Hypatia: Women in Engineering Learning Community

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Hypatia Women in Engineering Learning Community

• Presentation by
• Maureen Lazar, Program Assistant
• Kimberly LaBoone, Coordinator for Student Support
  Services
• April 1, 2002

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HYPATIA

• Established August 2001

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Who is Hypatia?

• Hypatia was born in Alexandria, Egypt
• We chose Hypatia to represent our community
  because she is a symbol of strength, hard work,
  and dedication.  She was a pioneer in her fields
  of philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy as we
  are today as women in the field of engineering. 
  Her incredible success encourages us to follow
  our dreams and reach for our goals. Quote from
  Women in community.

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Mural completed by women in Hypatia Community in
December 2001
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Hypatia Participants Mission

• 40 Freshman women who live in Slusher Wing
• Mission of program is to bring together women
  engineering students in a residential environment
  to provide encouragement and support while
  pursuing a degree in engineering.

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Fall Activities

• All women participate in 3-credit seminar course
  to transition women into VT and engineering
• Women are cluster enrolled in Engineering
  Fundamentals, Chemistry, and Mathematics
• Participated in a Ropes Course Experience
• Formed committees within the hall to plan
  programs Application Selection, Community
  Service, Programming, Social, and Web page Design
• Resident Advisor Programming

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Spring Activities

• Hall Meetings and Committee Programming
• Engineering Site Visits
• Speaker Series
• Movie Project
• Book Project
• Resident Advisor Programming

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Is Hypatia a success?

• Yes, heres what the women are saying
• You could always ask your neighbor for help when
  you got stuck.
• I definitely suggest doing this community.  It
  was very helpful
• No matter what, you always have someone to study
  with.
• We are extremely close since we all have at least
  one class together
• Networking (baby) and lots of it.

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Assessment DataHypatia v. Control group

• Statistically identical on all the variables of
  interest (gender, level, college, on-campus
  residence, and SATTOTAL score)
• For fall 2002 the Hypatia group earned
  significantly higher grades overall? 3.14 for
  Hypatia
• ? 2.67 for the control group
• (t 4.573, df 535, p .000)
• This is based on GROUP QCA, not an average of
  INDIVIDUAL QCAs. That is, it gives more weight to
  a 4.00 average on 18 hours than on 6 hours.

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Learning Communities Assessment

• Instrument developed by Cathryn Turrentine,
  Director of Planning and Assessment for Student
  Affairs, in 2000
• Measures personal outcomes of students
• 46 items 5 sections Active Engagement,
  Learning, Sense of Community, Identity, and
  Overall positive evaluation
• Reported strong agreement in all areas except
  change in sense of Identity (typical for
  first-year students as compared to other
  first-year student programs, Hypatia had very
  positive results)

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Future of Hypatia

• Looking to expand community to 96 women,
  depending on student interest
• New class structure to accommodate 90 students
• Large group -- meets once a week
• Small discussion group
• Engineering
• First Year Issues of transition
• Career professional development related topics

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• Questions?