|
|
|
|
Smith Will Host Engineering Summit Smith Keeps Company with Fast Company
|
Engineering Women Who Take the Driver's Seat Ford Motor Company executive Rose Mary Farenden came to Smith this past October to present the company's $2.5 million gift to the college's innovative Picker Program in Engineering and Technology. The money will be used to establish several four-year, full-tuition scholarships and other ambitious initiatives, including start-up funds for faculty research and teaching programs.
Engineering students inspect a Ford Focus, brought to campus by Ford Motor Company engineer Rose Mary Farenden. Confirming the company's commitment to help bring women into the engineering field, the five-year grant is the largest corporate donation to the program since it was established two years ago. "Ford wants more women to consider engineering as a career, and we're excited about Smith College's approach," Farenden said. "We're looking for leadership and growth for our company. We can't get there without women as leaders. And we need many of our future women leaders to be engineers." Farenden, a native of Northern Ireland, graduated from Queen's University, Belfast, with a degree in mechanical engineering. A member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, she has worked at Ford since 1988, in both the company's American and European offices. During her visit to the Smith campus she gave a public lecture on corporate opportunities in engineering, as part of the ongoing Picker Program lecture series. At one point, Farenden, who is now director of global recruiting at Ford, took her audience outside to show off a model of the Ford Focus, which had been provided by a local car dealer and was parked on a campus sidewalk. As a former chief engineer on the design team for the car, she offered a unique perspective about the work involved in designing the Focus, which was a car-of-the-year honoree in both Europe and North America. Smith's Picker Program, established in February 1999, focuses on developing well-rounded engineers capable of assuming leadership roles in corporations, nonprofit organizations and technology-related fields. Twenty students entered the program this fall. The program's unprecedented linkage of engineering education and the liberal arts is expected to attract-and graduate-women who are not only strong in scientific and technical aptitude, but also capable of exceptional creativity and humanistic understanding. |
..............................................................................................................................................................
NewsSmith
is published by the Smith College Office of College Relations
for alumnae, staff, students and friends.
Copyright © 2001, Smith College. Portions of this publication
may be reproduced with the permission of the Office
of College Relations, Garrison Hall, Smith College, Northampton,
Massachusetts 01063. Last update: 1/25/2001.
Made
with Macintosh
