Grant Money Supports Projects to Improve the Lives of Girls and Women

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No Woman Left Behind was just one of six initiatives to receive funding from Women’s Giving Circle. Pictured here are University Housing’s Teresa Taylor-Williamson, student Estrellita Jasmín Goss, Dean of Students Danny Pugh, and Women’s Giving Circle members Becky Brink and Melissa Werner.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Six initiatives on the University of Arkansas campus were awarded grant money totaling $55,100 from the university’s Women’s Giving Circle April 16. Members of the circle consider funding proposals for campus projects on an annual basis, and every member of the circle has the opportunity to vote on which project or projects will receive funding for the current year.

The projects that received funding this year are as follows.

The office of pre-college programs in the Division of Student Affairs was awarded $18,500 to support a new initiative, “iCiencia.” This academic science and engineering camp for Latinas will be a residential summer program serving rising seventh and eighth graders. Students will be introduced to campus life while exploring concepts in engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry and more. iCiencia aims to excite students about fields where Latinas are severely underrepresented, to encourage higher education as a realizable goal and to position the University of Arkansas as an accessible, diverse place of academic exploration and opportunity. There is a particular need for academic opportunity for Latinas, who are less likely than any other cohort of young women to graduate from high school, according to national statistics.

The “Little Rock PreFab” project to be led by Michael Hughes in the Fay Jones School of Architecture received $15,000 from the Women’s Giving Circle. As a part of the university Design-Build initiative — a community outreach program that focuses on small-scale design opportunities affecting underserved populations — this project is a collaboration between the university and the nonprofit Downtown Little Rock Community Development Corporation. The project will result in a new unit of affordable housing that will possibly serve as a blueprint for similar construction across the state. The home created as a result of Little Rock PreFab will be designed and built by fourth- and fifth-year architecture students, and it will be sold to a young family at a much-reduced cost. The Design-Build program seeks to expose students to a complete educational experience that integrates the art of design and the craft of making with issues of civic outreach and social responsibility.

Gretchen Oliver in the College of Education and Health Professions was awarded $8,500 to support the program “Kinematic and EMG Analysis of Female Softball Catchers.” Available literature concerning softball catchers is non-existent, and there is little understanding about the proper biomechanics of catching. Thus, athletes are at risk of developing serious injuries. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the mechanics and muscle aviation patterns of pubescent and post-pubescent female softball catchers, and the results will lead to prevention measures that can be implemented to avoid injuries in a girl’s athletic career. Thirty healthy female softball catchers will be recruited to participate in the study, and the resulting data will be available for public consumption.

A team of students, faculty and administrators in the College of Engineering received $5,000 for their program “Biomedical/Biochemical Engineering Summer Program for Girls.” This seven-day residential summer program will focus on increasing girls’ interest in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — with particular focus on biomedical/biochemical engineering. The diversity recruitment effort aims to increase the percentage of female students in these fields at the University of Arkansas. The college and numerous benefactors have invested resources in developing successful pre-college programs to increase the pipeline of students interested in STEM fields. This summer program will support and enhance these ongoing efforts.

The program “No Woman Left Behind” led by Teresa Taylor-Williamson in University Housing received $4,100 from the circle. No Woman Left Behind was created in 2007 by a group of students at Sacramento State. The idea behind this program is to educate and remind women to never leave a friend behind at a bar, party or social gathering, especially if alcohol is involved. While this campaign will not be unique to the University of Arkansas, the program has proven its effectiveness at campuses across the nation. The goal of the program is to create communitywide awareness involving educational sessions, meetings with student groups, booths at campus events and discussions with Greek organizations and all-female residence halls.

The final program support by this year’s Women’s Giving Circle funding is “Young Women’s Experiencing Design Academy,” a program of the landscape architecture and architecture departments. The program was awarded a $4,000 grant. Under the direction of Mark Boyer, the departments will work to expand their recruiting efforts of women and minority women through the city of Springdale’s High School Engineering and Architecture Academy to provide a free-of-charge week-long design camp for female ninth grade students. These recruitment efforts are vital to the School of Architecture’s and the university’s diversity plans as well as to the future of the professions because women are greatly underrepresented in the field. The camp will introduce students to a variety of design disciplines and projects with the hope of generating career interest in many of the participants.

The Women's Giving Circle was created in 2002 by the founding members of the Women and Philanthropy Committee of the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, the seven-year effort that raised more than $1 billion for academics, programs and capital improvements at the University of Arkansas. The circle has awarded more than $470,000 since that time. Membership is open to the public.