Mukwonago student attends CyberGirlz technology camp <|> Program encourages girls to get into technology

By AMY NIXON

Although the workplace environment of the 1950s seems a long way off from today's culture, a large gap still remains in the ratio of girls to boys who enter technology fields. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW) recently held a camp to encourage girls to learn more about

"Currently, information technology is a predominately male-dominated career field; as such, girls don't see it as a career opportunity for them. We'd like to change that thinking," said Denise Schulz, an information technology and business education lecturer at UWW.

According to a 2000 report by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation (AAUW), "Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age," girls were found to be less likely to take high-level computing classes in high school. Only 17 percent of students taking Advanced Placement computer science exams are girls, the report says.

"In 1995, at the pos-secondary level, women received one in four of the computer/information science bachelor's degrees and only 11 percent of the doctorates in engineering-related technologies," reads the report. "These educational gaps reverberate in the workplace, where, by most estimates, women today occupy only 20 percent of the jobs in information technology."

Kaitlyn was one of 48 middle school girls who attended the five-day camp at the UWW campus. The girls learned about digital photography, photo editing, digital scrapbooking, web design and GPS. They also heard from women who had careers in such fields.

According to a release from the university, the goal of the camp was to spark an interest in technology in young girls and possibly even inspire a career choice in information technology. All of the software used at camp can be downloaded online for free, as a way to further encourage the girls to put what they learned at camp into practice at home.

The camp was a joint effort from the information technology and business education department and the management computer systems program at UWW and was sponsored by Northwestern Mutual, TDS Telecommunications Corp. and the Society for Information Management.

Kaitlyn, who will enter sixth grade at Rolling Hills Elementary School this fall, said she was planning to go to a volleyball camp at UWW when she saw some information on the CyberGirlz camp. "I saw that, and I'm interested in technology, so I decided to go," she said.

Kaitlyn said she and other campers learned how to use a design program to make an ice skater and a world for her to live in. "That was pretty cool," she said.

They also learned about digital scrapbooking by taking pictures, cropping them and laying them out for the scrapbook. Campers also learned how to build a Web site.

Her favorite part of camp was making a four- or five-minute mini movie using a flip camcorder. She and other girls in her group then edited the movie and added titles and credits.

Not only did the girls learn about different ways they could use technology now, but they also heard from women in technology fields who told them how technology could fit into their future.

"About every day we had a different person come in and talk to us, and all the counselors either went to Whitewater or had a career in technology, and they talked to us about different careers," Kaitlyn explained. "They all seem really cool. I might do something in that type of a field."

Kaitlyn said she'd encourage other girls to attend the camp as well.

"It was really fun," she said.

Copyright 2009, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)