Goals
A major concern at TJ is the underrepresentation of female students in the robotics, electronics, optics, computer systems, and energy systems tech labs. (In order to receive a TJ diploma, each student must complete a long-term, self-directed project as a senior in any of twelve tech labs). TWIST hopes to increase female enrollment in traditionally underrepresented labs and inspire girls to pursue careers in these fields.
Although many factors contribute to the lack of girls in these labs, we decided to focus on sophomore girls because they still have a year to fulfill the pre-requisites required for these tech labs. We hope that by increasing the number of girls enrolled in our labs, we will also increase the number of women we send into these careers. The most difficult step in the process will be to increase the percentage of girls in these classes to at least 40%. Once younger students have role models in these techlabs, the numbers will hopefully continue to increase until the classes reach close to 50-50 or representative of the larger TJ community.
(c) Xiaoxiao Lin. All rights reserved.