As International Women in Engineering Day celebrates its 11th year in 2024, we at the Texas Alliance of Minorities in Engineering (TAME) are excited to honor the amazing work our future engineers are doing. In recognition of this important day, it is a perfect time to provide a brief look at how organizations like TAME help progress STEM initiatives to improve representation.
Inspiring women for 50 years
TAME was founded nearly 50 years ago to inspire girls and students from underrepresented communities and support them to succeed in engineering education and careers. As the interim Executive Director of TAME, I get a first-hand look at the work that goes into supporting these students’ long-term success in engineering.
TAME is a statewide collaboration of cross-sector partnerships among schools and educators, higher education, industry, libraries, volunteers, and families that support local opportunities for engineering education and career exploration. Within each TAME Region, TAME Clubs, which are based at schools, libraries or community centers and led by volunteers, serve middle and high school students with afterschool engineering education, regional engineering competitions, and engineering scholarships. Naturally, supporting this Texas-wide endeavor is not only a lot of work, but it can also be expensive.
“We will all benefit from the inclusive solutions that a more diverse and representative group of engineers will bring. And, TAME believes that when more underrepresented students make it to college, the representation gap will begin to close.” – Kiyomi Beach, Interim Executive Director, TAME
Importance of partnerships
As most non-profit organizations can attest, there’s only so much that can be done without support from businesses who are also focused on STEM initiatives. As such, we’re very appreciative of the burgeoning relationships with corporate partners like Drax and the support we’ve received from the Drax Foundation. Over the last two years, we’ve been able to help fund our operational costs with generous grants of $160,000 from the Drax Foundation.
Most importantly, this level of corporate support allows us to offer programming to schools and students free of charge. Drax’s support is helping TAME as we work to build a strong sense of belonging among students, helping them build confidence and connect with engineering mentors and role models.
Growing female representation in engineering
This year’s theme for International Women in Engineering Day is #enhancedbyengineering – a concept we fully believe in. Evidence shows that girls gain interest in engineering at the same rate as their male classmates, but there are several factors that cause underrepresented students to turn away from engineering coursework and choose other pathways.
Based on this evidence, TAME has developed research-backed middle and high school programs that center the most important factors for student success in engineering and other STEM fields.
We will all benefit from the inclusive solutions that a more diverse and representative group of engineers will bring. And, TAME believes that when more underrepresented students make it to college, the representation gap will begin to close.
To learn more about TAME and how we’re working to connect students to engineering opportunities, visit https://www.tame.org/
