I always wanted to be an engineer, but as a child of the ’80s, I had limited exposure to engineering in middle or high school—and when I took seventh-grade wood shop, I got my first taste of sexism from male peers—and from the teacher.
In high school, I loved auto shop, but the advanced class time conflicted with calculus (Obviously the school didn’t plan for future engineers who wanted to take both shop and high-level math.）
幸运的是，今天的孩子，尤其是女孩，有更好的选择。
If anything demonstrates the exciting potential for women in STEM, it’s the You Go Girl (YGG) program at Olathe Northwest high school in Olathe, Kan. I wish it had been there when I was a fifth grader deciding what to be when I grew up.
YGG was developed within Olathe Northwest’s FIRST Robotics Team 1710, which is part of the school’s 21st-century Engineering Academy and, in turn, affiliated with the global FIRST program to promote STEM study and careers that has touched 400,000 students in 80 countries.
YGG’s motto is “to further inspire and empower” girls’ confidence in their STEM skills and potential. Its simplicity underscores its elegance—to show that women in STEM arecompletelynormal.
长期以来，学校一直试图让更多的女孩进入科学，技术，工程和数学。障碍包括太少的榜样和缺乏早期技能的暴露。Ygg凭借授权，鼓励和独创性，聘请了一支Olathe机器人团队，女性为42％。
“It’s amazing to see excitement on girls’ faces when they realize what they can do in STEM,” the 2017 Team 1710 CEO Megan Wheeler tells me. Teams are run like companies, with students as CEOs and in business development roles.
“我们努力创造一个环境，没有人告诉他们他们做错了。工程的很大一部分是……以新的方式做事。”她说。“重要的是要鼓励人们跟随他们的激情，因为您永远不知道它会带他们去哪里。”
Megan now studies industrial engineering at Kansas State University.
YGG focuses on critical mentoring relationships. Mentors stress how each girl can progress in STEM from interested sixth grader to involved high school junior to employed adult.
YGG继续对女孩及其导师产生影响。
Stephani Jamar, one of the first girls on the Olathe robotics team, says the experience convinced her to return as a mentor.
She credits an older brother and a male robotics team coach for pushing her to join but says female role models and mentors she encountered, “who had a passion for STEM,” were critical in her career direction.
“当时我没有意识到这一点，但是[他们]……让我将STEM领域视为可能的未来，”现在是Hoefer Wysocki Architecture的室内设计师Stephani说。
“There is nothing strange about a boy picking up a hammer. There shouldn’t be for a girl either,” says Charly Wang. She is current Team 1710 CEO.
That’s the message that's been shared with 11,000 girls YGG has connected with since its start—through workshops, camps, field trips and competitions.
YGG还通过其STEM连接计划进入中学和小学，以便年龄较大的女孩可以与年轻的女孩分享工程和机器人技术绝对很酷。
Younger girls see a safe place to focus on and enjoy STEM in a supportive community. By high school, they’re ready to dive right in.
参加五年级学生的机器人比赛激发了杰鲁沙·罗登（Jerusha Rowden）问自己：“我能做到吗？”答案很快就很明确了，她立即在高中加入了机器人团队。
杰鲁沙（Jerusha）现在是高级人士，她说她很积极，并着眼于工程管理职业。
YGG students I’ve met are confident they can be engineers, experienced in engineering problem-solving and enthusiastic about their future success.
我的儿子现在在奥拉斯西北工程学院（Olathe Northwest's Engineering Academy）的大二学生和对钢桥工程感兴趣的大二学生，我通过他和他的同学生活过着替代生活。
What a difference the years make.
作为一名高中生，我对男性主导的领域感到担忧，并与大多数女性同龄人隔离，这些女性的职业目标却大不相同。
I can’t even imagine how different high school would have been with a program like YGG around.
Robynn Andracsek is an associate environmental engineer at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, Mo. She can be reached at randracsek@burnsmcd.com
