Rose-Hulman Videos Aim to Inspire Girls in STEM

(photo courtesy of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology)

Students from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s Society of Women Engineers chapter have developed a series of YouTube videos to inspire girls to join engineering and science fields. The stop-action videography, sketch and clay animation, and student interviews are featured in videos introducing viewers to academic areas including civil, environmental, electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering, among others. The institute says all of the videos feature female Rose-Hulman students talking about STEM fields.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, chapter President Taylor Lueking says the society wants to create an outreach program that is completely virtual and will garner participation from its members.

“My goal as president was to increase member retention,” said Lueking. “Last year, we had barely enough people to run for office and so myself and the current executive board came together and needed to increase member participation. We figured that the YouTube channel would be a different way to do that because we have been entirely virtual this year.”

Lueking, who is a junior mechanical engineering major from Terre Haute, says the experience was an all hands on deck effort.

The project was organized by current SWE chapter outreach chair Emma Goodman, a chemical engineering major from Illinois, and past chair Tori Szalay, a computer engineering student from Poland, Indiana.

“So far, it has been an absolute blast and we have gotten so much out of it,” said Goodman, who directed two of the videos, including a stop-action video looks at the core elements of civil engineering.

Other students featured in the videos include Lueking, Courtney Valmore, a chemical engineering major from Indianapolis, Karmen Kissell, a biomedical engineering major from Shelbyville, and Wynne Aldrich, a computer engineering student from Valparaiso.

According to the institute, the latest statistics from the National Science Foundation’s Science & Engineering Indicators Report reveals that the percentage of women in engineering was 16% in 2017 – an improvement from 9% in 1993. Additionally, more women are currently enrolled in science and engineering bachelor degree programs, especially at Rose-Hulman, which has had growing percentages of female students since becoming a coeducational institution in 1995.

You can connect to the YouTube channel by clicking here.