Carrie Miller was delighted when she got her research assignment Friday: the bioengineering lab. "So I get to work with biomaterials," exclaimed the University of Utah freshman. "It sounds really exciting."
Miller is among 21 young women who are in the University of Utah's Access Scholarship Program for Young Women in Mathematics and the Sciences, a project launched in 1991 to encourage women to start careers in those male-dominated fields.Women are badly underrepresented in math and science, and Utah is one of the states with the greatest disparity. Comparing national with Utah percentages of 1994 college graduates in various fields who were women, the figures are alarming: engineering, nationally 17 percent women, but in Utah only 10 percent; physical sciences, 35 percent vs. 23 percent; biology, 52 percent as opposed to 32 percent of the graduates in Utah.
Access tries to rectify the disparity. Each spring the College of Science selects 21 young women for the program. Together they attend an eight-week liberal education course in the summer before they start their freshman year.
That introductory class is "a collection of experiences in laboratory settings that demonstrate the possibilities of careers in science, show the integration of the various sciences, reveal the glue of mathematics across all of the sciences," said Sidney Rudolph, the program's director. They arrive at the U. and begin to develop friendships during the only season the campus is un-crowded.
"They learn the byways of this very large university and acquire an enormous number of social and survival skills," he said. After the regular school year starts they are assigned work in laboratories, becoming part of the research organizations.
"These are really bright women and they do catch on," Rudolph said. "And we have had occasions when some of these women have had their names in publications, even during the Access period. It really is marvelous."
During the school year the interaction continues, with meetings and socialization. The women work about 10 hours a week in research projects, such as Miller's assignment to the bioengineering lab.
Kiri Wagstaff is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Researching artificial intelligence and the way computers use language, she expects to earn her doctorate in 2001 or 2002.
She applied for Access when she was a senior in high school in Moab.
"I've always been interested in computers specifically," and read a lot of science fiction, she said.
One of the advantages of the program is that each student gets a $2,500 stipend. "They basically said we could use it for whatever, and I used mine to buy a computer, which I wouldn't have been able to buy otherwise. I still have it now, in fact," she said. It's almost an essential for a computer science major.
The same women in the summer program "ended up in my physics, chemistry, calculus classes because a lot of us had majors requiring those same classes," she said.
The women shared a block of dormitory rooms and became fast friends.
In fact, a couple of years after they left the Access program, "we decided we needed to be in touch, so we made a mailing list through the University of Utah's mail server." They still e-mail frequently.
"The fact that this program exists is a big encouragement, to tell you that there are people who specifically want you to succeed, get experience, make friends," she said. "I know that women perceive that women don't do certain things, but when there's a specific program that supports that (women's success in science and math), it kind of changes that attitude."
When Miller was in high school in Sandy, she didn't notice an attitude that women couldn't do science. Rather, the problem was that there were no role models.
"I mean, sitting in a class with 20 or so boys and being the only girl is intimidating," she said. In fact, she still finds herself in that kind of situation, in an engineering class at the U. But Access gave her confidence that she could compete successfully. She knew she wasn't the only woman in the field.
"That was the best part, meeting all the other girls," she said, speaking of the class last summer.
"Every day we were put into a lab or classroom setting, and the instructors talked to us about their specific science, whether it was chemistry or biology or physics. We got to work in a whole bunch of experiments and get familiar with the university setting and get to know the other girls."
About 10 of the Access women are in her chemistry class. Group members "e-mail each other all the time . . . and we try to plan an activity each month."
The greatest benefit was that when she started at the U. she knew what to expect. "I wasn't like the normal freshman, quote, that was scared. And I know this lab thing will be a huge benefit, give me experiences, and make connections that could turn into something that could be even better and bigger."
According to Rudolph, about 80 percent of the students who start out in Access graduate with a degree in science or an area related to science. Many go on to seek advanced degrees. One of the first women in the program, Lisa Grow, recently graduated first in her class from Harvard Law School - the first woman in the school's history to achieve that distinction, according to U. Science Dean Peter J. Stang.
"Of course, the College of Science cannot take all the credit for the Access students' accomplishments - they are exceptional even before they arrive at the University of Utah - but many have credited the program with giving them the tools necessary to succeed in highly competitive fields dominated by men," Stang added.
For the first few years the program was supported partly by a National Science Foundation seed-money grant. When the grant ended, the Legislature began funding a line-item appropriation of $44,000 yearly. The rest, a little more than half the cost, comes from other sources.
Project sponsors must scratch for funds on a year-to-year basis. Some money comes from various discretionary accounts, some from private donations. The program would benefit from the stability of a permanent sponsor, and the U. hopes to find one.
Meanwhile, the college is again accepting applications for the Access group that has its first classes this summer. For more information, call the College of Science at 581-6958.