on campus - Article - Manhattan College

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Continued from pg. 9 – Women Engineers in Full Force
The campers of the Female Opportunities to Revolutionize Chemical Engineering (FORCE) Program on their first field trip to Kraft Foods.
products. They also learned the engineering
behind lip gloss and lip plumper at
Cosmetic Essence, which designs the line
of makeup for retailer Victoria’s Secret.
“They spent part of their day as a day
in the life of an engineering student and
the other part on what they can do as an
engineer,” Flynn says.
Flynn found that high school girls don’t
typically think of engineering as a field to
pursue, which is one of the main purposes
of the FORCE program: to introduce
them to the possibilities of one. And
while there has been progress in the
typically male-dominated field, there’s
still a shortage of women in the industry.
“It is really important for girls to see
what engineering is about and all the
interesting and fun parts of it,” says
Victoria Scala, who attended FORCE
before entering her senior year of high
school. “It was important to see how
much women can do in [engineering]
and especially how respected they are
in the field.”
Victoria will be a civil engineering major
at the College in the fall. Following the
footsteps of many Jaspers in her family,
including her father, Anthony J. Scala
’74, president at Lowy & Donnath, Inc.
and a College trustee, and older brothers,
Anthony Scala III ’03 and Christopher
Scala ’05, Victoria says FORCE also
helped her decide which field in
engineering to pursue.
“Although I realized chemical
engineering might not be for me,
[FORCE] fully convinced me that
engineering was the place for me
and got rid of any of my fears and
misconceptions,” Victoria adds.
Seventeen girls attended FORCE last
summer. The attendees were mostly local
students from all-girl high schools who
have strong GPAs and are active at their
schools. And, if they were not considering
engineering as a career, they were, at
least, interested in the idea.
By the time their four days were up, the
students were sad to say their goodbyes.
Since then, they’ve stayed in touch, and
a few have even offered to serve as camp
counselors for this year’s upcoming
program. Most participants also have
suggested extending the camp to include
an overnight stay on campus. And five
out of the nine seniors that attended
the camp already have applied for
early decision to study engineering
at the College.
Indeed, FORCE worked its magic,
and not only on the high school campers
who attended.
Recent graduate Natalie Ivezaj ’05,
who served as a FORCE camp counselor
and majored in chemical engineering, says
her experience in the program reiterated
to her how important it is to provide high
schoolers career guidance and inspiration.
“Young people need direction and they
need someone to dedicate their time to
them,” she says. Marguerite Mohan ’04,
a top student who helped raise funds
for the Brother Conrad Timothy Burris
Endowment in chemical engineering,
also participated as a camp counselor
in FORCE’s first year.
The high school girls were very much
interested in their personal stories
as college students and as women in
engineering. Ivezaj and Mohan both
served as sources of inspiration.
“It was important to express to them
that engineering is not easy but so
rewarding,” says Ivezaj, who plans to
participate again in this year’s camp.
“They gained a sense of accomplishment
after every field trip, every lab experiment
and every lecture. FORCE really helped
to show them that they are each very
capable of becoming an engineer.”
The students attended the camp free
of charge, largely due to scholarships
provided by Manhattan alumni, the
chemical engineering department and the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
In its first year, FORCE received funding
from Manhattan College, CDI Engineering
Solutions, Infineum USA, Kraft Foods
and Pfizer. Scholarship funding was also
provided by engineering alumnus Robert
Altomare ’72, research principal at
Kraft Foods, Martin Considine ’70,
vice president of technology at Peabody
Energy, and Daniel O’Shea ’68 B.S.,
’69 M.S., who is a retired senior vice
president at Pfizer.
The second annual FORCE summer
camp is slated for this June. Brochures
were distributed to a larger group of high
schools in the Northeast region, and
applications are being accepted through
May. For more details about FORCE,
please contact the chemical engineering
department at (718) 862-7185 or visit
www.manhattan.edu/chemical.