Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are the areas to be addressed in a series of workshops to be held by the Universidad Católica del Maule (UCM) to motivate high school students to discover their vocation in disciplines traditionally dominated by boys.
Under the title «Virtuosas, more scientists for Maule», UCM will hold a free academy for girls during the second semester of this year. The idea is to motivate students to pursue STEM careers, referring to the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
«They will be one-day events, with four rotating workshops in each discipline. We want to cover two secondary schools per commune, to reach about 1,300 students», announced the project director, Patricia Silva-Flores.
The PhD in Biological Sciences explained that the work groups will be led by academics from the campus, with training in gender equality.
«It is important that young women are integrated into the STEM world, because the diversity of views allows a diversity of solutions. Additionally, from an economic perspective, as these careers are well positioned, it allows us to close gaps and aspire to a good quality of life,» said the also a member of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CIEAM, in Spanish), belonging to the university.
The initiative— financed by the GORE, through the National Fund for Regional Development— will begin next March, with the design of the academy and dissemination in high schools.
«We want female students to dare to choose a STEM career or a research career, from psychology to computer science, and to be able to experience their scientific vocations, even with remote mentoring. To overcome the gap, we not only need to hire more women, but also more women to pursue a scientific career, hopefully from different locations,» said one of the participants in the project, Karina Vilches, PhD in Engineering Sciences.
The academic hopes that the effort will increase the number of women applying to STEM programs, where women represent only 10.8% of the enrollment in the country, according to the most recent data from MINEDUC.
«We all win and women win because they get a future and cutting-edge career,» said Vilches, who also serves as the institution’s Postgraduate Director.
Other researchers who will collaborate with the initiative, which will last 18 months, are Sandra Araya, Patricia Barahona, Carolina Martínez, Xaviera López, Mary Jarur, Silvana Moris, Mariana Lazzaro, Liliana Zúñiga and Chiara Saracini.
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