March 2000

EDUCATION:
Girls design their future

“Design Your Future Day,” an annual event that draws more than 300 11th-grade girls to Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute from around New York state, has become pivotal in creating a pipeline for young women to choose high-tech careers.

Held on March 25, 2000, the event pairs girls, many from
underrepresented minority groups, with Rensselaer mentors who encourage the youngsters to study engineering, math, and science. Ernst & Young, a world-leading business consulting firm, committed $75,000 to the program for the next three years.

To capture the attention of young girls, Rensselaer’s “Design Your Future Day” includes seminars such as:

• Engineering a Good Hair Day: Girls will reverse
  engineer a hair dryer.
• Who Wants to Be A Billionaire?: A spoof of the game show examines how information systems are used every day.
• Made to Order: Girls use an industrial injection molder to manufacture key chains.
• Nuts and Bolts of E-Commerce: Girls assemble
  computer disk drives into a high-performance information storage system.

Rensselaer has admitted 100 percent of the young women who applied to the university as a result of their experience at “Design Your Future Day.”

“Rensselaer’s enrollment numbers for women and interest in engineering and high-tech by high school girls are all on the rise,” says Vicki Lynn, who created the event and directs the Women @ Rensselaer Mentor Program. “We expect programs like ‘Design Your Future Day’ will grow exponentially with the success of our women graduates.”

For more information about “Design Your Future Day,” go to: http://www.eng.rpi.edu/WWW/wit/dyfd

CONTACT: Theresa Bourgeois, (518) 276-2840, bourgt@rpi.edu

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