Statistics in this country indicate about 20 percent of undergraduate engineering degrees are awarded to women, but only 13 percent of the engineering workforce is female.
Women are often under-represented in the fields of engineering and leaders of Utah State University’s College of Engineering are working to make a positive impact on those numbers.
Nina Glaittli is an engineer and the USU College of Engineering’s retention specialist. She said USU’s female enrollment numbers have improved.
“It is growing,” said Glaittli. “It is not where we want it to be. Across the country it is not where we want it to be.
“Across the country it is about 18 percent enrollment. Here at Utah State it’s about 14 percent. That is more than it has been in years past. So, we’re delighted with that increase but we still want to make it more.”
Glaittli said Utah State University’s on-campus student section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is very active and that was evident last week when an Aggie contingent attended the world’s largest conference for women engineers in Minneapolis.
USU students on hand said the career fair was one of the most memorable parts of the trip. Mechanical engineering student Melissa Nielsen landed an internship with Northrop Grumman.
Computer Science undergraduate Ligia Frangello interviewed with Apple and Uber. Biological Engineering student Laurel Hendrickson interviewed with Medtronic.