Last year, the Upper Franconia-wide network of “MUT – Girls and Technology” celebrated two premieres: For the first time, a vacation event took place online. And for the first time, there was a joint event of all four MUT locations. “This idea originally came about due to the special circumstances of the Corona pandemic, in order to be able to make career orientation offers at all,” says Ina Sinterhauf, initiator of “MUT – Girls and Technology” at Coburg University of Applied Sciences. “However, it has proven to be a real stroke of luck and has released potential.” For example, it has allowed girls who live further away from one of the four university locations to participate. That’s why there’s a new edition and an expansion of the program this year
On November 02 and 03, two vacation events for different age groups will take place simultaneously: At “On your marks – technology – go!” girls aged 10-14 can discover how versatile science and technology are in many different online workshops. “Above all, they can become active themselves and thus experience their competencies,” says Prof. Dr. Ute Schmid, Women’s Representative of the Faculty of Information Systems and Applied Computer Science (WIAI) and coordinator of “MUT – Girls and Technology” at the University of Bamberg. “Because that’s often exactly what girls lack in order to decide to study or train in the STEM field.”
“MINT-HerbstUni!” and “On your marks – technology – go!”
Girls and young women aged 15-19 who can already imagine studying at some point in the future can learn about interesting study content and engage with current topics in technology and the natural sciences at the simultaneous “MINT-HerbstUni!” event. Stefanie Raab-Somabe, coordinator of the MINT programs at the University of Bayreuth, sees another aspect of the MUT programs as important in addition to the participants’ own activity: “The exchange with the other participants encourages the girls and young women to follow their interest and decide to study STEM.”
Margarete Blank-Bewersdorff is a professor at Hof University of Applied Sciences and is responsible for the MUT offerings there. As a women’s representative, she knows that women can move and shape a lot in the STEM field
Women engineers have the opportunity to work on solutions for major challenges. With climate protection and digitization, technology is becoming relevant to the breadth of society. Here, women’s perspectives are enormously important.”
Prof. Dr. Margarete Blank-Bewersdorff
Registration
Two vacation programs will take place from November 02-03: “On your marks – technology – go!” for girls aged 10-14 and “MINT-HerbstUni!” for girls and young women aged 15-19. Participants can choose from twelve different courses in each case. The events take place entirely online. Information on the courses and the opportunity to register (registration deadline: October 25, 2021) can be found at www.mut-oberfranken.de.
