Program Description
The Women and Math Mentoring Program serves 8th grade girls from public middle schools. This is a mentoring program, not a tutoring program! The way we mentor is by taking field trips with the girls, getting together with them to watch math-related movies, taking them to science museums, taking them to our work place, and by providing them with a strong female role model.
Mentors are expected to get together with their students approximately once or twice a month from January through May. The time varies, depending on the activity and the preferences of the mentor and her students. In general, the students and mentors participate in the following activities:
- Program Kick-Off Night : Mentors meet students and their parents;
- A visit to the mentor's workplace, followed by lunch or snack;
- Marjorie Lee Browne Day : an all-day conference, which includes workshops conducted by women employed in the Triangle, mentor coffee hour, panel discussions by mentors on their careers, lunch, T-shirts, and a math competition with prizes for the mentor groups.
- Informal mentor-student discussions on future mathematics coursework, summer enrichment programs, and possible careers;
- Field trips to mathematics-related places of interest such as The Virtual Reality Lab at UNC-CH, the Primate Center in Durham, or the annual Engineering Fair;
- An optional mentor-guided group scrapbooking project involving mathematics, science, and/or computer science;
- A completion event at NCCU: Mentoring Madness in May (aka M3) - for students, mentors, and parents. Students share their mentoring experiences and projects with the whole group. The finale is a big game and puzzle competition with prizes for the winning teams.