Curious as to how one recruits women and encourages them to stay in IT classes and careers?  We have the workshop for you!  Sponsored by WomenTech, it’s a two day intensive seminar that gives educators strategiesto do exactly that.

28th National WomenTech Educators 

Train-the-Trainer Workshop 

July 23 & 24, 2009

We are encouraging institutions to register as teams with our special low cost group rates so that they will have assistance in implementation when they return home. Bring a team of technology instructors, math teachers, counselors, administrators and school-to-career and tech-prep coordinators.

Strategies that work! Learn “How To” Recruit & Retain Women and Girls in the Technology Classroom this semester and train others.

Strategies that work! Here is some breaking news from the nation’s expert on preparing women and girls for technology careers…

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Day trippin’ in Santa Fe, and who do I meet? Tomás. He and his buddy were stopping off at the bank to deposit a check. They’d been working on a film. They didn’t mention any names, but filmmaking is a big industry in New Mexico. Some titles you may recognize: No Country for Old Men, Traffic, Mall Cop, Sunshine Cleaning, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Seraphim Falls… the complete list is online and includes t.v. shows in production here: Breaking Bad, Crash, and In Plain Sight.

So with filming, comes a lot of “Below the Line” work… the stuff that happens behind the scenes… the stuff that makes the scenes, literally building sets and props and scaffolding and lord knows what else.  And there’s work for welders too.  And itt’s been good work for Tomás. In fact, he says his Lincoln Electric Welder is “the only redhead that ever made me any money!”

Check out the directory of welders online at the Film New Mexico site.

And keep your eyes open…  welders are everywhere!

…and so is Arc-Zone.com….
Technorati Profile

Rosie’s Girls is an all-girls camp for 6th to 8th graders in Vermont (and California, South Carolina, and Ohio) that primarily teaches them skills in trades like carpentry, welding, electrical wiring, auto repair, and fire fighting!  The rest of their time is spent making their own artwork and testing their strength in activites like rock climbing and self defense.

To hear more about this experience in the girls’ own words, you can read The Riveter Blog, written by the girls participating at the California camp.

Scott Solar, manufacturer of solar panels, is opening their super slick manufacturing facility at the Mesa Del Sol development in Albuquerque. More than 300 new jobs for Albuquerque…. and more coming:

There is an Arc-Zone connection– we sent them a nice little package last month. Where else would they get the high performance welding accessories they need for their new high-end manufacturing facility?

News from Lincoln Electric:

I don’t know about you, but I love to see girls challenging gender stereotypes….From Dateline NBC’s May 10, 2009 program… Meet 8-year-old Macy Causey. She is only in second grade, but she’s already racing cars like a pro.

I can’t get the embedded video feature to work, but check out the story on NBC’s website.

You may or may not know that I am slightly obsessed with Rosie the Riveter….    partly because like for many women, Rosie embodies the strength of the American Woman.  HOWEVER, did you know there was a “Wendy the Welder” too? I’ve seen references to her here and there, but not much information.  Which to me, makes Rosie all the more interesting. What was it about Rosie?  How did she become the icon? Was it all Norman Rockwell’s fault?

I recently found this in my cruising of the internet searching for Rosie:

Interestingly when I talk to people about this, I invariably hear a story. Even my creative writing teacher– his grandmother worked in the shipyards in Norfolk during World War II. Do you have any Rosie the Riveter (or Wendy the Welder) connections?