In February 2021, Collins Aerospace celebrated a milestone in its Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day participation. The business unit of Raytheon Technologies said its internal program had grown since volunteers at the former Rockwell Collins in Iowa opened their doors to a small group of girls on that first IAGTE Day in 2001.
In 2020, more than 2,300 girls and 1,000 volunteers participated at 55 Collins sites across eight countries, Collins Aerospace said. More than 80% of the girls who took part in the 2019 Girl Day event with Collins reported that they were more likely to consider a career in engineering.
The company stresses a focus on showing middle-school girls what it’s like to work as an engineer because research shows girls begin to question their interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) right around the age of 10 or fourth grade.
For example, less than 10 percent of female first-year students say they’ll pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers, compared to nearly 30 percent of their male counterparts.
Activities have ranged from donning all kinds of goggles (safety, night vision, virtual reality) to see problems in new ways to conducting lab experiments, testing algorithms, designing robotics, and even sitting at the controls of a (parked) aircraft – so girls could experience a day in the life of an aerospace engineer.
In 2020, the organizers designed a toolkit with local and corporate-provided resources that could work for almost any participant, anywhere.
“This is the first year we’ve planned the event as part of Raytheon Technologies,” Adriana Johnson, corporate social responsibility program manager, told Collins. She has coordinated the global event for eight years. “This has given us a greater opportunity to spotlight our people and products across the business. The virtual platform has allowed several sites to team up to form one large event throughout several communities.”
Women Lead Change supporter Collins Aerospace celebrated 20 years of Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day. #WomenLeadChange https://t.co/xTEASwAAAt pic.twitter.com/dN9NDNZGHm
— Women Lead Change (@wlcglobal) February 27, 2021
February 25th marks the 20th annual, "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day", sponsored by Collins Aerospace and DiscoverE. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event had to be virtual this year.https://t.co/bRtTMMCTj8
— Iowa's News Now (@iowasnewsnow) February 26, 2021
