Towards a global virtual community of female engineering students and professionals: II. Overview of leadership camp for liberian undergraduate women studying engineering

Abstract

A two week residential leadership camp was carried out in Liberia in August 2015 by five University of Michigan graduate students for thirty Liberian and five U.S. female undergraduate engineering student participants. The goals of this leadership camp were twofold: (i) to empower the Liberian and U.S. women engineers with the skills, support, and inspiration necessary to becoming successful and well-rounded engineering professionals; and (ii) to strengthen the community of female engineers in Liberia by building cross-cultural partnerships among female engineering students resulting in a global network of women engineers. The leadership camp was developed based on continued collaboration between the University of Michigan and Liberian Society of Women Engineers student organizations; their identification of specific Liberian engineering undergraduate women's educational needs; and studies emphasizing and elucidating needs specific to female undergraduates in Liberia, and moreover, undergraduate students in war-torn countries. This paper will present a programmatic overview of this camp. Additionally, this paper will present preliminary data gathered by semi-structured interviews and focus groups with Liberian undergraduate engineering women on the need for and benefit of such an international community. The leadership camp will build on these results, and continue to be held over the coming years to strengthen the partnership between the two organizations and to continue supporting the Liberian students as they persist in the engineering profession.