Ford Motor Company Sponsors Summer Engineering Program Scholarships for Middle School Girls

JWIE alternate
JWIE alternate
Girls will get to explore engineering and campus life in Michigan Tech's new Junior Women in Engineering program.
×

This July, Michigan Technological University’s Summer Youth Programs (SYP) will host 24 exceptional middle school students from five Midwestern states.  Ten of them have won a new, competitive scholarship called Junior Women in Engineering, funded by $10,000 from the Ford Motor Company.

The weeklong program will take place on the Michigan Tech campus in Houghton, Michigan, July 24 to 30, 2016.

The program is an exploration of the various types of engineering, showcasing future career paths. During the week, the students will stay in the residence halls, enjoy meals in the dining hall and attend class across campus, enabling them to get a feel for the independence that comes with attending college.  The main purpose of the program is to help girls learn what engineering entails and help them to envision their future as women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.

Exploring Engineering Fields

Participants from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Illinois will be challenged to design and implement

Junior Women in Engineering logo.

 

various projects from many different fields of engineering, including civil, environmental, mechanical, electrical, materials and more. The students will problem-solve, create, work in teams and learn to overcome obstacles, much the way engineers do in their careers.

Ford Motor Company also provided $10,000 in funding towards each of Michigan Tech’s  Women in Engineering (WIE) and Women in Computer Science (WICS) scholarship programs. “STEM at Ford is committed to helping develop a skilled workforce,” said Alison Bazil, co-lead of the company’s STEM Advisory Council. “The Michigan Tech summer engineering program is a great way for Ford to support students exploring the STEM fields.”

Ford also gave $10,000 to help support WIE in 2015.

Women in Engineering

WIE is a highly competitive, engaging week-long look at engineering careers in areas such as mechanical, computer, environmental, electrical, chemical, biomedical, civil, geological and materials engineering. One hundred and fifty high school students from across the country and around the world will participate in the program, which features engineering sessions, group projects and special topic presentations. Participants this year include high school students from Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Illinois, Georgia, California, Arizona, Alabama, Wisconsin, Washington, Virginia and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The WICS program includes an exploration of computer programming, artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, visualization, networks and cybersecurity. Twenty four young women will learn about career opportunities in computing and the excellent job prospects in a wide range of industries. Participants this year will travel from Missouri, California, New Jersey, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Summer Youth Programs also offers a variety of other camps and explorations, including business, computing, engineering, humanities, leadership, social sciences, outdoor and environmental studies, and science and technology. Each camp is one week long, beginning June 21 and ending August 1, 2016.

For more information on SYP camps or scholarship opportunities, visit https://www.mtu.edu/syp/ or call the Center for Educational Outreach office at 906-487-2219.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.

Comments