Access to Advancement, Part 1: TechGirlz
Allison Dunne: One of the most popular activities during the weeklong TechGirlz summer camp was building a personal computer. The girls - all entering seventh, eighth, or ninth grade, and all either hard-of-hearing or deaf - not only got to build their own PCs, but were able to take them home. For so many of the girls, including Krystyna Hurd, building a computer was a big highlight.
Krystyna Hurd: I think the best part would be building a computer.
Allison Dunne: Ashley Nemier, from upstate New York, echoes that sentiment.
Allison Dunne: So what was the best part of this week here?
Ashley Nemier: Building the computer.
Allison Dunne: Before taking the computers home, though, the girls had a lesson in troubleshooting.
James Mallory: I want you to turn on your computer and connect to the Internet now, please. If it doesn't work, go through this checklist. Go ahead, connect to the Internet.
Marisa Francis: What did you do to my computer?
James Mallory: We messed them up...You're welcome.
Student:...my computer.
Allison Dunne: Krystyna was in that troubleshooting class. She was among other hearing girls, and a captionist was providing captions of what the teacher was saying on a large screen at the front of the classroom. In another classroom, a teacher was using sign language. In TechGirlz, the students are split into classroom groups, according to communication preferences.
And here's Stefani Bignell in a classroom, towards the end of the camp week, putting the finishing touches on her computer.
Stefani Bignell: I am working on my computer that I just made and we just finished downloading all the spyware and the anti-virus stuff.
Allison Dunne: Stefani is from Indiana, where she'll be a freshman at Plainfield High School.
Allison Dunne: And what are you studying? What do you want to be? What do you want to do?
Stefani Bignell: Well, I'm not sure. I'm keeping an open mind right now, but, right now, I'm looking into being, like, a tech-support person.
Allison Dunne: Is that because of here? Did you get interested in something because of TechGirlz camp?
Stefani Bignell: Yes
Allison Dunne: And before you got here, you didn't know (Stefani Bignell: Yeah) the options.
Stefani Bignell: And then I started building the computer, and I got interested in building the stuff, and, yeah.
Allison Dunne: And that's the purpose of TechGirlz - to help girls learn about and consider jobs and careers in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. TechGirlz is held at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, or NTID, a college at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
Elissa Olsen, who is deaf, coordinates the PC-building workshop at TechGirlz. She's also the chairperson for the Information and Computing Studies Department at NTID. Olsen, whose communication was facilitated by an interpreter, addresses why she thinks the workshop on building a personal computer was such a big hit.
Elissa Olsen: Well, really, the opportunity for these girls to come in with no idea whatsoever to do with all of these parts, and, at the end, see their eyes light up with the pride of building this machine and taking it home. And I'm getting comments like, one of these girls said to me, 'you've given me a lot of information, a lot of details, and I really appreciate this learning'. I mean, that just makes my day. And it inspires me seeing all these girls get so excited. They really are virtually glowing when they leave with these computers in their hands, computers actually running that they have built from the ground up.
Allison Dunne: Olsen says TechGirlz helps open the students' eyes to the different possibilities and opportunities that await them.
Mark Sommer is the Director of Pre-College Outreach at NTID. An interpreter facilitated communication for Sommer, who is deaf.
Mark Sommer: There's been some research that shows that females, especially deaf and hard-of-hearing students, are underrepresented in the fields of science, engineering, and mathematics. So this program promotes interest in those fields. We start with middle school because they need to be able to take the appropriate courses in high school before entering college. So, this is our fourth year, and our numbers have increased steadily each year. I believe we have doubled in size from last year alone.
Allison Dunne: In this fourth year, there were 33 girls attending TechGirlz, up from 11 in year one. Sommer says such an increase is one measure of the program's success. He says another measure will come from evaluations.
Mark Sommer: One of the first evaluations that we do asks the different students, you know, how they felt about the program, what do you think you've learned from the program, and so forth. We document that, and then we follow up down the road with their teachers and say, within, say, six months, where do you see differences?
Allison Dunne: The first TechGirlz participants will be headed for college in the fall of 2010, so it will be a few years before NTID will be able to tell how many former TechGirlz students followed through with STEM-related majors and fields.
TechGirlz also exposes the students to such subjects as chemistry and bioengineering. Dr. Angela Lee Foreman, who is deaf, helped the girls build artificial lungs. She says science can be very interesting, but there's a myth floating around that it's not all that fun.
Angela Foreman: We need to find ways on how to make it more fun and appealing and accessible to all deaf girls.
Allison Dunne: Dr. Foreman, who teaches biology at NTID, says one way educators can do this is through hands-on activities. She says hands-on work allows students to gain problem-solving skills, and confidence. During TechGirlz, students also built artificial eyes and hands.
Esmeralda Najera, who is from Chicago, says she really likes science, especially chemistry. She says learning science at TechGirlz, though, is more interesting than at her mainstream school back home. I asked her why this is. Her reply, as relayed through an interpreter, was:
Esmeralda Najera: I mean, I don't know, because here the science is different than what we learned in Chicago.
Allison Dunne: How?
Esmeralda Najera: I mean it's just interesting here.
Allison Dunne: Is it because it's more hands-on activities, you get to do a lot here?
Esmeralda Najera: Yeah, that's what it is. That's what it is.
Allison Dunne: Hands-on work also piqued the curiosity of Jenilee Marques, who is deaf, and communicated with us through the use of an interpreter. Jenilee, from Connecticut, is headed for eighth grade, with a new interest - STEM-related subjects.
Jenilee Marques: I still like social studies a lot, but I think I'm having more interest now than I had before. I used to think this is kind of boring and whatever, but now I'm learning a lot of new stuff about this. I mean, it's not only like science and technology as a boring thing, but I'm learning that it can be fun. It's very, very interesting. It's complex, you know, and it's complicated work, but it's very interesting, too.
Allison Dunne: As she sat among a bunch of whirring computers, when asked if there's anything she thinks is off limits for her, she replied:
Jenilee Marques: Oh, no, no, not at all. We can do anything that a hearing person can do. The only thing we can't do that a hearing person can do is hear. We just have to do everything in a different way, that's all.
Allison Dunne: Jenilee says her school offered her a scholarship for TechGirlz. Mark Sommer, who oversees TechGirlz, says he would love to see the program grow, so getting more funding for TechGirlz is high on his wish list.
Mark Sommer: I would love to see us be able to get, you know, increased funding so that we're able to expand the program. Many of the female students who are participating this year are coming from families who couldn't afford to come. So we were able to increase sponsorship and scholarship for them, but we still have a long way to go. You know, we'd like to be able to, you know, get some more external funding.
Allison Dunne: For this TechGirlz, he said they received private funding through Motorola and its foundation, which allowed for expanding services and doubling the number of girls from the previous year.
TechGirlz provides STEM learning outside the classroom as well. There was a trip to the Rochester Museum & Science Center, and the girls had the chance to go on a small-scale, indoor archeological dig.
(sound of digging in a sandbox)
Allison Dunne: Whadya find?
Marisa Francis: Huh... I found a bone.
Allison Dunne: What do you think it is?
Marisa Francis: Uuummm, the hind leg.
Allison Dunne: Of what, of an animal?
Marisa Francis: Uh, a dinosaur?
Allison Dunne: That's Marisa Francis, from Ohio. She's another one who thought building a computer was the coolest part of TechGirlz. Marisa came to TechGirlz already hooked on math and science. She says she wants to be a surgeon.
Marisa Francis: I'm really interested with science and math and health.
Allison Dunne: Why, why do you like it?
Marisa Francis: I don't know because, well, math, I'm really good at math and it's fun all the time. And, um, science you can learn many a new things about the world, and there's still more to learn.
Allison Dunne: And speaking of more to learn, the girls also spent a day at Rochester's Seabreeze Amusement Park, where they heard about the engineering and technology that go into some of the rides. Here's Park Manager Michael Mantione.
Michael Mantione: The technology that runs the, the, the, the machinery that runs this roller coaster is a big chain, and a 76-foot long leather belt, on a 12-foot maple wheel run by a 50-horsepower motor. Um, that technology is, uh, is sort of older and we're in the process of upgrading. So you guys are looking for technology, we're gonna, we're gonna have this coaster run by a, by a computer next year.
Allison Dunne: This had Nikolya Sereda all smiles. Mantione's explanations just made her even more interested in designing roller coasters.
Nikolya Sereda: I've always loved roller coasters when I, from I was little, and stuff.
Allison Dunne: Nikolya is from Massachusetts, and is going into seventh grade.
Allison Dunne: How do you like TechGirlz?
Nikolya Sereda: I love it.
Allison Dunne: Why?
Nikolya Sereda: Yeah.
Allison Dunne: Why?
Nikolya Sereda: I love the, the classes and then the activities. They're like, you know, work and play, it's a nice balance.
Allison Dunne: Meanwhile, Caroline Lomnitzer says she wants to invent things within the realm of engineering. She hopes to build a flying car. I caught up with her as she was getting off a roller coaster. She told me something about the ride that she had learned from the park manager.
Caroline Lomnitzer: I thought it was pretty funny that, I think he said that the guy who made this, he invented it for fun.
Allison Dunne: And fun was at the forefront for these girls, whether in the classroom or during an evening ice-cream social. For many, the chance to socialize with other girls their age who are also deaf or hard-of-hearing was as indelible a part of the whole experience as building the computer.
Remember Stefani Bignell, who is considering pursuing computer tech support because of TechGirlz? She says TechGirlz was the first time she was around other girls with hearing loss, and it was easier to make friends. And Esmeralda Najera said she, too, enjoyed the social activities and made friends.
The girls also encountered role-model relationships, with NTID faculty members who were teaching TechGirlz classes. Nikolya Sereda said she really likes that TechGirlz teachers - nearly all of whom are deaf or hard-of-hearing - are role models.
Nikolya Sereda: It helps you see that you can have a career in technology.
Allison Dunne: Mark Sommer, the head of TechGirlz, says NTID faculty who teach at TechGirlz are role models in STEM, but there need to be more.
Mark Sommer: There really aren't that many role models, especially in science and, uh, and mathematics. It's very, very underrepresented. So what we can offer here hopefully encourages a lot more interest, not only, um, in them being able to have more choices in terms of their careers, but encouraging them to become models for others, you know, down the line.
Allison Dunne: For Jenilee Marques, she has a role model awaiting her at home - her mother.
Jenilee Marques: She's the one who's told me I can do anything; it doesn't matter if I'm deaf. She's happy I'm deaf; she made me happy I'm deaf because she know that, you know, there's good things about being deaf - it means I can sleep really well because I don't have to hear everything that's going on.
Allison Dunne: When it came time to return home, there were tears, hugs, and laughter. Caroline Lomnitzer, from northern New York, was donning one of the white lab coats given to the girls earlier in the week, and running around with her new friend, much to her mother's delight.
Beth Lomnitzer: Right away the first thing she did is she introduced me to her friend, which, I was so excited, because, you know, she was like, that was one of her, like, little, tiny goals, is she's like, 'I want to have a friend who can understand me and my, where I'm coming from'. And so, um, that was one of the best things so far.
Allison Dunne: Beth Lomnitzer said TechGirlz was a way for Caroline, who is now home-schooled and going into seventh grade, to both make friends and nurture her interest in science and engineering.
Beth Lomnitzer: Caroline's always been interested in science and math. And she's, ever since she first learned the word 'engineer', she, which was probably about like age six or so, she wanted to be an engineer. She loves to build things. Um, probably more, she likes to take things apart. And, uh, we kind of figured this would be a really, um, maybe a really good avenue for her to, um, to find some things that she really likes, find like a little bit of a niche. Um, and also where we are, it's very rural, um, so I don't believe she's ever really met anyone her age who is hearing-impaired.
Allison Dunne: And because she loves building things, Caroline found one of the projects especially appealing.
Caroline Lomnitzer: I really like making computers.
Allison Dunne: Did you know that before you got here?
Caroline Lomnitzer: No. I love building things, and everything I can take apart, I take apart. And one time, when I was like seven, I actually built a card-, I actually built a cardboard robot.
Allison Dunne: Another parent, Ken Hurd, was there to pick up his daughter, Krystyna. They're from northwestern New York. He said Krystyna's sister had attended TechGirlz two years ago, and Krystyna had wanted to come ever since. He observed Krystyna as very happy after a week at TechGirlz.
Allison Dunne: What were you most excited about for her?
Ken Hurd: Being able to experience a different culture because she's with hearing children all the time. And being with hearing-impaired hopefully shows her, uh, that if she does lose the rest of her hearing, she'll still be able to function and be part of society.
Allison Dunne: He also was excited for Krystyna to learn more about science and engineering.
Ken Hurd: I think she would make an awesome engineer. She is very mechanically-oriented, and she thinks mechanically. She uh, she's like me, not her mother. (laughs)
Allison Dunne: Amid the bustle of departure, Marisa Francis's mother grabbed a cup of coffee, and rested before the long drive home, while Marisa brought her things to the car.
Allison Dunne: So you taking your computer home?
Marisa Francis: Yeah.
Allison Dunne: You excited?
Marisa Francis: Yes, very much.
Allison Dunne: Are you happy to leave or are you sad to leave?
Marisa Francis: Sad to leave.
Allison Dunne: Because why?
Marisa Francis: Cause I really bonded with the people here and it's really fun here.
Allison Dunne: TechGirlz is a summer camp held at RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The camp is for deaf and hard-of-hearing girls who are entering seventh, eighth, or ninth grade in the September following camp.
For The Best of Our Knowledge, I'm Allison Dunne.
Access to Advancement is made possible by the National Science Foundation Research in Disabilities Education program.