SOUTHFIELD – The Michigan Council of Women In Technology Foundation is looking for a couple of good companies to sponsor a summer Tech Camp at Lawrence Technological University for girls in grades 4 – 7 after the previous year’s sponsor unexpectedly withdrew its support.
Last year?s camp, ran four days, was attended by forty girls from the Southeast Michigan area, who were involved in interactive sessions focused on Website development, robot creation, bar coding and even wireless telephone technology. Volunteers from a number of major Detroit area employers (Ford, GMAC, AT&T, GM, Sun Microsystems, and IBM) participated in teaching the camp, and provided post-camp mentoring activities.
?The camp has been extremely successful over the last 2 years,? said Rosemary Bayer, President of MCWT Foundation. ?The girls who attended were excited, intrigued and energized by the experience. Many enjoyed the interactive sessions so much that by the end of the camp, they asked to stay another week.?
The Foundation was caught by surprise when last year?s sponsor declined to renew.
?It had nothing to do with the success of the camp, itself,? Bayer said. ?They are simply in a different corporate situation than they had been before, and cannot commit the funds in the time frame necessary.”
With the number of women in IT-related professions dropping to less than a third of the workforce last year (from a high of 44 percent a decade ago), the MCWT Foundation is determined to reverse the trend. One tactic is to encourage girls, early in life, to consider technology-related pursuits as fun and fulfilling – hence the need for the summer tech camp.
?Catching kids in their formative years can make all the difference in their futures,? Bayer said. ?Many of our colleagues and contacts at Michigan companies realize this, and know what is at stake if we don?t build the strongest workforce possible in our state. These kids are the basis for that effort. So I am confident that a sponsor will soon come forward.?
No one from the Foundation would say how much money was needed to save the 2006 Tech Camp. If your company is interested in finding out more, click on MCWT.Org
