Nicole Sharp and Jen Kotzin sip tea, laugh and just hang together at Arabica Cafe. Science has brought together the mentor and mentee.

Undergraduate women in the sciences at Case Western Reserve University are building the Women in Science and Engineering Roundtable (WISER) community. Over the past three years, WISER has grown from approximately 20 women to about 100 women, all linked by their interest in science and engineering.

Spearheaded by Heather Morrison, assistant professor of astronomy; Beverly Saylor, assistant professor of geological sciences; and Kath Bogie, a senior research associate in the department of orthopaedics in the School of Medicine, WISER is an initiative to boost the undergraduate climate for women students. It has support from the Office of the Provost through the Case Center for Women.

WISER students take a one credit hour seminar.

"On Being A Scientist" that meets once a week in the A.W. Smith Building. The seminar engages young women scientists in discussions of scientific papers of interest to the group. Outside of the seminar, the undergraduate women attend a variety of social activities and workshops and are paired with a junior or senior science or engineering major as their mentor.

"WISER has two things we would like people to know about-it's fun and it's helpful," Morrison said.

When Morrison studied in Australia, she was the only woman in her astronomy classes, and she did not have another woman astronomer as a mentor until she came to the United States.

She said she understands the need of students to have role models of the same gender.

"It can be very helpful to have a mentor that is the same gender as you are," said Stephanie Bush, a physics major and one of WISER's student leaders. "Since there are so few other women in science classes, it is great that WISER provides a way to have a female mentor and, hopefully, a role model in your field."

"The faculty has done an excellent job of setting up a positive program that works toward making us all better scientists. Students have a great time together," Bush continued.

"We've had workshops on how to use our voices effectively, how to work in groups and how to deal with grade anxiety. These build skills that we will use for the rest of our careers," she added.

According to Bush, many of these workshop topics are not subjects found in regular science classes.
Among few female students in the engineering school, Sharp-also a member of the WISER leadership-said, "There's a sort of unspoken challenge when you have to face something like that."

"No matter how accepting of diversity a group is, the fact that you are a minority and different from others remains," added Sharp, who is in mechanical and aerospace engineering. She has been a WISER member since August 2002.

Sharp also said that with WISER she can turn around and see all these other women facing the same circumstances and realize she's not alone.

"Though there will undoubtedly be a time when I'm faced with an uphill battle-the difficulties facing women in the science and engineering fields even today are well documented-I can go into those harder times knowing that I have friends," Sharp said.

For information about WISER, visit http://burro.astr.case.edu/women.

Return to the online edition of the 2-5-04 Campus News.