Girls cheer for technology
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 05/19/2008
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The College of Technology is using a new routine for one of its summer camps for kids.
"Cheering in the Classroom" is a camp for students who have an interest in cheerleading, and some interest in technology wouldn't hurt.
The program, directed toward girls, is offered to any student who is going to be a seventh-grader all the way to a high school senior. This will be the second summer that the camp will be held.
Christi Jacobs, a graduate student in the College of Technology and a Purdue cheerleader for four years, started the camp as a part of her graduate assistantship in the assistant dean's office for the college.
Jacobs has a passion for educating everyone on technology.
"Being in only 12 percent females and the only cheerleader in technology brought a different perspective."
Jacobs said the girls loved the camp and had a blast.
"Last year, there were seven girls and I heard from six of them that they wanted to come back."
Some of the camp activities include: programming a two-foot tall robot to perform a choreographed dance and then performing the dance with the robot, utilizing motion capture and technology used in video games and creating a digital cheer routine on the computer from captured motions, building a 2.5 high person structure and communicating it to the Purdue cheerleaders without even meeting them, and learning teamwork skills.
Next summer, Jacobs will be passing the camp on to Sam Brissey, a junior in the School of Aviation Technology.
"I see it as a challenge and an opportunity to help make a positive difference," she wrote in an e-mail. "I think it would be great to see more females pursuing careers in technology."
Technology is a field that doesn't have a large population of women.
"I think technology is traditionally seen as a career field for men, but slowly more females are becoming interested," Brissey said. "They understand that there is more to technology than computers and video games."
Most of the campers that come each summer are more interested in cheer than they are in technology.
"We incorporate cheerleading into different activities that someone pursuing a career in technology might do," Brissey said. "It's fun for them because they get to cheer, but it's introducing them to the different majors we have here at Purdue in the College of Technology."
Brissey has high hopes for campers and what they take from the camp.
"I hope they will have a better understanding of what they would like to do with their education, whether it's in a technology field or not, but hopefully they will be more informed and will take more interest in careers in the field of technology."
The camp will be held from June 22 through June 26. To register, go to https://www.tech.purdue.edu/Student_Life/diversity/cheering_in_the_classroom.cfm, or call Christi Jacobs at 494-2331 with any questions.