News Release

New Science And Engineering Mentoring Curriculum Aims To Help Meet Industry's Demand For Diverse Work Force

Book Announcement

University of Washington

As the gap widens between industry's demand for a diverse, well-trained work force and the available labor supply, mentoring is becoming an increasingly important bridge to success for women pursuing science and engineering careers.

Good mentoring, that is.

Without adequate training, mentors often encounter difficulties sustaining productive relationships with their young charges and sometimes can reinforce destructive biases and stereotypes. The University of Washington's nationally recognized Women in Science & Engineering Center has developed the first comprehensive curriculum for mentoring training in science and engineering. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, the curriculum will be released for national dissemination on Aug. 3. More than 200 requests have already been received from high schools, community colleges, corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. (See end of release for information on ordering the curriculum.)

"While it's clear that mentoring programs can have a tremendously positive impact on retention of women and minorities in science and engineering fields, it's also clear that many participants don't intuitively know how to make the most of mentoring relationships," says Suzanne Brainard, director of the UW Women in Science & Engineering Center. (The program recently changed its name from Women in Engineering to reflect its growing outreach to science students.) "Our curriculum provides tools to recognize and deal with the dynamic nature of the mentoring relationship as well as with potential cross-gender and cross-racial barriers."

Over the past decade, the UW program has helped increase enrollment of women in science and engineering fields from 15 percent to 23 percent at the undergraduate level and from 6 percent to 22 percent at the graduate level - both well above national averages. In addition, retention of female undergraduate science and engineering students at the UW has grown from 50 percent in 1990 to 74 percent in 1997.

Brainard credits long-standing peer and professional mentoring efforts for much of the success. In fact, the retention rate for UW students who receive professional mentoring is 97 percent, compared to the average retention rate of 55 percent for women in science and engineering programs nationwide.

In recognition of its leadership on mentoring, the UW center was honored at the 1998 Women in Engineering Program & Advocates Network national conference in June. It also has been nominated to receive a 1998 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The awards, to be presented at a White House ceremony in September, recognize outstanding mentoring efforts designed to increase participation of groups who are underrepresented in science, math and engineering.

The success of the UW's mentoring program rests in part on the training it provides mentors and students to overcome some common hurdles. Mentoring relationships can stagnate over time if participants don't monitor and evaluate expectations, update goals and remain committed to sustaining the bond. In addition, Brainard says, subtle gender and racial biases can impede successful mentoring practices.

The new mentoring curriculum provides an administrator's guide, handbooks for participants, a bibliography of resources, an evaluation module, a video of scenarios depicting mentoring relationships and a guidebook for facilitating group discussions. The program was pilot tested last year at five universities and was evaluated by an outside consultant.

"The good thing about the curriculum is that it is designed to be interactive; it shows you how to be a good mentor rather than telling you," Brainard says. "We believe that improving the practice of mentoring nationwide can change the face of science and engineering. Industry is demanding a more diverse pool of scientists and engineers with a different set of skills. Universities need to prepare themselves to answer the call."

For more information, contact Brainard at 206-543-4810 or brainard@u.washington.edu.

To order the curriculum, contact the Women in Engineering Program & Advocates Network (WEPAN) office at 765-494-5387. Cost is $100 for WEPAN members and $150 for non-members.

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