With online mentorship, a six-week-long program sponsored by Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd College, aims to support young women who are interested in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math by connecting them to women working in those fields, reports The New York Times. Universities like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford are part of the program, called Women in Technology Sharing Online or WitsOn, providing mentors and students alike, and the Times notes that Klawe has also lined up astronaut Mae Jemison and Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior to participate.
"Young women in STEM, more than young men, have a lot of questions about what kind of career they'll have," Dennis Berkey, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, tells the Times, "whether the rewards are based on performance or the old boys' network, whether it'll let them make a positive impact on the world, and how it will relate to their aspirations for family."