The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), a student organization at Wichita State University, is hosting a Mother Daughter Day event for local middle school girls and their adult female role models. The event will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Mar. 25 in the lobby of the John Bardo Center at Wichita State.

In addition to mothers and daughters, other adult female role models of middle school girls, such as grandmothers, aunts, sisters and mentors, are invited to attend the event. 

“To encourage more women to pursue engineering careers, it is important to introduce girls at a young age to the opportunities available to them in engineering,” said Grace Peterson, the president of the SWE and a junior mechanical engineering major in the College of Engineering. “Mother Daughter Day does exactly that by enabling girls to experience the excitement of hands-on engineering activities.”

Wichita State expects 50-100 attendees for the Mother Daughter Day event. The attendees will have the opportunity to participate in four STEM activities designed to introduce different types of engineering, including aerospace, mechanical, electrical and biomedical. Attendees will also meet and interact with female students from the college, which will help middle school girls to envision themselves in the field.

“We are thrilled to help ignite a passion for engineering and computing in middle school girls,” said Ana Lazarin, the director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the college. “Women are about half of the population, but only about 20% of engineering college graduates nationally are women. That’s why we have numerous initiatives at WSU, such as Mother Daughter Day, to help close that gap.”

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Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling almost 22,000 students between its main campus and WSU Tech, including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student centered and innovation driven.

Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students.

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