This May and June, Ryerson University’s new Feats of Engineering program will help female high school students from across the GTA experience real world engineering first hand from partners such as Bombardier, Celestica and Siemens.
The new program provides females with exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to go behind the scenes of today’s leading engineering companies. Participants will get to meet engineers, tour the facilities and be a part of the projects that are making our world a safer, better place to live.
“At Ryerson we are focused on offering many different forms of outreach, support and networking opportunities to increase the number of women in engineering,” says Kyla Sask, Engineering Enrichment and Outreach Coordinator in the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science at Ryerson University. “The Feats of Engineering will not only provide first-hand experience into some of the most exciting engineering work in the GTA, they also offer an exceptional opportunity for young girls to interact with a female engineering role model.”
Feats of Engineering was created as part of an unprecedented collaboration with university engineering faculties at Ryerson, Western University, University of Waterloo and UOIT. The collaboration is supported by a four-year grant of $1.4-million from Hydro One. Motorola Solutions Foundation has also supported the initiative with over $65,000 in grant funding. Together, these partners are implementing coordinated strategies to improve enrolment and career opportunities for women and young ladies in engineering.
Another initiative made possible with the support of HydroOne and Motorola Solutions Foundation is a ‘WEMADEIT’ Youth Think Tank. As part of the think tank, teenage women from GTA high schools are exploring why female awareness and enrollment in engineering is so low in comparison to male counterparts.
On average, the gender breakdown of student enrollment in undergraduate engineering programs in Canada is approximately 20% female; the gender gap is even wider in engineering industries. In both cases, the gap is persistent, with little change over the last 10 years. Girls participating in the Youth Think Tank are helping to design the brand for the new initiative as well as weighing in on how Ryerson should re-design their summer programs to reach more females.
Feats of Engineering participating companies include:
* Motorola Solutions
* Siemens
* Celestica
* Bombardier
* GE Canada
* City of Toronto
* City of Mississauga
* EllisDon
* Hydro One
* Canadian Tire
