As engineering programs strive to attract and retain more female students, supportive communities and service components are no longer the exception -- they're becoming the rule. Although she excelled at both math and science in high school, Jenny Moerschbacher never gave much thought to becoming an engineer. “I could also write and talk to people,” she explains, which had her leaning toward a major in business or economics. It wasn't until she learned about Lafayette College’s interdisciplinary bachelor of arts degree in engineering that she realized the field might actually suit her skills perfectly -- a decision that was reinforced in her junior year when she traveled to a Central American country with a team from Lafayette’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders to work on a project bringing clean water to two villages. “I liked that I could have an effect on people’s lives,” Moerschbacher says. “That was really cool to me.”

Such enthusiasm for interdisciplinary studies and service projects hasn't been lost on engineering programs as they scramble to find new ways to engage and retain more young women like Moerschbacher. Indeed, some schools have seen their numbers of women graduates inch up beyond the national average of 20 percent by shedding rigid curricula and culture in favor of more programs like these. As the United States struggles with a dearth of engineers and increasingly complex problems for them to solve, putting out the welcome mat for women is more important than ever, explains Gary Gabriele, director of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Engineering Education and Centers. “Problems that engineers will face in the future are so complex and multidimensional that it doesn't make sense to solve them with a group of people who essentially have one common background and perspective....”

Not surprisingly, a few open faculty office doors can make a huge difference in whether a student sticks around or not. At Lafayette, where women make up more than 25 percent of engineering graduates, an open-door policy is de rigueur. “We expect faculty to be mentors, and that means that the doors are open and students can come and talk to us about not just academia but anything in their extracurricular lives,” says Director of Engineering Jim Schaffer. “When I came to Lafayette, I was shocked at how much time I spent talking to students and how much learning occurred in that setting.”