — especially advocated for women engineers to get involved in this effort.
Ten years later, this project continues every year during National Engineers Week, encouraging thousands of women engineers and community members to reach out to more than 1 million girls and young women in grades K–12 to give them firsthand experiences with engineering.
In October, an ad hoc planning group made up of the National Engineers Week Foundation, the National Girls Collaborative Project, and Girls RISEnet hosted a networking and celebratory reception called Celebrate the G in Engineering. Building on the member interest of the event, the group decided to launch the 10 for 10 campaign in connection with Girl Day 2011, and AAUW is joining in on the engineering enthusiasm!
The 10th anniversary of the first Girl Day is today, February 24, and it’s a great opportunity to get involved with girls in your community. The objective of 10 for 10 is to reach 10,000 10-year-old girls with positive engineering experiences in one year. The program will run for 10 weeks and will conclude on Mother’s Day, May 8, 2011. The National Engineers Week Foundation will host a database to collect information and count the number of girls reached.
Here’s how you fit in: AAUW will join nine other national organizations to reach the 10 for 10 goal. So, if your AAUW branch works with girls and engineering programs and is already hosting or is willing to host a program around engineering, please contact stem@aauw.org and let us know how you are getting involved in this project!
Here are some ideas on how to do so:
- Contact a local school and have your branch visit a classroom or perform an activity around engineering — you can find great activities at our partner site www.howtosmile.org.
- Offer to host a special program at your local science center.
- Work with a local Girl Scouts troop to help girls earn technology-related badges.
- Host a role-model luncheon.
- Organize a fun event field trip. Find ideas at www.mydiscover-e.org or www.engineeringsights.org.
- Participate in the Global Marathon for, by, and about Women in Engineering and Technology this March. Find details at www.globalmarathon.net.
- Sign the Engineer’s Pledge on Facebook and “like” our AAUW STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) page while you’re at it!
- Visit these engineering sites and introduce young students to them: www.engineergirl.org, www.gettech.org, www.engineeryourlife.org, and www.wieo.org.
- Enter your activities and 10 for 10 efforts in the National Engineers Week Foundation national database.
- Use the free Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day kit or place a public service announcement in your local movie theater.
Host your events between now and May 8, and let us know about your experiences with Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!
AAUW Dialog 
The Tyler (TX) branch sponsored our 19th “Expanding Your Horizons in STEM” conference for middle school girls on February 26. The engineering department at the University of Texas Tyler and women engineers in our community joined other STEM professionals to introduce 6th, 7th and 8th graders to their careers. As one of the girls said, “I learned it’s a good idea to keep your options open.” This year attendance was down, but we still hosted 100 girls and 10 of their sponsors for an exciting day of exploration.