Engage outreach program reaches over 1,200 students in one year
An Engage day starts long before the Purdue University Women in Engineering (WiE) Program staff is even in a classroom.
The team starts bright and early with a double-check of every material needed for the day. And it doesn’t end until leftover materials are accounted for, classrooms are set up and the team has debriefed. It would be a long day for some, but not the Engage team.
Engage is a WiE outreach initiative that provides hands-on, standards-based engineering design activities to students in grades 6-8. Purdue student mentors on the Outreach team, along with WiE assistant director Katie Smith, visit middle school classrooms to conduct activities in collaboration with teachers across the state. Since the onset of the new program in fall 2025, Engage has served 1,291 students.
In the 2025-26 academic year, WiE made eight visits: two to Wea Ridge Middle School and one each to Battle Ground Middle School, Barker Middle School, East Tipp Middle School, Frontier Junior-Senior High School, Zionsville High School and Zionsville West. Visits ranged from a single classroom visit to a half-day rotation of hands-on activities.
“I see Engage shaping young minds by giving students meaningful, hands-on experiences that reinforce learning in memorable ways,” said Maggie Kaufman, a junior studying biomedical engineering (BME) and member of the Outreach Leadership Team. “At the end of each program, we quiz students and consistently see how much vocabulary, knowledge and confidence they have gained in a short period of time.”
But what is done in four-to-five hours?
Firstly, talk about engineering at Purdue. A presentation put together by the WiE student team is meant to spark curiosity in participants at the possibility of becoming an engineer.
Which means telling young students something they don’t already know about the discipline — Alayna Miller’s favorite part.
“Many students are surprised when I call engineering a creative and collaborative career,” said Miller, who recently graduated with a bachelor’s in aeronautical and astronautical engineering (AAE). “They associate math and science with being an individual sport, but engineering is not that way. … Students have a hunger for creativity, for learning and for a challenge.”
After talking about engineering, participating students get a chance to satiate their craving for a problem to solve. The Engage team splits the classroom into teams, each of which works together to present solutions to a problem presented via hands-on activity. Each activity is focused on one engineering discipline — wound treatment for BME, a space glove for AAE, solar oven s’mores for environmental and ecological engineering and coding for electrical and computer engineering. Once the teams have identified solutions in one major, they rotate to a new station.
Activities have take-home components that resonate with students even after the WiE team’s visit.
“I liked playing with coding and micro:bits. It was really fun,” wrote a student from Wea Ridge. “I still have the bracelet from micro:bits (extension activity). I also liked treating wounds because it reminds me when I didn't like the inside of our body, but now I get so excited when we learn about our body because it's so cool.”
Engage opens participants’ eyes to a potential career. For the outreach team, Engage is a full-circle moment.
“Working Engage shifts remind me of why I want to be an engineer,” said Ginny Hawkins, a junior studying AAE. “I see these students in wonder of the world and eager to creatively solve problems, which is what drew me to this field in the first place. While our goal with Engage is to inspire these students, they often unknowingly reignite a passion inside us, and I am very grateful for those moments of reminder from these visits.”
Visits can be arranged by reaching out online.