Boeing gives grant to Saint Martin’s engineering summer camp

June 14, 2005

Lacey, Wash. – Thanks to a $4,400 grant from The Boeing Co., Saint Martin’s College will be able to offer several new programs at the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Summer Camp this summer.

The grant will give 30 high school students the chance to tour the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab and see forensic science in action, engineering division Dean Tony de Sam Lazaro said. They also will get the opportunity to visit a metal-casting plant in Chehalis.

Now in its fourth year, Camp WISE offers high school students a chance to explore careers in science and engineering, as well as have a great time working alongside Saint Martin’s faculty. The camp is open to all high school sophomores and juniors and runs from June 22 to July 1.

Other topics being offered at this year’s camp include robotics and automation; bridge-building; optics and optical illusions; testing to destruction; and the fauna and flora of Henderson Inlet.

The WISE program is open to both boys and girls, but de Sam Lazaro says it is especially important to get young women interested in engineering in high school. In past years, the camp has been divided fairly evenly between girls and boys. By the time they get to college, statistics show only 12 percent of women major in science or engineering, de Sam Lazaro said. The numbers are troubling, considering that almost 60 percent of college students are women, he said.

The WISE camp has a strong track record in getting teens interested in engineering and science, de Sam Lazaro said. Almost all students from the first camp are now in college studying to become scientists and engineers.

For more information about Camp Wise, please visit the college’s website, www.stmartin.edu/engineering, or contact the Saint Martin’s School of Engineering, (360) 438-4320; jbanter@stmartin.edu.

For more information:

John DeWeese
Office of Communication
360-486-8857; jdeweese@stmartin.edu