The STEPS program, founded at the University of Wisconsin at Stout, fosters manufacturing and engineering aspiration in female students. STEPS stands for Science, Technology, and Engineering Preview summer camp.

For four weeks each summer, 160 12-year-old girls spend five days in groups of 40 learning about electronics, physics, motors, metal casting and bending, plastics thermo-forming and how computers work. Each student pays $300 tuition (cost per student is $650) and disadvantaged youths, who make up a quarter of the group, attend for free. They all gain insight into the college campus at an early age.

For the past two years, campers have each built from scratch a radio-controlled speed boat which they race at the end of their stay in a brand-new manmade water course in the school’s gym. They built and flew radio-controlled airplanes in the program’s first decade.

Source: Design News