IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2015 - 10

Hampton University students Erin
Lawler and Karissa Vaughn, who
spoke to Granby High students at the
outreach event.

activities and asking for a dedicated allgirls' engineering class. Because school
policy necessitated a minimum of 20 students to create a new class, Ammentorp
and Marshall were skeptical about the feasibility of this request; however, not only
did the required 20 students sign up, but an
additional 20 put their names on a wait list.
Two years later, Granby High has had
to open additional sections of the allgirls class to accommodate demand. The
success of this initiative has led to other
support for female student engineering
opportunities, such as spin-off programs
in nearby schools and the creation of
the engineering club that represented
Granby High at the international competition (as the only all-girls team).
After that first meeting Ammentorp
says she's taken a backseat role. "I really
haven't had to do very much with these
girls because they have strong mentors
in the school, both women and men."
"The school has been very supportive of
the girls, and I've been doing things in
the background." Case in point: the girls
learned they were finalists in the competition toward the end of the 2013-
2014 school season, meaning there was
no activities budget left to pay for their
trip. However, they were able to raise the
money in time to take on the competition,
thanks to the support of the community.
In some ways the students' experience echoes Ammentorp's own journey,
in which she decided to get her engineering degree after retiring from 20 years of
service as a technician and supervisor in
an airborne communications and avionics field of the U.S. Air Force. "I became
sensitive to the fact that there were not
many women in technical fields early in

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

my career, when the first squadron I was
assigned to after completing training was
about 400 people, of which only eight were
women, and four of them were in nontechnical administrative positions," describes
Ammentorp. She cites low female participation as the main reason why she was
recruited into a technical field specifically,
as the Air Force was trying to build up the
number of women serving in noncombat,
traditionally male roles.
"I had to be very persistent about
my purpose," she recalls. "When I was
first training to become a fully skilled
technician, there were other technicians
who would take screwdrivers out of my
hand and tell me to go sit down. I even
'accidentally' elbowed them to let them
know that I intended to fix the equipment
myself." She proved herself and ultimately
earned their respect, sharing that the
particular recipient of her elbow ended up
attending her retirement ceremony.
When Ammentorp began pursuing an
electrical engineering degree in 2000, she
was pleased to see that women were more
widely accepted than they had been when
she started in the Air Force. "I was older
than most of my classmates, and so I felt
more like a big sister or a mom and looked
out for them," she says. "You still occasionally had people who treated the quiet,
timid student as if maybe she shouldn't be
there but for the girls who knew that this
was what they wanted to do, they didn't
take any nonsense. And because those
girls pushed forward proving capability, it
helped the quieter girls too."
After graduation, Ammentorp took
a job with Newport News Shipbuilding,
in the Engineering Division. She's also
an active IEEE volunteer on the Hampton Roads Peninsula and in Region 3,
presently serving as SoutheastCon 2016
Steering Committee general chair,
Region 3 Member Engagement and Life
Cycle chair, and Region 3 Chapter representative for the IEEE Power & Energy
Society (PES). She has also served as the
chair of the Hampton Roads Section, as
the founding chair of the Hampton Roads
Chapter of the PES, on the Region 3 PES
Scholarship Plus Committee, and was an
adult advisor to two groups in the Boy
Scouts of America.

JUNE 2015

All of Ammentorp's volunteer work
shares a common theme: that of driving
engagement and interest in STEM. The
Granby all-girls engineering program has
created a lot of positive attention for the
school, and she is trying to make the
most of it at work in the hopes that it
will concentrate more outreach dollars
from companies to local schools. Newport News Shipbuilding already hosts an
outreach day where employees work with
students on small projects that have real
applications in industry. "I've seen some
of the work my colleagues have done,
and the kids are completely fascinated,"
says Ammentorp. "It's very gratifying for
someone who is a practicing engineer to
see young kids appreciate what you do."
For anyone interested in similar volunteer work with a nearby school, Ammentorp advises first creating relationships
with school administrators. "Because of
personal safety concerns, it's best to contact the school with your intentions,"
she says. "Our local public schools have a
trainer on staff who works with outreach
coordinators at companies. Organizations
like IEEE are also a good resource because
there's usually someone in a local Section
that has connections to the school system."
Even where connections don't currently
exist, reaching out within the community
can help foster them. For the students,
the ability to recognize their skills and to
create new opportunities can change the
course of their futures. For companies like
Ammentorp's or organizations like IEEE,
these young people can become the future.
-Leslie Prives

The First Female
IEEE Section Chair
in an Arab Country

Althani links her success to IEEE
Maryam Althani entered the IEEE as a
Student Member while pursuing her
undergraduate degree at United Arab
Emirates (UAE) University in the city of

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2015.2408678
Date of publication: 12 May 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2015