Attend the WomenTech Educators 3-Day Bootcamp to Learn How You Can Gain up to 25-50% Female STEM Enrollment in Only 8 Months

 

3-Day Online Bootcamp

July 13, 14 & 15, 2016

Community colleges that have implemented the strategies participants learn through WomenTech Educators Online Training Program have seen remarkable results: 5 of 7 colleges started enrolling an average of 4.8 more female students in their STEM courses and 6 of 7 increased female retention from an average baseline of 58% to 100% in only 8 months.

Application Deadline: June 15, 2016

This NSF-funded Bootcamp is FREE for teams of 6 community college STEM educators. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling admissions basis and the training fills quickly, so apply early.

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In this video, your trainer Donna Milgram shares remarkable results from past online training participants:

Watch this short video to learn how to help your female (and male) students be more successful in their STEM courses.

 

What Educators Are Saying About the Training

“Donna is so passionate about her work it shows. That passion is infectious and can only serve to close the digital divide.“

84% Knowledge Increase Online Training ChartSource: Participants in WomenTech Educators Online Training. External evaluator's report to the National Science Foundation for the CalWomenTech Scale-Up Project.

You Will Learn:

Training Participant

Attend the WomenTech Educators Training from the comfort of your own desk.

Females in STEM: Key Factors for Recruitment

✓ Top three recruitment strategies & how to put them to use
✓ How to adopt a program-wide “female friendly” recruitment approach
✓ How to communicate the benefits of STEM at each stage of the recruitment process
✓ Effective strategies to involve faculty & staff in your recruiting effort

Gender Diversity in STEM: Boosting Enrollment & Implementing New Culture

✓ Barriers to recruiting women into STEM & how to overcome them
✓ How to identify your target audience for recruitment and low-hanging fruit
✓ Success in STEM: See actionable examples of successful STEM programs

Strategies to Keep STEM Students on Course & Improve Graduation Rates

✓ How to make female students feel welcome and what not to do
✓ Ways to bolster confidence in STEM students to ensure success
✓ Strategies to help your female students be successful in the lab
✓ Building block skills to help close the experience gap

Addressing the STEM Challenge: Appeal to Women Who Aren't Excited by STEM

✓ How faculty can teach to female learning styles
✓ How to connect students with female role models & create community
✓ An "ah-ha" moment on spatial reasoning - what you need to know

Build a Leadership Team Model for Women in STEM: Strategies for Success

✓ Ways to partner with faculty, administrators, student services & others
✓ No educator is an island: How to work together & boost STEM retention
✓ Top 3 qualities of an effective Leadership Team & how to employ them

You Will Take Away:

  1. An easy-to-implement recruitment plan to greatly increase the number of women and girls in your STEM classrooms.
  2. A retention plan for your school to increase the completion rate of your female (and male students), starting this semester.
  3. The knowledge and confidence you need to put these plans into action right away, and free bonus tools that will help you be even more successful. (See Bonuses section below.).
  4. Results: Community colleges that have implemented the strategies participants learn through this program have seen remarkable results: 5 of 7 colleges started enrolling an average of 4.8 more female students in their STEM courses and 6 of 7 increased female retention from an average baseline of 58% to 100% in only 8 months.
Schedule and What's Involved:
  • Orientation call with your team and your trainer Donna Milgram July 4 - 8, 2016

  • 3-day Bootcamp July 13, 14, & 15, 2016 from 8am - 2:30pm PT/ 11am – 5:30pm ET

  • 9 months of Follow-Up Support on plan development and implementation (includes 3 team calls with your trainer, 1 group call, and access to online community)

Who Should Attend:

  • College-based teams consisting of administrators, instructors, counselors and outreach staff from STEM programs where female students are underrepresented

  • Teams should consist of 6 members

  • Preference will be given to teams connected with an ATE Center or Project

Continuing Education Credit:

Fresno Pacific University is now offering one unit of continuing education credit to online training participants! Note: You can sign up for the continuing education credit starting four weeks in advance of training.

Overview of 2016 Online Bootcamp Schedule

Visual Overview of the WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp

Team Support Calls and Customized Feedback led to AMAZING results from the online training in 2015!

We’ve unlocked the proven path to increasing the number of female students in your STEM program. Community colleges in our National Science Foundation-funded February 2015 online training group have seen remarkable results: 5 of 7 colleges started enrolling an average of 4.8 more female students in their STEM courses and 6 of 7 increased female retention from an average baseline of 58% to 100% in only 8 months.

Including...

A Georgia community college that went from only 1 female student in an introductory Emerging Technology course to 15 of 17 students just one semester after the online training.

A Massachusetts community college that went from 1 female student in manufacturing to 9 out of 13 students in its introductory course the next semester. Plus, 100% of the female students were retained!

NEVER let anyone tell you again that nothing can be done, or that making change happen for female students in your STEM program will take decades or require a huge budget. We have the evidence to prove your institution can start seeing real increases in as little as one year!

The WomenTech Educators Training is designed to provide you with a roadmap that will enable you to achieve your goals and because you get access to Follow-Up Support calls after the Bootcamp, you will receive support for implementation of your plan strategies. We are committed to helping educators succeed in creating a gender balance in STEM. Once you have achieved results in increasing the number of female students in your programs, you may be featured in case studies or webinars to highlight your team’s accomplishments while inspiring other educators!

After the WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp Program: Follow-Up Support

Keep online Bootcamp participants and your educational institution as a whole focused on your goal of increasing the number of women in STEM. With this ongoing support, you'll receive help as you work to improve and implement the Recruitment and Retention Plans that you develop during the training. In our successful CalWomenTech Project, the external evaluators found that along with the training, support for implementation was one of the top 2 most important things that helped schools achieve their impressive recruitment and retention results.

You will receive:

➤ Follow-Up Support on Plan Development and Implementation:

You'll have direct access to your trainer, Donna Milgram, on live team Immediate Plan Feedback Tele-Calls. You'll meet by phone with Donna in the weeks immediately following the Bootcamp. She'll give "focused advising" and personalized feedback on your team's strategic plans, and answer questions during each 1-hour call. You will have the opportunity to sign up for a call with just your team and Donna. The Follow-Up Support will end with a group call where all teams present on their plans and implementation progress. Colleges that have received this type of Follow-Up Support have found that it was extremely effective in moving them from plan to action, and ultimately helping them see significant gains in the number of women in their STEM classrooms. All calls are recorded and emailed to participants.

 

➤ Exclusive Online Learning Community:

All of the educators who attend the online Bootcamp will be granted access to a private members-only online course in Canvas -- an open source learning management system. Our online learning community in Canvas is a place to receive support, additional resources, and space to work together with other training participants to share documents and progress on plan implementation. Be a member of our community whose culture is one of positive change around increasing the number of women in STEM. The culture of our online community is, "We can do it!"

 
 

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This NSF-funded Bootcamp is free to ATE grantees and
STEM faculty in 2-year colleges (see above for who should apply).

Two FREE Gifts When You Enroll Your Team Now:

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Hard to Find Women in STEM Classroom Resources:

We've made it easy for educators to find online role model resources that will help women and girls see themselves in all career pathways. Also, this downloadable guide includes sample curriculums and websites that teach STEM in a female-friendly way. Don't miss this; it will save STEM educators many hours of researching on their own.

Sample Resource: Dot Divas are young women that believe in the potential of computing to make a better world. The Dot Diva website offers female role model profiles, examples of how computing can be used in many careers, and a webisode video featuring a young female role model. Parents and educators can find advice for talking to young women about computing, messages and images that work to spark their interest, downloadable recruitment materials (a Dot Diva poster, brochure, and flyer), and female role model videos on YouTube.

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Women in Technology Outreach Kit:

It's challenging to develop outreach materials that really work to recruit women to STEM! To help schools we have developed this easy-to-use kit with examples and templates for Women in STEM program brochure, program flyer, event flyer, recruitment PowerPoint presentation, and school website section that all include female role models. These materials were tested with 8 schools that were successful in recruiting more female students to STEM.

The female role model questionnaire alone is worth its weight in gold with the key questions and follow up questions to ask those hard-to-find female role models and how to elicit an inspirational quote from a women in STEM. Based on hundreds of interviews with STEM stars, you won’t want to miss this.

Don Levine

"For a long time, we heard from educators, 'Well, we can't find any girls who WANT to be welders'- but now, there's an increased perception that supporting female students in male-dominated careers is a much bigger deal, and there are resources available that can give all students a better ability to explore and pursue their interests. IWITTS materials like the STEM bibliography and Outreach Kit are a huge part of the resources we can offer to districts to help them serve their students. It's not just about Perkins compliance anymore."

~ Don Levine, CTE Education Specialist, Alaska Department of Education and Early Development


About Your Trainer: Donna Milgram

Milgram speaking at US DOE Symposium

Learn directly from Executive Director Donna Milgram, the creator of the WomenTech Educators Training

Donna Milgram is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS), a national nonprofit organization founded in 1994 that provides educators with a roadmap to increasing the number of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and math.

  • Ms. Milgram developed the WomenTech Educators Training to help educators nationwide increase the number of women in their technology programs.
  • A nationally recognized expert on closing the gender gap for women and girls in STEM, Ms. Milgram has personally conducted hundreds of WomenTech Educators Trainings in 46 states and Canada.
  • She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and conference presentations including the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and Women in Engineering Proactive Network (WEPAN). Recent presentation highlights include:
    • U.S. Department of Education, Moving STEM Forward in the Career, Technical and Adult Symposium;
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Challenging Technical Privilege Symposium Panel; and,
    • Engineering for Kids Conference (Keynote Presenter).  

  • Donna has been featured in the media on CNN, Fox Morning News, C-Span, and National Public Radio, and has been quoted in major newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, and more.
  • An innovative leader, Donna Milgram draws upon over 21 years of experience leading successful projects. The recent CalWomenTech Project was highlighted by the National Science Foundation for demonstrating significant achievement and program effectiveness and chosen as 1 of 3 model projects by the American Association of University Women.

NSF-Funded WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp FAQs:

Who is eligible?

College-based teams consisting of administrators, instructors, counselors and outreach staff from STEM programs where female students are underrepresented. Teams should consist of 6 members. Preference will be given to teams connected with an ATE Center or Project. Watch the webinar for more information on applying as a team and who should be on your team.

How much does it cost?

This grant-funded program is FREE to eligible participants, as part of the National Science Foundation-funded CalWomenTech Scale Up Project. This program, including the online training, Follow-Up Support, and access to the online learning community normally costs participants $4,700 per team.

What are the benefits of participating?

What is the #1 benefit? More female students in your classes! Here are some additional benefits to you if your team is accepted for the WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp Program:

  1. Get significant value: You can reach a team of 6 educators at your college, without incurring any travel costs.
  2. Accommodate everyone's busy schedule, from deans and administrators to part-time adjuncts, with this 3-day training (only 6.5 hours a day with time for lunch and breaks).
  3. Your team can implement what they're learning while the training is actually happening, and get guidance and direction from your trainer, Donna Milgram, and the other members of the community.
  4. If you are an ATE grantee, this training will strengthen the "Broader Impacts" you report to NSF.
  5. IWITTS has included past training recipients who have successfully increased the number of women in their classes in national conference presentations.
  6. Your achievements in increasing the number of women in your classes may be highlighted by IWITTS as case studies to inspire other educators and for your own future use.
  7. The top Women in STEM Recruitment and Retention Plans in the training will be chosen by your trainer Donna Milgram. The selected plans will be featured in the private online learning community and an email will be sent to the dean/VP of each team that develops a top plan recognizing your team's achievement.
  8. Certificate of completion: At the end of the implementation period, each team member will receive a certificate which can be referenced in your future grant proposals.

What's expected of my team?

  • Taking part in the WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp Program as a team of 6 members from your college (includes a team orientation call, 3-day online Bootcamp, and a total of 4 Follow-Up Support calls, 2 of which are Plan Feedback Tele-calls).
  • Developing Recruitment and Retention Plans as a team for the targeted program, and posting plans in a private online learning community.
  • Actively participating in the Follow-Up Support for plan implementation, which takes place in the 9 months after the online training ends, and a short, virtual presentation on the team's plan implementation progress in a required, final group call.
  • Posting successes and challenges in the online learning community, and responding to the posts of others.
  • Participating in evaluation-related activities (no individual student data will be requested).

How to Apply:

  1. Get started - Submit an Intent to Apply to get your application started. The date you submit your Intent to Apply will be the start date on your application, so submit early to get your application in before other teams! (Note: You don't have to have all your team members identified to submit an Intent to Apply.)
  2. Watch a short webinar - You'll receive more information when you fill out the Intent to Apply. This webinar will help you put together your team and submit a competitive application. It's required for all applicants and the online application will ask you to confirm that you watched the webinar.
  3. Create a team of 6 members, pick a team name (e.g. Greenville Technical College Team) and select a key contact for the application process. 
  4. Complete individual online applications before the June 15, 2016 deadline - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7RXFDZX (Note: Each team member must be identified at this point and must submit her/his own online application. There will be a place to enter your team name in the form.)
  5. Obtain a letter of commitment - Have your dean or supervisor sign a letter of commitment (PDF). Return the signed letter by fax (510-749-0500) or email to seminars[at]iwitts.org. (Note: Each team member must submit a signed letter of commitment from her/his dean/supervisor. If you are unable to submit the signed letter of commitment by the application deadline, go ahead and apply anyway. Contact us at seminars[at]iwitts.org and we will try accommodate you.)

More information:

For additional information about the NSF-funded WomenTech Educators Online Training Program, contact us at seminars[at]iwitts.org or call Christine Lesaca, Program Assistant, at 510-749-0200 ext 105.

NEW

Free: Leadership Team Webinar for Your WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp Application

Watch our informative 60-minute webinar led by Donna Milgram to learn how to get the most out of this valuable training opportunity - fill out the Intent to Apply for more information. Donna is the founder of IWITTS and will be your WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp Instructor.

In This Free Webinar You Will Learn:

✓ About successful outcomes of schools that have participated in the WomenTech Educators trainings in the past
✓ What's included in the NSF-funded WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp Program
✓ How to put together a strong WomenTech Educators Leadership Team and apply for this free NSF-funded program
✓ How to choose a STEM Career Pathway to focus on in the training
✓ How your team can set you up to be successful and help you institutionalize takeaways from this proven program
Answers to questions asked during our live sessions by educators applying for the program

You Will Take Away:

The vital information you need to create a competitive application for our limited number of NSF-funded WomenTech Educators Online Bootcamp Program seats! Applications for this training program are reviewed and scored on a first-come, first-served basis.

This webinar will help you create a competitive application and set your team up for greater success. Start your application today to receive access to our webinar recording.

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This NSF-funded Bootcamp is free to ATE grantees and
STEM faculty in 2-year colleges (see above for who should apply).

The Power of Teams:

Teams communicate as a single voice during the program. While team members may watch modules individually, the team joins together weekly to synthesize and apply the information into a group assignment. These assignments build to create full Recruitment and Retention Action Plans by the end of the training.

Experience and research show that participating as a team sets you up to be successful and see results. Over 5 NSF-funded projects and 20 years of offering professional development, we have found that educators who work in teams develop stronger Women in STEM Recruitment and Retention Action Plans, are able to get the support they need to start implementing those plans right away, and are more likely to institutionalize lasting change.

Some of the many benefits of participating as a team:

  • Team participation enhances and encourages engagement in the online training and the practical application of training content.
  • The more people you can train in your department, region, or state, the more likely you are to see significant increases in female students, as well as lasting institutional change.
  • Team members support each other using a common educational language and framework. The team facilitates cross-departmental relationships and institutional change, providing benefits that go far beyond the training itself.

What WomenTech Educator Participants Said About Their Teams in the Training:

“We have a fabulous team. So many people have different varied areas of expertise. We meet Wednesday mornings and everybody is energized and works hard.”

~ Patti Williams, Faculty, Surveying & Mapping Technologies, Mid-west College

Who Should Be on Your Team:
Your team will be the most effective if it includes a variety of stakeholders from your college dedicated to increasing the number of female students in the targeted STEM program. In our experience, a Women in STEM Leadership Team with 6-10 members sets a school up to be successful from the start. Ideally, a dean, department chair, technology center director, or Principal Investigator (PI) of an Advanced Technology Education (ATE) grant will act as key leader and an instructor from the targeted program will act as co-leader.

Recommended core team members:

  • Dean or Chair of the Department of the targeted program;
  • Director of the Technology Center (or equivalent if applicable);
  • Principal Investigator of the ATE grant (if applicable);
  • Minimum of two instructors in targeted technology courses, with one being an adjunct if possible (highly recommended);
  • If you have math prerequisites for core targeted courses, a math administrator.

Other potential team members could include counselors, advisors, outreach coordinators, learning center staff, curriculum developers, Workforce Development Director, Research & Planning Officer, STEM coordinators, representatives from feeder high school(s) or job training programs, and other key stakeholders. The free Leadership Team Webinar and the Online Bootcamp include additional guidance on forming and working with a Women in STEM Leadership Team.

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The more educators who are trained, in your school, the more effective you will be!

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This NSF-funded Bootcamp is free to ATE grantees and
STEM faculty in 2-year colleges (see above for who should apply).

What Educators Are Saying About the WomenTech Educators Training:

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"We have the first three women in our Auto Technology Program and really want to make sure they succeed. After participating in the WomenTech Educator's online training, we created additional open lab time for them, realizing they may need extra time to develop hands-on skills in a nonthreatening atmosphere. Two months into the course they are still with us. I learned so much about retention from the online training, I decided our entire Engineering and Technology Department could benefit and we are bringing the online training to our school and rolling it out to all of the technical faculty over the next two years."

~ Van Madray, Dean of Construction and Industrial Technology Division, Pitt Community College, Winterville, NC

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"Attending the WomenTech Educators training was the best decision I have made in a long time! During the training, I developed a Recruitment and Retention Plan for one of the CIS programs. This is not a training where you consider doing "something" when you get back to your office, you are actually developing and obtaining feedback from other colleagues on what they have done and how you can improve your plan before implementation! Plus, I will be able to take my experience and work on other programs of study using the same framework."

~ Edna Quintana Claus, Ph.D., M.B.A., CIS Division Director, Texas State Technical College Harlingen, Harlingen, TX

Pbaca

"The training was time well spent. It was such a minimal amount of time to get so many concrete implementable strategies. The WomenTech Educators Online Training gives you the most for your money—you can implement the tools immediately with minimal resources and see true quantitative results!"

~ Phyllis Baca, Director of STEM Initiatives, Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe, NM

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"The WomenTech Educators Online Training has the potential to change the way you view your program. Important data is presented with passion and humor. I want you to know I have gained a great deal from the course. By the time you have a graduate degree and have worked in education for decades, most "professional development" is repetitive. I can honestly say that you have given me much to think about and that it will result in changes to my approach to course development."

~ Lauran Sattler, Department Chair, Computer Information Systems, Ivy Tech Community College, President's Award for Instructional Excellence 2007, Warsaw, IN

rmathur

"The training conducted by Donna Milgram was the best training I have ever received because I can implement the Recruitment and Retention Plans I created specifically for my program Computer Information Management (CIM) to help increase females in technology at Irvine Valley College!"

~ Roopa Mathur, Professor, Computer Information Management , Irvine Valley College, Irvine, CA

See the full list of testimonials

Here are just some of our past ATE clients:

  • Consortium for Alabama Regional Center for Automotive Manufacturing (CARCAM), Gadsden, AL
  • Midwest Center for Information Technology (MCIT), AIM Institute, Omaha, NE
  • South Carolina Advanced Technological Education National Resource Center for Engineering Technology Education (SC ATE), Florence-Darlington Technical College, Florence, SC
  • Convergence Technology Center (CTC), Frisco, TX
  • Technology and Innovation in Manufacturing Education Center (TIME Center), Baltimore, MD
  • Nevada Information Technology Education (NVITE), Community College of Southern Nevada, North Las Vegas, NV
  • Center for the Advancement of Process Technology (CAPT), Mainland College, Texas City, TX
  • Diversity in Engineering Technology (NC JETS), University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC

There are a limited number of NSF-funded WomenTech Educators Bootcamp Program spaces available.

applynowbutton

This NSF-funded Bootcamp program is free to ATE grantees and
STEM faculty in 2-year colleges (see above for who should apply).

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The National Online WomenTech Project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education Program from The National Science Foundation - Grant no. 1400531