MERRILLVILLE | It's HerWorld, and welcome to it.
DeVry University, Purdue Lafayette and Purdue Calumet combined forces to put on a workshop Wednesday morning at the Radisson Hotel entitled HerWorld. The purpose of the workshop is to enlighten young women about the many opportunities that are available in the technology and business technology fields.
"After 25 years, the technology field is still a male-dominated one," said John Petrik, Dean of Student and Career Services at DeVry. "DeVry created this program five years ago specifically for high school girls to help introduce them to technology careers."
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau, "women need to recognize that these well-paying jobs are key in the changing economy of the 21st century."
The Bureau projects growth rates of 30 percent to 50 percent in technology fields between 2004-2014.
The schools used a combination of DVD presentations, workshops and advisory panels to broaden the horizons of juniors and seniors from Lew Wallace, Hanover Central and Clark high schools.
At Purdue Lafayette, the incoming Computer Information Technology (CIT) class of 2004 had 90 students -- only one of them was female.
"That," said Purdue's Alka Harriger, assistant department head of CIT at the Lafayette campus, "is what we are trying to change."
Harriger accompanied that lone female student, Amanda Bennett of Anderson, Indiana, to the workshop in Merrillville.
"It was a little intimidating at first," Bennett said, referring to starting college in a male dominated classroom. "But I'm very interested in the computer technology field, and I decided early on to not let the number of female students impact my studies."
Petrik said DeVry wanted to emphasize to the students that all technology jobs are not "geek" jobs.
"There is a misconception that all techies are wearing black-rimmed glasses and have a pocket protector," Petrik said. "The reality is that even jobs in the business field use a tremendous amount of technology just to perform their everyday duties. It's important for these young women to know that jobs in business, health care, and various other fields are going to need a high amount of technology knowledge and computer savvy."
Suzanne Demmond, a business and marketing teacher at Hanover, brought 12 girls to the workshop, hoping to open some eyes.
"I think boys are more exposed to technology because of their involvement with video games," Demmond said. "I was talking to these girls about the tech field, and they didn't realize how much opportunity is out there. Hopefully today's program will help them."
Petrik said that this is the first such workshop held by DeVry in Indiana, and more are planned.
"We focused on Illinois in our initial workshops," he said. "Now that we have partnered with Purdue, we envision conducting more workshops in Indiana in the hopes of enlightening high school girls on their possibilities in technology."
