Tips for Industry Participation

1
Tips for Industry Participation

• Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day
• February 2006

2
Overview

• The Business Case for Industry Participation
• Tips for Planning
• Tips for Conducting Your Day
• Tips for Follow-up Gathering Lessons Learned
• Things that Didnt Work for Us

3
The Business Case

• Senior management support for participation is
  vital.
  
• Determine how Girl Day fits into your companys
  community relations mission. Seek advice from
  your companys gurus on United Way, Junior
  Achievement and other programs.
• Be willing to start this as a grass-roots
  initiative and grow it into a corporate
  initiative like we did.
  
• Convince management with statistics view them
  on the Notes Page for this slide.
  
• Volunteering in Girl Day program may increase
  retention of your female engineers.
  
• ExxonMobils participation history Started as a
  grass-roots effort in 2004 at 3 sites with 40
  volunteers and 125 girls. In 2006, weve grown
  the program to 11 sites, 200 volunteers and 2700
  students. See Notes Page for 2006 sites.

4
Planning Tips

• Start planning early December is not too early
  to start.
  
• Coordinate with other company sites, local
  universities, Girl Scouts, other companies, local
  engineering societies.
  
• Work closely with your Public Affairs group for
  media contacts They can also leverage off of
  existing relationships with community
  organizations.
• Decide if you will do an on-site program or
  school visits. Develop a budget.
  
• Talk to teachers and get to know your audience so
  your program will be age appropriate.
  
• Find out if special accommodations are necessary
  for safety, security, special needs students.
  
• Get volunteer commitments before you finalize
  your plans with schools.
  
• Provide written expectations to your volunteers.
• Recruit at least one or two volunteers to be
  emergency back-ups.
  
• Test your experiments and demonstrations with
  students.
  
• Develop a detailed agenda but stay flexible.

5
Execution Tips K.I.S.S.

• Start with info on fire drill restrooms.
• Provide a mix of activities ice-breaker, hands
  on experiments demos, team competitions, tours,
  panel discussions, QA, See Note Page for
  resources.
• Keep each segment short, interactive and lively,
  especially speeches Use photos and props if
  giving a How I became an engineer
  presentation.
• Lunch should be simple and allow time for
  conversation with women engineers.
  
• Have senior mgmt drop in. This benefits the
  volunteers more than students!
  
• Answer questions in terms girls can relate to.
  For example, your starting salary as engineer
  means you can rent a nice apartment, buy a new
  car, etc.
• Tell the girls what next, such as summer
  engineering camps at local colleges.
  
• Provide a goody bag with SWE brochures,
  trinkets with company logo, Just us Girls
  t-shirts, list of websites on engineering schools
  careers,
• Remember to provide pertinent handouts to
  teachers and guidance counselors.
  
• Have some fun!

6
Follow-up Tips

• Survey students and teachers but keep it simple.
• Survey volunteers on what worked and didnt.
• If conducting at multiple sites, share learnings
  soon after the event.
  
• Thank all the volunteers, preferably with a note
  from management or copied to management.
  
• Provide a thank-you gift where appropriate.

7
Oops Things that Didnt Work

• Dont assume the school knows exactly how long it
  will take to get to your site , park and/or check
  in.
  
• Avoid swivel chairs for students its like a
  toy!
  
• A heavy lunch is an invitation for an afternoon
  nap.
  
• For classroom visits, if demos are short, have
  more than you need in case you have extra time.
  
• If multiple presenters will be doing classroom
  visits, provide a presentation that doesnt
  require (or invite) too much customization by
  each presenter.
• Dont use demos or experiments where only a few
  kids get to participate. (Avoid the 500 Students
  at an Assembly syndrome)
  
• Try not to let employees confuse this with Take
  your child to work day unless that really IS
  your intent.
  
• If the media attends, try not to let them be too
  intrusive.