Women in Engineering club hopes to increase numbers


Julia Pitz, Business Manager

Many women struggle to be heard when it comes to being involved in engineering fields. Technology teacher David Sander works to assist these women in getting involved.

“A lot of research has gone into figuring out why that might be the case,” Sander Said

Sander works to figure out why that is the case even when women show interest in engineering.

“One of those reasons is the fact that women might feel somewhat intimidated by being in a classroom with a bunch of guys who tend to be a little bit more assertive,” Sander Said

As of right now the club is at its beginning stages where they hope to have more girls join.

“Currently there are five girls but having 10 or more people would be nice because there is a lot of work to do,” sophomore Kate Lawhorn said

Despite the name “women in engineering club”, the club explores other fields as well.

“This club is not just engineering. It could be architecture, design, or anything that deals with the STEM areas” Sander said

The girls have already finished a special project that involves a female-only competition.

“The idea is that the students are going to go to a competition where they need to take a dead remote controlled (RC) car battery and charge it up with a solar panel and then they race in an endurance race against other high schools” Sander said

The club has been hard at work to ensure success at the competition.

“The past two months we were working with the STEP project (sustainable, transportation, education, and program). Basically the students who were involved with that would come in and either work on the solar panel for a charging system, learn to maintain and fix some of the RC cars we have, to learn how to use the battery chargers, learn and understand the electric drive train on a car” Sander said

Sander explains the importance to encourage female interest when it comes to engineering

“When you look at the two different genders women tend to be more creative and better planners, where they tend to map out their progress,” Sander said “Those two things are highly sought after in engineering.”