Mentoring/Role Models Abstracts

The Douglass Project for Rutgers Women in Mathematics, Science and Engineering consists of different programs to attract and retain women in the science professions. The project, which began in 1986, is under implementation at Rutgers University's Douglass College. Based on mentoring and female support, the project includes science and math camps as well as summer orientations on college life.

Interview with Ellen Mappen, director of Rutgers University's Douglass Project for Rutgers Women in Math, Science and Engineering, which is a multi-pronged effort to attract and retain female students in the science fields. Mappen says she shaped the grant proposal that launched the project out of her own experiences of sexual discrimination in the academe. The program, which targets both high-school and college students, has driven enrollment of math and science majors to more than 30% between 1988 and 1993.

Although experts indicate that black college students and women preparing for math-related careers are endangered species on US campuses, some cutting-edge programs are out there aiming to guarantee they survive and thrive.

Some universities are encouraging "role models" as a means of helping young women become scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, and are hiring an increasing number of female faculty in those areas. But a new study finds no evidence that an increase in female faculty leads to an increase of female undergraduate majors