Penn State WEP honored with Presidential Excellence Award

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State's Women in Engineering Program (WEP) was among eight institutional programs honored today (May 6) by President George W. Bush with the 2003 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).

Barbara Bogue, WEP director, accepted the award, which includes a $10,000 grant to provide for continued mentoring work, in ceremonies at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.

According to the National Science Foundation, which administers the PAESMEM program on behalf of the White House, the institutional awards "recognize organizations that have developed mentoring approaches that encourage improved achievement, keeping young people in the 'pipeline' of science, engineering and mathematics education and creating peer mentoring programs."

Robert N. Pangborn, associate dean for engineering undergraduate studies and professor of engineering science and mechanics, nominated WEP for the award. He said, "The WEP and its director, Barbara Bogue, have been remarkably effective in demonstrating the value-added that can accrue at the department and college levels through support or adoption of its approaches and initiatives."

Since Bogue became WEP director in 1996, retention of women students has made steady gains. For example, in 1997, the year of the first Women in Engineering Program Orientation (WEPO) cohort, women, for the first time, were retained at an equal rate with men in the College of Engineering. Women of color participating in WEPO also are retained at a higher rate.

By 2001, 236 women were graduated from Penn State's College of Engineering with baccalaureate degrees, making Penn State one of the top 10 producers of women engineers in the country.

Mentoring and networking are the basis of all Penn State WEP activities. Upper-level engineering women and alumnae are among the first engineering contacts for women students entering their first year. These first year women then become the first contacts with engineering for the 350 girls served annually through WEP activities such as Girl Scout Saturdays and other pre-college offerings for both boys and girls.

Senior women students welcome junior women and both are mentored by an active faculty women group. Senior faculty women offer workshops and mentoring sessions for junior faculty women. In total, during a typical year, approximately 600 women and girls are reached through WEP mentoring activities.

WEP serves all women in the College of Engineering with an emphasis on undergraduates. However, many WEP programs are also offered to and attended by men.

Approximately 20 percent of the women typically enrolled in WEP classes are women of color and WEPO averages 7 percent to 9 percent minority participation, going as high as 25 percent in some years.

WEP also has been recognized by the Women in Engineering Program and Advocates Networks (WEPAN) Women in Engineering Program Award and by Penn State's Undergraduate Admissions Outstanding Recruitment and Retention Program Award. In August 2002, Essence magazine recognized WEP as one of the top 50 programs in the country that empowers girls.

Photos of the event are scheduled to be available on May 7 at http://www.nsf.gov