'Organic women' seek to break science mold
Programs focus women on nontraditional jobs
By Jeffrey Phillips, Published July 5, 2007

A national organization that focuses on placing women in nontraditional jobs is working to help California community colleges attract more females into emerg­ing technology fields.

The Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Sciences (IWITTS), a 12-year-old national nonprofit orga­nization, has selected four California community colleges for the Cal Women Tech Project (CWTP), which aims to help train colleges in attracting women into game development, geographic information systems and digital home integration technology.

“We chose to focus on emerging tech­nologies because we wanted to position women on the cutting edge. Trained technicians are in high demand, and these are exciting careers,” said Donna Milgram, executive director and founder of IWITTS.

Females enrolled in male-dominated programs often find it difficult not only to “fit in” into male-dominated professions, but they also have difficulty in classrooms where the teaching is geared toward male students, Milgram said.

“This program provides concrete skills on how to recruit and retain women in the technology field,” she said.

CWTP aims to increase recruitment of women at the community colleges participating in CWTP by 10 percent to 15 percent, as well as increase retention by providing free training to the college on how to better accommodate women. For example, the program will focus on teaching spatial reasoning and modify­ing curriculums so that they appeal to female interests and learning styles.

The program can be beneficial to male students who respond better to collab­orative learning, Milgram said.

IWITTS was recently awarded at $2 million National Science Foundation Grant to fund CWTP.

The four community college programs selected for CWTP 2007 are:

• Computer networking and informa­tion technology at City College of San Francisco, which has a new digital home integration technology certification;
• Geographic information systems at San Diego Mesa College;
• 3-D animation and video art at Ca­ñada College;
• Air conditioning refrigeration at El Camino College (Air conditioning and refrigeration is not an emerging technol­ogy, but there is a national labor shortage of technicians).

The colleges will receive training spe­cifically tailored to their programs.

IWITTS is also looking for four to six other California community colleges to participate in CWTP in early 2008. The focus for the next round will remain on emerging technology programs at two-year colleges in the state, but institu­tions that offer established courses in high demand technical areas will also be considered. Applications will be avail­able in September with a deadline in late November.

For more information on IWITTS, vis­it www.iwitts.com/html/calwomentech_training.html. For more information on online resources for women visit www.womentechworld.org

They dubbed themselves the “organic women.” But they didn’t hug trees or eat granola in class. Instead they studied the make up and behaviors of complex carbon molecules.

This spring, the six women become the first all-female organic chemistry class at North Idaho College (NIC).

“Many students will look at the pre­requisites for a chosen field and change careers the instant they see organic chem­istry listed; Not this group of ladies,” said NIC microbiology instructor Rhena Coo­per, who helped mentor the women in the class taught by chemistry instructor Jim Jeitler.

Traditionally, far fewer women em­bark on careers in science and math­ematics. In 1999, women accounted for about a quarter of the science and engineering workforce, according to a 2002 study by the National Science Foundation.

However, the number of women in science-related careers is increasing, and that’s a pattern that the women of NIC’s most recent organic chemistry class want to see continue. Last semester during a visit to a local middle school, the class prepared a number of visual chemistry demonstrations for career day to help interest students in science studies.

Cooper said the NIC students wanted to inspire the middle schoolers—especially the girls—to pursue their science dreams.

All six women completed the organic chemistry class this spring.

Machele Gonzalez received both the George and Dorothy Carlson Memorial Scholarship and a scholarship from NIC. She is currently completing an Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) in­ternship at Kootenai Medical Center in micro­biology before transferring to the University of Idaho this fall.

Laura Grinnel hopes to be accepted to the vet­erinary school of medicine at Washington State University after she transfers there this fall.

Veronica Hendricks received the Outstand­ing Freshman Chemistry Award at NIC and secured two INBRE internships, one at Ac­curate Testing Laboratory and one at the Uni­versity of Idaho’s Research Park. She earned an INBRE fellowship at Boise State University this summer and will transfer to the University of Idaho this fall.

Cynthia Lucas earned scholarships from the Idaho Academy of Science and Sunshine Mines while at NIC. She also worked in the laboratory of SVL Analytical for the summer. She plans to continue working before transfer­ring to a four-year institution.

Kati Warner has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Califor­nia—Berkeley, but her passion is veterinary medicine, so she has been working on the requirements for application to a veterinary program. She currently volunteers at two local animal hospitals.

Christin Winniford is still taking classes at NIC in the hope of eventually transferring to the University of Idaho. She is a recipient of the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium Undergraduate Scholarship. She was also an INBRE intern at Coeur d’Alene Cellars and presented her experience at the Idaho Acad­emy of Science statewide conference.