DeVry University will hold "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day," during National Engineers Week. The event, to be held on Feb. 21 in Ft. Washington, Pa., is part of the university's HerWorld conferences, aimed generating excitement among young women for engineering, science, technology and business careers.
The highlight of "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" activities will be a hands-on Robotics Workshop during which attendees will build Wall-Hugging Mouse Robots. The keynote address will be given by Angela D. Jones, U.S. Systems Integration & Technology Lead for Accenture Technology Solutions. Other panelists will include successful engineers, scientists and educators from a variety of disciplines.
Today, flexibility and options in careers like information technology, science and engineering are fueled by the need to fill jobs with an educated workforce. According to Department of Labor statistics, career opportunities available in technical positions will grow four times the national job growth rate.
"I have found the positions offering flexibility in where I worked from and when the work got done provided me with significantly greater job satisfaction, stronger commitment to the job, a higher level of engagement with the company, as well as low levels of stress," said Forough Ghahramani, Associate Professor of Computer Information Systems at DeVry University's Fort Washington campus.
She believes the need to fill jobs in technical fields such as engineering will play a major role in creating even more flexible work options for women in the future. And while there's still progress to be made, Ghahramani believes the future is bright for women in technical careers, and that, she says, "is ample reason to get young women thinking about engineering and science as a fulfilling and meaningful career path."