Special thanks to the Mary Ann Ahrens-Iowa Giving Circle for providing substantial financial support for the 2009-10 Campus Action Project teams.
The 2009-10 Campus Action Project (CAP) Breaking through Barriers in STEM for Women and Girls focuses on the issues raised by AAUW's upcoming 2010 research report, Breaking through Barriers: Women and Girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The report will highlight key findings from recent research on women and girls in STEM in three areas: middle and high school, college and university, and the workplace. Although women and girls have made significant progress in STEM, they are still underrepresented in certain fields and barriers to their full participation remain.
The objective of this year's CAP grant is to provide a platform for campus programming that is informed by this research. We anticipate that projects will address some of the barriers that girls and women encounter in STEM fields in school, college, and the workplace, and that the outcomes of the projects will help to increase the number of young women entering and pursuing those fields of study.
All projects should be closely related to the topic of Breaking through Barriers in STEM for Women and Girls. It is anticipated that projects will address some of the barriers that women face entering and staying in STEM fields, particularly physics, engineering, and computer science, areas where women are the most underrepresented:
- STEM Literacy and Awareness. Create programs designed to raise awareness and increase understanding of STEM fields and careers.
- Mentoring. Develop programs that facilitate relationships between students or students and professionals in STEM fields.
- Campus Department Culture. Design and implement initiatives that will improve the culture in STEM departments on campus.
Proposed projects may combine these areas or fall outside these areas, but should still focus on addressing barriers women and girls face entering and staying STEM fields. Teams should not be afraid of taking risks in proposing creative approaches. Past projects include mentoring programs, weekend conferences, workshop and speaker series, documentaries, websites, and other multimedia-based projects. Learn more about previous CAP projects.
The CAP program presents a unique opportunity for student leaders on campus to engage with girls and women in their community and provides an excellent platform for ongoing leadership training and support of student leaders. One member of each team will be funded to present on the project at the 2010 AAUW/NASPA National Conference for College Women Student Leaders in Washington, DC.
Questions? Call 202/785-7719 or send an e-mail to cap@aauw.org.
