Engineers come from all races and backgrounds, but very few women have traditionally found careers in engineering.

According to the Society of Women Engineers (swe.com), the average rate of women in professional engineering jobs hovers between 10-15 percent on average.

There is currently a need for engineers in general, but companies are especially focused on encouraging women to enter the field.

Recently, Ritenour High School has partnered with the Women in Engineering program to help change this. The Project Lead The Way (PLTW) program is helping to advocate for women and expose them to as much of the field as possible.

Field trips have been organized to help explore career opportunities and spark interests. The group has gone to different colleges such as Saint Louis University and Washington University for engineering expositions.

The groups also had opportunities to meet with other female high school and college students, who are on the path to becoming engineers. Jennifer Strathman, one of Ritenour’s engineering teachers, is proud of the program.

“I feel like it encourages female students to choose engineering as a pathway, when otherwise they wouldn’t.” Strathman said. “Even if the girls don’t choose
engineering, there are plenty of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers that could pique their interests.”

Women in Engineering has many connections within the engineering field. Companies such as Boeing and Ameren have representatives for the program.

Jennifer Prose is the head Boeing representative and Leslie Bond is the head representative for Ameren. They regularly work with the Ritenour PLTW program and help organize field trips and events.

Often times tours of the company buildings are organized and the students have the opportunity to meet engineers and employees of each company. They try to convey a realistic understanding of the job’s criteria and career possibilities.

Seven different engineering classes are offered at Ritenour High School. Introduction to Engineering Design [IED] and Principals of Engineering [POE] are the two prerequisite classes. After taking these two classes, students qualify to take Aerospace Engineering [AE], Civil Engineering and Architecture [CEA], Engineering Design and Development [EDD], and the most recent addition, Biotech Engineering [BE].

All of these classes encourage collaboration, regardless of race or gender. The program is constantly expanding and bringing in more members, and currently the females outnumber the males.

The Women in Engineering program hopes to bring diversity and ideas to the high school, college, and career levels. Krissten Swyres, Ritenour’s newest engineering teacher, believes that this kind of attitude and thinking will be good for the engineering program as a whole.

“Anytime you get a group of people from diverse backgrounds to cooperate and work together only good things can happen,” Swyres said.