Coming from a small school district in Ohio where few girls took part in intensive mathematics or science classes, Callie Zawaski was an outlier. “I may have been the only person in my grade who was excited by STEM classes,” she says.
After being accepted into Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, the school’s dean encouraged her to join a female-only dorm designed to keep women in engineering majors until graduation. Ms. Zawaski blanched at first.
“I really didn’t want to join up,” she says. “I was worried about being surrounded by nerds all the time.”
These days, Ms. Zawaski, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, is one of the leading ambassadors of that community, named Hypatia after the Greek mathematician and philosopher who broke through glass ceilings 16 centuries ago. Ms. Zawaski encourages incoming freshmen to join, citing the advantages they’ll have in getting through the program’s tough first two years.
“Having girls in your major to be friends with is really important,” she says. “When I struggled as a sophomore, it really helped to have them around me. Girls can be very insecure, so it’s important for them to see that others are having similar struggles, and that they can support each other.”
How colleges are retaining female undergraduates in engineering and computer science.
Colleges across the nation have long had problems holding on to their engineering students. Nearly half of them — male and female — either drop out of undergraduate programs or switch majors, according to research conducted by the American Society for Engineering Education. Among the major reasons cited for the low retention rate is that many students lack a sense of belonging within the engineering-student community.
Virginia Tech started Hypatia in 2001 (and Galileo, its male counterpart, in 2005) to make students feel comfortable and supported. Several other large engineering schools, including those at Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin, have also started female-only communities.
At Virginia Tech, Hypatia maintains a full slate of social activities, such as dances and tailgating during football games. Its rules require members to take part in a number of charity and professional-development events each year, and encourages them to make visits to local high schools to spread the word about engineering to girls. Hypatia makes upperclassmen available to younger college students for homework help and mentoring. During the first 10 weeks on the campus, freshmen meet weekly with juniors, seniors, and graduate students to learn how to study, deal with stress, and prepare for their first exams.
The community has grown from 40 freshman women to 250 this year. It has also become a recruiting tool. During a “women’s preview weekend,” applicants and other potential female engineering students spend a night in the Hypatia dorm and talk with students who live there.
“That weekend has increased the number of women who come to study engineering at Virginia Tech as well as those who decide to live in Hypatia,” says Bevlee Watford, associate dean of academic affairs at the College of Engineering. This year the freshman class is 26 percent women, an all-time high. A decade ago, 20 percent of engineering freshmen were female.
Allison Collier, a junior majoring in computer science, made her first contact with Hypatia in 2011, when she attended an on-campus summer camp. The experience turned her head, she says.
“I wanted to go to a place where I felt supported, could get tutoring, and learn strategies for studying,” Ms. Collier says. “That camp was what led me to consider Virginia Tech. It was the only school I ended up applying to.”
Those who choose to live in Hypatia are also more likely to stay until graduation, Ms. Watford adds. Roughly 80 percent of Hypatia students stay in the engineering program, as opposed to 69 percent of the general engineering undergraduate population.
Students say that the extra support and like-mindedness from community members are key.
“You want to be surrounded by people who are like you, and in a place where you won’t have raging parties the night before a test,” adds Rebeca Dominguez, a junior industrial-and-systems-engineering major. “You want to be around people who reason through things like you do. All of my closest friends are in the [Hypatia] community.”
During the second half of her sophomore year, when she went to live in an honors-only dorm that included students in many different majors, Ms. Zawaski says she immediately missed “the advantage of walking down the hall to ask people questions.” She returned to Hypatia the following semester, comforted by being surrounded by the “nerds” she now proudly claims kinship with.
She offers a caveat, however, for those considering living in engineering communities.
“I’ve known some people who have thought of dropping out because the work is really hard for them, or because their talent or passion might not be in engineering,” she says. “But when your friends are all in engineering, you may not leave it, even though it might be the best thing for you. We have to be careful not to over-support or pressure females into staying in engineering.”
