DETROIT (WXYZ) — Michigan employs more engineers per capita than any other state, yet the lack of females and minorities in the field is startling.
There’s a program helping get more girls interested and it's getting a lot of help from a local firm hoping to change the face of STEM.
Each year, the Engineering Society of Detroit selects 30 middle school girls to participate in the yearlong program to learn hands on and also by what they see.
The Girls in Engineering Academy is the first program Robert Magee created when he became the Engineering Society of Detroit’s executive director in 2015 with a mission to reach urban youth and bring more females and minorities to a field that is desperate for their representation.
“We expose them to all the different disciplines of engineering. We expose them to algebra in the sixth grade, not the ninth… So we expose them in sixth grade to things they would see in ninth in high school… giving them that leg up,” Magee said.
Watch the full story in the video player above.
If you would like to learn how to get involved, visit the program’s website.
