For three weeks in June, 200 middle and high school girls are exposed to the ins and outs of the engineering world through a summer camp.
For three weeks in June, the SMU Lyle School of Engineering hosts 200 middle and high school girls from for its annual Engineering Camp for Girls. The week-long program hosted by SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering purpose is to peak their interest in the engineering arena. 
Some girls in attendance are from Dallas area schools and others have come as far away as Maryland.
The girls’ summer camp was created through SMU Lyle’s Gender Parity Initiative, which adresses the short supply of American engineers, aiming to fill the shortage with women. The Initiative’s goal is to achieve a balance of women and men in engineering classrooms and in the field.
Don Ruggles, engineering academy director at Hightower High School in Houston, Texas, teaches the girls various hands-on activities at the camp, like constructing bridges out of newspaper, testing the strength of their structure and building speakers out of Styrofoam bowls.
“Our goal is to inform them about engineering and the characteristics of what makes a good engineer,” Ruggles said. “The second, third and fourth days of the camp we practice hands-on engineering techniques.”
Every Wednesday the morning and afternoon, classes of the camp are merged for a discussion with Texas Instruments women engineers about closing the diversity gap among women in the engineering field.
Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Blake of Maryland became involved in the camp with guidance from her female cousin, who is an engineer at TI and spoke at the camp. Blake attends McKinley Technology High School in Maryland and joined the camp to learn more about her future career.
“At the moment, I would like to study bio medicine and be a brain surgeon,” Blake said. “But I would like to see if this camp will teach me more about engineering, and I may change my mind.”
Seventeen-year-old Angelica Gordon of Desoto High School signed up for the summer camp online because her counselor told her that enrichment programs look good on college applications. Gordon said she would like to further her learning, and “by the end of the week, be more knowledgeable about what the engineering field has to offer.” She hopes the camp will help her decide if she would like to pursue engineering as a career path.
“I love to research and problem solv[ing],” Gordon said. “When my dad asks me what I want to be, I tell him, ‘I’m going to be the first person to discover a cure for AIDS.'”
Ruggles said many of the girls in the camp are referred by counselors because they have taken many science and math courses and done well in them. SMU sophomore and civil engineering major, Scott Paulhus is a teaching assistant at the camp and helps Ruggles guide the girls in their hands-on projects.
“I’m here to help the girls further their learning of engineering and show them around campus,” Paulhus said.
Julia Aycock is a senior at Desoto High School who hopes to be a biochemical engineer. Her mother registered her for the camp online after receiving notice of it from a counselor.
“I’m open-minded and I like to create stuff. I think building this bridge might be my favorite activity,” Aycock said. “I hope this camp will give me more knowledge about what engineers do.”
The camp is supported by women engineers and volunteers from Texas Instruments. A Texas Workforce Commission Grant funded this year’s camp, with support from Raytheon and Texas Instruments.