High school age girls will explore how engineers think

On Saturday, March 25^th, 2023, Sweet Briar College is hosting up to 200 Girl Scouts from the Nation's Capital for a day of engineering exploration. As one of only two all-women ABET accredited engineering programs in the country, Sweet Briar College is a natural partner for the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital (GSCNC) whose high school age girls are interested in engineering.

The day, sponsored by Lockheed Martin, will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Upchurch Field House and Williams Gym inside the Fitness and Athletic Center and Guion Science and Engineering Center at Sweet Briar. With over 40 chaperones, over 25 Sweet Briar College engineering student volunteers, 15 Sweet Briar College Admissions Ambassadors, and all 6 Sweet Briar College engineering faculty, the Girl Scouts will develop a better appreciation for what engineering is, how design thinking works, and what engineers do to solve real-world problems.

The Girl Scouts will run three experiments demonstrating how an assembly line works, how football flags on cars cause drag, and how engineers structure buildings to make them earthquake resistant. Further, they will be learning from Sweet Briar College’s (all-women) engineering students.

Lockheed Martin hopes to feed the pipeline of future engineers they need to operate and grow their business with these talented girls and Sweet Briar College hopes that many of the girls will enjoy seeing young women leading, learn from their experience -─ and become Sweet Briar College engineers!

This is just the first component of their engineering journey. The Girl Scouts will be bringing home electronic kits that they make at Sweet Briar and will use to teach engineering skills to younger scouts near their homes.

“This event represents a unique collaboration between the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital and Sweet Briar College to bring high school age girls to a college campus to learn how engineers think and what they do to improve our world. It is the first time an event of this kind has been put together, but we hope to see this continue and grow,” comments Dr. Woo, the 13^th president of Sweet Briar.