Kay Kinard
Director of Communications, College of Engineering

The number of women majoring in engineering is increasing and Georgia Tech is one of the national leaders in this trend. The 2011 freshman class is 30 percent female, bringing the overall College of Engineering representation to 24 percent, compared to the national average of 17-18 percent. In addition, research has shown that female engineering students achieve higher overall GPAs than their male counterparts in virtually every major.

When the College of Engineering created the Women in Engineering (WIE) program in 1994, its goal was to recruit top female students into engineering majors at Georgia Tech, as well as to provide the resources and programs necessary to encourage their success and retention. WIE challenges and inspires women to achieve their fullest potential as engineers and as leaders, and celebrates their accomplishments and successes.

If your daughter is an engineering student there are three primary retention programs offered by WIE:

Mentor & Mentee (M&M): a peer mentoring program, where freshmen are matched with juniors, and sophomores with seniors. These mentoring relationships offer students a connection with an older student who offers advice, friendship and guidance.

Excellence Awards Banquet (EAB): A benchmark program, where undergraduate female engineering students with an overall GPA of 3.35 or higher are recognized at an annual banquet. Thirty-eight percent of the undergraduate female engineering students qualified for the EAB last year.

Scholarships: A network of approximately 24 corporate partners offers scholarships for outstanding female students, which are presented at the EAB. Despite of a faltering economy, scholarship levels have increased by 20 percent for each of the past three years.

Dr. Christine Valle, WIE director, and Ann Blasick, WIE associate director, are available to talk with women engineering students. For more information on WIE check out their website at www.coe.gatech.edu/wie, follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GTwie, or call 404.385.1862.