Outreach
A Legacy of K-12 Outreach
SWE created a professional guidance and education committee in 1952 to encourage high school girls to consider engineering as a career. Over the decades the Society’s outreach programming has expanded, introducing school-aged girls to engineering concepts and capturing their attention with engaging hands-on, problem-solving activities.
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In the late 1950s and 1960s, SWE sections’ early outreach efforts primarily focused on career information sessions for high school girls and presenting awards to girls at science fairs.
In the 1970s and 1980s, SWE members began introducing engineering to girls in elementary school, recognizing that children develop career interests and aspirations early in life.
Funded by a grant from NASA, SWE’s Higher Education Outreach Program, or HEOP, in the late 1980s and 1990s provided scholarships to girls from historically underrepresented communities to attend NASA space camps and summer STEM programs at universities.
SWE and its sections increasingly rely on hands-on projects to teach creative problem-solving skills.
