Greetings from WISE Director Cinda-Sue Davis

Greetings from the Women in Science and Engineering Program. It seems that every year, we start off our first newsletter with an announcement that we have moved. Last year, the WISE Science Office moved from temporary space in the Chemistry Building to a new office suite in the Undergraduate Science Building. We love this new space and have put it to good use with a number of new workshops and outreach programs. This year the WISE Engineering Office moved. We are still in the Lurie Engineering Center but have moved around the corner next door to the Multicultural Engineering Programs Office (MEPO). This new location has also been a wonderful opportunity for us. WISE and MEPO have worked closely for many years and the co-located offices will make this collaboration seamless and even more exciting. Please stop by and see us if you are in Lurie or the Undergraduate Science Building.

This past summer saw the launch of a new high school to college transition program for high achieving diverse students entering the College of Engineering. The pilot year of the Michigan STEM Academy, or M-STEM, started in June with 47 students coming for a 6-week pre-freshman year summer program. There were courses in calculus, C++ programming, technical communications, and a brand new integrative mathematics/science course developed and taught by College of Engineering Professor Guy Meadows. In addition, students learned about University resources, success strategies and professional development with corporate visitors. We also had a lot of fun enjoying all that Ann Arbor has to offer in the summer. The students are well into their first semester and early reports indicate that they are doing very well in their classes.

M-STEM is a joint effort of many programs and offices in the College of Engineering. I served as the Administrative Co-Director along with Derrick Scott, the Director of MEPO. We are extremely pleased that Professor Guy Meadows has recently agreed to serve as the Faculty Director of M-STEM. We are already planning for the second M-STEM class to arrive on campus in the summer of 2009 with the addition, we hope, of science students from LSA. Keep posted! I am sure that we will be hearing a lot more from these wonderful students.

October 2008 eNews

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