The FEMMES Program

The main event of FEMMES is a free one-day outreach program introducing young women from Durham (4th through 6th grade) to math, science and engineering. This will be the fourth year of the program; last year was extremely successful, with over 200 students in attendance. We have been working to improve the program and enlarge it so that more girls can attend.

The goal of FEMMES (Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science) is to give girls hands-on experience in fields where women are often greatly under-represented. By using female volunteers and faculty members, we hope to demonstrate that women can and do excel in these fields. Each faculty volunteer directs a hands-on activity that shows something interesting and fun about their area of expertise (for a list of this year's faculty volunteers and their activities, please visit the "Faculty" link). Student volunteers lead groups to the activities and act as mentors for the day to our program's participants.

Here's a rundown of our schedule: in the morning, participants will receive tote bags and be escorted to their designated groups. Each group will have approximately 10-15 girls, and will be led by two or three student leaders who will accompany the girls throughout the day. The student leaders are all female Duke students-graduates and undergraduates-who have an interest in math, science, or engineering. All groups will attend morning speeches given by a few Duke faculty members.

Subsequently, each group will attend two 45-minute activities. Each group will attend a different activity during the scheduled time periods. All activities will be led by a female Duke faculty member, and are to be held in buildings on or near Science Drive. The activities are all within a short walking distance of each other, and the groups will be led to and from each activity by their student leaders. After the second activity, lunch will be provided in a campus cafeteria, and students will sit down with their groups to eat. Our faculty volunteers will also be eating lunch, so they will be walking around and available should our participants have questions or wish to get to know them better. There will be two more 45-minute activities in the afternoon, followed by closing remarks at the end of the day.