Offering Girls Career CHOICES

CHOICES: Charting Horizons and Opportunities in Careers in Engineering and Science

Experiential learning is a trademark of a Lehigh University education. Since 1996, the CHOICES program (Charting Horizons and Opportunities in Careers in Engineering and Science) has offered middle school girls — grades 6 to 8 — opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) with peers that share their interests. Lehigh undergraduate and graduate students from the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science mentor the girls through the week, while volunteer faculty members guide them through a wide range of hands-on, creative, and engaging projects such as “The Microscopic World: Seeing with Electrons,” “Swimming Like a Microorganism Challenge,” and “Smart Electricity Grids with Lego-Like Circuits.”

Initially offered as a one-day opportunity, the program was expanded to a one-week summer camp in 2004. This year the camp ran two one-week sessions from June 19–23 and June 26–30. Each week culminated with a panel discussion featuring women in STEM, including some impressive LU alumnae, showing what a successful career in STEM can offer promising young minds, no matter the gender.

Originally focused on an animation career at Disney, Tama Copeman, Ph.D., ’81G ’86D pivoted when her father bluntly told her that she “wasn’t good enough” and suggested she consider chemical engineering. Copeman considered the idea with a logical perspective and recognized that engineers can easily find really good jobs, and it would give her the ability to adapt and transition to a lot of different fields. 

Sure enough, her engineering degree helped her navigate through successful careers in not only chemical engineering, but also investment, biomedical, and solar technology companies, to name a few. Her roles varied as well, working in executive-level strategy and risk, general management, business development, corporate ventures, international partnerships, technology, and product development. She learned “if you find out it’s not your field, branch out into something you can make a living out of.” As a woman, she was sometimes pigeonholed each time she entered a new field, but she worked hard and proved herself. She learned that “[especially] in the corporate world, if you work hard they want to keep you there.”

She participated in the 2023 CHOICES summer program because her 13-year-old granddaughter, Lisa, enrolled for week 2. Copeman says this program allows young girls to get a jump start on exposure to the first-class education that Lehigh University offers but is not typical of pre-collegiate education in the United States. Lisa reports that Professor William Best is her favorite part of the camp. “He’s energetic, funny, and reaches the children very well,” says Copeman.

Like her grandmother at the same age, young Lisa is interested in a career in animation, but Copeman knows that exploring 3D and design through engineering will give her more options on her career path. Together they explore how engineering impacts the world around us, studying how things work and watching videos detailing how engineers deal with problems like unstable aircrafts and mechanical bridge failures. For young people interested in asking questions and curious about how things work, careers in STEM might be the route for them, and CHOICES is a great early exposure opportunity.

Kallie Ziltz '16 '18G never felt like the only girl in the room. She doesn’t remember feeling out of place in male-dominated classrooms in high school and middle school. When she arrived at Lehigh, she once again found herself among only a few females in a class of 50-60 students. She remembers being on a “full-steam-ahead trajectory” until a friend casually commented, “You are really good at coding for a girl.” 

Those few words derailed Ziltz and made her second guess herself. She remembers that it took her a long time to get to a point where she regained confidence in her direction. To overcome her sudden imposter syndrome, Ziltz worked to find a community at Lehigh. There wasn’t an active Women in Computer Science club, so she started one with her mentor, Sharon Kalafut, co-director of computer science and business and professor of practice. The club has since grown to approximately 150 members. Ziltz is one of its co-advisers and teaching assistant professor with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science.

The support she received from the Computer Science Department at Lehigh — including from Kalafut and the Women in Computer Science club — motivated Ziltz to give back as a faculty member. She wanted to see CS represented in the CHOICES program and has seen the program grow from something small into something much more dynamic. 

Ziltz, currently pursuing her Ph.D. in teaching, learning, and technology, enjoys teaching in nurturing environments like CHOICES. She employs empathy, noting that CHOICES is not just about a robotics project but also how the students interact with each other. Ziltz acknowledges that a good or bad experience can greatly impact how a child feels about a subject. She aims to make the projects fun yet challenging, hands-on, and collaborative; she teaches the kids to build new relationships and compete in a positive way.

She describes the camp as a time for young girls to “learn for the sake of learning” without worrying about what others think of them. They can see themselves in the mentors, who offer representation in STEM to girls who might not typically see that in their average classroom. “It’s been cool to have interactions with the students and share my experience and [show them] what they can aspire to be.”

Bonnie Hall '84 recalls the support she received from her high school guidance counselor urging her to consider a career in engineering. It hadn’t been something she explored prior, but it seemed to align with her affinity towards math and science, so she gave it a shot. Her freshman year at Lehigh solidified the decision for her. 

Hall says the program at Lehigh prepared her to enter the workforce and start making an impact quickly. After graduation, she went on to work for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati as a product development engineer and worked on products like Tide and Clearasil. Her 14 years there helped teach her a lot in a short period of time and ultimately led her to a position at Crayola. Focused on new crayon products, she was able to leverage her technical skills and experience in product development, launching successful products such as washable and twistable crayons.

After 14 years at Crayola, Hall recently retired as vice president of global quality. She remembers that there were often very few other women in roles like hers. “I dealt with everything from ‘Isn't engineering too hard for a girl?’ to co-workers who assumed I didn't belong there.” But persistence allowed her to persevere in the end. “I built my credibility slowly by doing the work to understand problems and find solutions. I didn't give up.”

Hall’s time at Crayola offered a relatable application of engineering to the girls at the 2023 CHOICES camp. They have all used crayons but likely never considered the technical skills and knowledge required to create the product. While participating in the CHOICES discussion panel, she discussed the thermodynamics of the casting and cooling process, as well as the chemistry of organic and inorganic pigments required to make sure the crayons are both vivid in color and completely safe for children.

Giving girls exposure to careers in STEM allows them to see new opportunities for themselves, which is what Hall says is so powerful about the CHOICES program. She also uses the platform to help girls see themselves as leaders, something she learned growing up as a Girl Scout. Hall stayed active with the Girl Scouts throughout her career, even serving on the board of directors from 2007 to 2011.

“I particularly remember participating in an all-day event for Girls Scouts where women in STEM careers talked about their experiences.  These girls were 10 to 12 years old, and they were fascinated by the incredible range of opportunities.” She speaks of the young girls she mentored with pride, remembering one who shadowed her at work and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Stanford.

As an advocate for the next generation of female engineers, she urges parents, teachers, and business leaders to do everything they can to expose girls to the range of possibilities in STEM. “Programs like CHOICES offer such a great opportunity for girls to explore options and see where their interests lead them.”

And to the girls with a sense of curiosity about how things work, a strong work ethic, persistence, and an interest and ability in math and science: “My advice would be to never let someone tell you [that] you can't do something because you are a girl. Be persistent and do the work.  Prove them wrong.”