Speaking to an auditorium full of high-school girls, Dr. Sara Atwood recalled a story about the early days of seatbelts. The male engineers designing the device, noted the Dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Elizabethtown College, neglected to consider the needs of pregnant women when making the safest seatbelts possible.

"We care about having every perspective in the room," Atwood told the girls. That's the motivation behind Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day on the campus. The second annual event was held in late February, drawing girls from 10 area high schools, including Penn Manor, Elizabethtown, Warwick, Columbia, Garden Spot, Hempfield and Conestoga Valley.

"As a girl in engineering myself, I'm especially proud of this effort by E-town's new Society of Women Engineers Student Section to 'Educate for Service," which is our motto here at Elizabethtown College," Atwood said. Last year, organizers planned on hosting about 30 girls, and the seats filled up immediately, so they expanded the program this year.

"It's exciting to see the tremendous growth in just our second annual offering of this event," Atwood shared, noting that about 100 girls were in attendance. They rotated through four workshops, including making mechanical inchworms, "Pac-Man Coding" and creating water filtration systems.

"My favorite class in high school was English," Atwood told the assembly at the program's start. "There are a lot of ways to be an engineer and a lot of different paths to get there. You can love to write and be an engineer. Calculus does not have to be your favorite class for you to be an engineer. You have to be able to do the math, but you don't have to love it. Don't think about what you want to be. Think about what you love to do."

For Columbia High School students Mar Mendoza and Sophia Garza, the program appealed because both wanted to learn about new topics and potential careers.

"Engineering seems so fun, and it's something I've thought about going into," shared Mar, a freshman. "I think this program will show me more opportunities of what I might do for a career in engineering."

Sophia agreed, adding that she was particularly interested in coding. "When you have an opportunity like today, you should take it," said the ninth-grader. "It's a good opportunity to learn more about STEM careers and develop a background in that in case I want to do something like that in the future."

Atwood emphasized that the day was designed to introduce the girls to engineering through hands-on projects and interaction with engineering faculty and students. Ultimately, she hopes events like Introduce a Girl to Engineering will close the industry's gender gap.

According to a DiscoverE and Global Strategy Group research study, only 11% of female high school students are interested in the engineering field, compared to 24% of males. The Elizabethtown College event was part of a nationwide campaign to increase the number of women in engineering fields. It was funded in part through a Lancaster County STEM Alliance diversity, equity and inclusion grant.

"I didn't know any engineers when I was in high school and wasn't sure about it as a career path, but I went into college and found that I loved it," Atwood stated. "I hope that we can inspire these young women in the same way."