女性在CUI的STEM领域表现出色

传统上, 在高等教育中, 进入所谓的STEM科学领域的女性比男性少, 技术, 工程与数学.

但在欧文的康考迪亚大学却不是这样.

Women are a strong part of the science and mathematics faculties and three of four full-time mathematics faculty members are women. 不仅如此, but the number of women majoring in these fields 在欧文的康考迪亚大学 continues to rise.

“It’s not normal to have three of four full-time mathematics faculty be women,” says Dr. 阿曼达Croll, 数学助理教授, who just completed her first semester teaching 在欧文的康考迪亚大学 after finishing her PhD in mathematics at the University of Nebraska. “很多数学系的男生都比女生多.”

作为一名本科生, Croll participated annually in the Carleton College Summer Mathematics Program for Women, 是什么鼓励了有数学天赋的女性去追求更高的学位, 部分原因是STEM领域的女性太少了,克罗尔说.

“Through that program I’ve come to know an amazing network of women in mathematics which has been really helpful.”

Croll以她的经验说, “我从未因为自己是女性而感到障碍, but I did meet women who actually felt put down by the fact that there weren’t other women and that it wasn’t okay for them to be there [in a mathematics field]. There are actually some women who feel they can’t do math because of the environment they’re in with so few women. 这让我更加意识到，对一些人来说，这仍然是一个问题."

作为一名教授, I encourage all of my students equally who are gifted in math about opportunities that are out there.

康考迪亚大学欧文分校数学教授. 95岁的Melinda Schulteis说，她从未感到受到歧视, 但“总是能感受到人们的惊讶:‘哦, 你是数学领域的女性.“这是一个很好的动力，让我继续做我喜欢的事情.”

She credits retired 欧文康考迪亚大学 professor Ken Mangels for encouraging her to be a mathematics major, 哪个已经成为她的专业领域.

“当我回到康科迪亚(教书)时，我感到非常有动力，”她说. “我不在乎学生是男是女. What I wanted was to connect students to local and national mathematics conferences so they could get research experiences as undergraduates.”

She is proud th在欧文的康考迪亚大学 now regularly takes students to mathematics conferences as participants and speakers.

“我们已经从没有任何社区的存在- '谁是康科迪亚?——定期与其他学院及其毕业生交流. 这很有趣，”她说.

One of those opportunities is the Nebraska Conference for 本科 Women in Mathematics at the University of Nebraska, 哪里每年有250名数学专业的女本科生参与研究. This year 欧文康考迪亚大学 students senior Michelle Schoon and junior Kelsey Swerdfeger, 都是数学专业, 将介绍他们与Dr. Croll.

“I’m really excited to have this opportunity because I’ve never done something like this before,Schoon说。, who is presenting research on how computers use linear algebra to create facial recognition 技术 (like the kind used on social network sites). “康考迪亚大学有女教授肯定是有帮助的. 我高中和小学的数学老师大多是男性, 但在大学里，除了泰勒教授和迈耶教授，其他都是女性. 有雌性动物带头绝对是件好事.”

另一位康考迪亚大学欧文分校的学生, 梅根·索伦森，15岁, recently presented research about fractals at the Pacific Coast 本科 Mathematics Conference, explaining how imaginary numbers allow one to create computer screen backgrounds with intricate designs that repeat endlessly and never lose their intricacy. Sorenson came to 欧文康考迪亚大学 from Boise to play volleyball and fell in love with mathematics through Schulteis’ “contagious” influence, 她说. “I had always liked math, but now I absolutely love math which I didn’t really see coming,”

索伦森说道. “教授们真的很好. 我喜欢它解决问题的一面，喜欢它总是有答案的一面. 数学几乎适用于你生活中的一切:音乐、艺术等等. 一旦你深入其中，你就能在一切事物中看到数学.”

Sorenson is now spending a semester at Oxford with the Oxford study abroad program and is taking a full slate of mathematics courses. 她希望有一天能成为一家保险公司的精算师.

朱莉Melberg, 他在欧文的康考迪亚大学教了7年书, 认为，在过去十年中，STEM领域发生了转变. 她的妹妹在加州大学戴维斯分校学习兽医. 走廊上是按年排列的每个毕业班的照片. 在20世纪70年代，照片中大部分是男性. 她说，如今兽医学院的110名学生中，有105名是女性.

“It almost completely transitioned from a male-dominated field to a female-dominated field,梅尔伯格说。. “这真的非常残酷.”

梅尔伯格说，当学生进入大学时，“这是一个相当公平的领域.” She has had some female Concordia students tell her that in middle school and high school they were discouraged by a teacher who told them they couldn’t do math but “as a faculty at Concordia I don’t think there’s any prejudice either way.”

Lindsay Kane-Barnese, 05年, 康考迪亚大学的校友，拥有生物和化学学位，加州大学洛杉矶分校的博士学位, 说她在康考迪亚大学欧文分校或其他地方从未遇到过任何障碍.

“我的父母和中小学老师总是鼓励我, 尤其是在大学里,她说。. “我认为一个部门的女性人数是多是少并不重要."

I think it’s important that our faculty encourage everyone alike to do the best they can do and that all students consider a career in the STEM fields.

“我们需要激励他们接受这些具有挑战性的领域. 他们是我们的未来.”

莎拉·卡拉姆04届, 新聘的生物学助理教授, 教授核心生物学, 欧文康考迪亚大学的生态学和海洋科学. She just completed her master’s degree and PhD work at the University of Nevada at Reno. 作为一名本科生 she transferred from Harvey Mudd College to 欧文康考迪亚大学, 她在哪里获得的生物学学位.

Karam says she hasn’t experienced direct discrimination and “never saw myself needing women to emulate,，但她担心所谓的“管道泄漏”, 感觉被迫在事业和家庭之间做出选择, 在进入更高层次的研究之前离开这个领域.

“I didn’t choose the research path because it’s less compatible with life and having a family,卡拉姆说。. “It’s a pervasive view in most higher education that research comes to the forefront and teaching is secondary. 这不是我个人的观点. I’ve had a lot of colleagues choose to come to institutions like Concordia rather than [top tier research] schools for similar reasons: balance of life and balance within scientific pursuits and teaching.”

But she feels that women more often than men are expected to balance home and work responsibilities.

“Many of the reasons women feel so constrained is because of historical assumptions of who takes care of the home,她说。. “If women are expected to fully contribute to the workplace it needs to go both ways. 男性需要被期望为家庭做出全面贡献.”

Concordia appreciates “the whole person and all the other aspects of their lives,卡拉姆说。. “我认为这可能是女性教职员工的一部分. 任何人都有理由被康科迪亚·欧文分校吸引.”

不管是什么复杂的原因, there are plenty of women and men in the STEM fields 在欧文的康考迪亚大学, 也不缺乏对所有学生的鼓励.

“It’s one of the really nice things for our students here that we have both female and male role models, 他们可以仰视并说, ‘嘿, 那可能是我,’”克罗尔说.