WASHINGTON – AAUW has awarded $50,000 in Campus Action Project (CAP) grants to 12 institutions across the country for the 2009–10 academic year. These projects will target some of the barriers to entering and staying in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields faced by women and girls.
Each year, AAUW selects a project topic based on our mission statement. The 2009–10 CAP teams will focus on the issues raised by AAUW's upcoming 2010 research report, which will highlight key findings from recent research on women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in three areas: middle and high school, college and university, and the workplace.
AAUW picked 12 CAP teams from around the country to implement projects. The selected projects focus on mentoring and on exposing some of the barriers that girls experience in math and science, as well as on networking and professional development to retain college women in math, science, engineering, and technology fields. Projects also aim to raise awareness about women in these fields through initiatives such as documentary filmmaking and a poster contest. The projects will help to increase the number of young women entering and pursuing these fields of study.
The lack of women in the typically higher-wage math and science-related fields has significant implications for women’s economic security as well as for the overall economy and our nation’s global competitiveness. More women in these high-paying fields would help close the gender wage gap and would eliminate the U.S. shortage of workers in math, science, technology, and engineering fields .
“AAUW is breaking through educational barriers so that all women and girls have a fair chance, and that is exactly what the CAP teams selected this year are doing in their communities. Our teams are increasing the number of young women entering and staying in science and math-related fields by addressing the barriers they face in school, college, and the workplace,” said Kate C. Farrar, director of AAUW’s leadership programs.
AAUW will pay for one member of each team to present on her or his team’s project at the 2010 AAUW/NASPA National Conference for College Women Student Leaders in Washington, D.C. The conference helps students connect with other students and with successful women while honing leadership skills for their work on campus and in their communities. For more information about the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders, visit
www.nccwsl.org.
For more information on Campus Action Projects, visit .
The CAP grant recipients for 2009–10 are
- CSI: California, PA, Engaging and Inspiring Girls to Explore Their World
California University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania - Women in Science and Technology
Dakota State University, South Dakota - Opportunities in STEM Fields and the Opportunities Clinic Program
Harvey Mudd College, California - Beyond Health Care: Moving Women into Nontraditional STEM Careers
Massasoit Community College, Massachusetts - STEM Intervention
Mississippi University, Mississippi - Women Inspiring Learning (Momentum)
North Carolina Central University, North Carolina - EMPOWER: Engineering Technology Mentoring and Professional Skills Workshops for Enhanced Retention
Rochester Institute of Technology, New York - Strengthening the Chain: Using Women’s Social Networks to Encourage Nontraditional Students in Engineering
University of Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama - WISTEM for Girls
University of California, Davis, California - Portrait of a Scientist as a Young Woman
University of Guam, Guam - Roundtable Mentoring and Student Retention: What Women Need to Know to Survive and Succeed in STEM Careers
University of Mississippi, Mississippi - Girls STEM Summit
University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee Campus, Florida
The 2008-2009 and 2009-10 Campus Action Projects received substantial financial support from the Mary Ann Ahrens-Iowa State Giving Circle. Hundreds of individuals gave in honor of Ahrens’s service to AAUW at the branch, state, and national level and her longtime dedication to promoting strategies, programs, and plans that foster economic security for women.
