More than 3,000 middle school girls will be greeted as “new hires” in the next week as they visit local ExxonMobil facilities and get a first-hand experience as an engineer. The event, taking place nationwide at ExxonMobil locations, is part of the company’s participation in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and National Engineers Week.
For the second year, the company also will host the ExxonMobil Girls in Engineering Festival in Houston where middle-school girls from three Houston-area school districts will participate in a day-long event on February 14.
Both activities are rewarding to middle school girls as ExxonMobil employees seek to persuade them that engineering is “cool” and opens doors of opportunity to them if they choose it as a career.
“As a corporation, we want to unlock the potential of our nation’s future through educational awareness programs such as Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and Girls in Engineering Festival in hopes of showing young women that engineering is a field where even the sky won’t be the limit,” said Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corporation. “The girls who take part in these activities will experience the fun and excitement of engineering and also see successful women in high-profile jobs. It’s one thing to dream about the future; it’s even more compelling to actually see and meet some of the brightest engineering minds in the world who are creating it.”
This is the ninth year that ExxonMobil has hosted Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, providing the company with an opportunity to positively impact girls during their formative years and spark their interest in this critical field.
“When girls arrive at our facilities, we welcome them as though they were new hires coming for their first day of orientation,” Tillerson added. “By doing this, we are planting the seeds of opportunity in their minds and showing them that engineering as a career can be well within the realm of possibility.”
Also as part of National Engineers Week, the ExxonMobil Girls in Engineering Festival will host 200 middle-school girls from the Houston, Cypress Fairbanks and Spring Branch independent school districts at the Spring Branch Education Center. During the event, the participating girls will sharpen their engineering skills through team-oriented workshops and competitions. A panel of four highly successful female engineers, including meteorologist Casey Curry, NASA engineer Lisa Spence, and scientists from ExxonMobil, will take part in a discussion with the girls, before they also enjoy the witty and comical Professor Smart’s Fun with Physics.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the growing demand for qualified engineers will soon reach a critical level and about 80 percent of new jobs created in the next 10 years will require science, technology, engineering or math skills. At the same time, women make up 46 percent of the workforce but hold just 26 percent of the country’s technical jobs.
This year’s National Engineers Week is February 16-20.
About Exxon Mobil Corporation
Exxon Mobil Corporation is a leading international energy company whose subsidiaries have operations in most of the world's countries. In the United States, ExxonMobil has significant exploration and production, refining and marketing and chemicals operations. ExxonMobil is one of the largest oil and gas producers and reserves holders in the United States, with a portfolio including Alaska, onshore Gulf Coast and deepwater Gulf of Mexico. In addition, there are approximately 13,000 Exxon and Mobil branded service stations in the U.S., as well as seven refineries, four of which are integrated petrochemical facilities.
About National Engineers Week
National Engineers Week, founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineers' contributions to society and is among the oldest of America's professional outreach efforts. For more information, visit www.eweek.org.