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Releases @ TCC
TCC
TO CREATE NATIONAL MODEL FOR COMMUNITY-COLLEGE WOMEN
NSF
grants TCC $600K to bring over 100 women into science and tech
fields
NORFOLK, Va.
– (Aug. 27, 2004) – Mission: Bolster
the United States work force by training more women for success
in nontraditional fields; create a model that mentors a significant
sample of at-risk women into and through crucial degree programs.
The National
Science Foundation just awarded more than $600,000 to Tidewater
Community College to do just that; the mission begins this fall.
The NSF grant
powers an initiative to show how bright community-college women
- who are at risk for dropping out of college - can enter transfer
programs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM);
upon graduation, continue at four-year institutions to complete
bachelor’s of science programs; and move into the workplace.
“This presents
a golden opportunity to contribute to a national need and to train
more women to reach decision-making roles in these important fields,”
explains Mary Pat Liggio, coordinator of TCC’s Women’s Center.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to empower women to achieve
in these areas where there’s a continuing gender gap.”
Generally,
women make up much less than 25 percent of the labor force of
STEM occupations, particularly in management and where higher
earnings are possible, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Census
2000 Equal Employment Opportunity data. For example, the female
workforce of all architecture and engineering occupations is only
13.51 percent; astronomers and physicists, 13.88 percent; network
and computer systems administrators, 23.32 percent; and geological
and petroleum technicians, 21.93 percent.
TCC’s pioneer
project, which will ultimately reach more than 100 women over
five years, will employ diverse techniques and strategies to ensure
student success. Beginning this October, 30 women will start the
process with intensive academic advising and intervention counseling.
The group will meet regularly to learn more about their chosen
professions and transfer options.
Mentoring
will play a key role through TCC’s Networks for Women program,
which has enlisted the help of professional women in leadership
roles at firms such as AutoTrader.com. Students will get an insider’s
look at various nontraditional careers through job-shadowing opportunities.
The grant also covers faculty training to assure female-friendly
classrooms with materials that women find intrinsically interesting.
The project
aims to increase retention rates for women in these courses of
study from 74 percent to 85 percent; increase recruitment from
its current 40 percent to 59 percent; and to track, long term,
the success rate of students who persist at their transfer colleges
and enter their chosen profession.
“This project
flows from a vision we set down in 2001,” Liggio says. “It really
represents what we’re all about - educating women and eliminating
barriers.”
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NOTE: To interview the project managers, faculty,
and students candidates for participation in the grant, contact
Laurie White at 757-822-1084 or LWhite@tcc.edu.
Tidewater Community College is the second
largest of the 23 community colleges in the Commonwealth of Virginia,
enrolling more than 34,000 students annually. The 37th largest in
the nation’s 1,600 community-college network, TCC ranks among the
50 fastest-growing large community colleges. Founded in 1968 as
a part of the Virginia Community College System, the college serves
the South Hampton Roads region with campuses in Chesapeake, Norfolk,
Portsmouth and Virginia Beach as well as the TCC Jeanne and George
Roper Performing Arts Center in the theater district in downtown
Norfolk, the Visual Arts Center in Olde Towne Portsmouth and a regional
Advanced Technology Center in Virginia Beach. Forty-three percent
of the region’s residents attending a college or university in Virginia
last fall were enrolled at TCC.
