The Association for Women in Science’s North Central Florida Affiliate Group is hoping to form a partnership with Santa Fe College.
The organization is already affiliated with UF and will host a meeting at Santa Fe today at 1:15 p.m. in Room W-206 to gauge student interest, said the group’s spokeswoman Kim Van Vliet.
“There is a lot of talent at UF and Santa Fe,” Van Vliet said. “Our organization is sort of a way to connect all these groups.”
The regional group was established in January as an offshoot of the national association, which is the largest multi-disciplinary organization for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“We hope to increase the number of women participating in these fields,” Van Vliet said. “UF is just one area of focus.”
The affiliate group consists of about 40 members and is open to both men and women, she said. It aims to provide equal networking, mentoring and career development opportunities for women in STEM fields.
UF bioengineering senior Matias Kaplan said discrimination against women is one of the biggest challenges STEM fields currently face.
“Unfortunately, with many engineering classes, there’s a much larger proportion of men to women,” the 22-year-old said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 10/22/2014]
