Inspire: Checklist for Success
- Make the invitation special – put it on school or business letterhead.
- Make the invitation personal – address it to the recipient, use the girl’s first name in the salutation, and add a sentence about something they have done to warrant the invitation.
- Send the invitation directly to the student, but cc her parents or send a complimentary invitation to her family.
- Invite them to something important – not an event that everyone can attend anyway. It should be a “By Invitation Only” activity.
- Generate materials that appeal to girls’ work values
- Social work values – working with people and contributing to society
- Intrinsic work values – autonomy and interesting work.
- Prestige work values – working in a respected occupation
- Invite girls to bring one or more female friends to an event.
- Start with your current recruiting activities and adapt them to be age appropriate for younger students.
- Create opportunities and events targeting girls.
- Design events where students of all ages can attend together and learn more about advanced manufacturing and STEM pathways.
- Be sure the event or activity gives them the opportunity to learn a skill related to advanced manufacturing and to succeed, so they will want to come back to learn more.
- Be sure to follow-up if the student doesn’t respond. A follow up phone call or personal note will let students know you really meant to invite them and you want them to attend.
- Look for ways to get recruitment materials to younger students by working with museums, the Scouts, or youth athletic organizations.
- Don’t assume elementary and middle school students are too young to benefit from your recruiting efforts.
- Invite the same girls multiple times, even if they do not come the first few times. Young students’ beliefs and interests vacillate, so the timing, frequency of your events, and messaging matter.
- Don’t limit your efforts to distributing flyers and relying on someone else to carry the message.
- Don’t rely on others to promote your event.
- Go beyond making general school announcements about the upcoming event as your primary way of inviting students.
- Even if males attend your events in droves, don’t expect females will without targeted approaches to attract them to attend.
- Create promotional materials with photographs of women and underrepresented people doing advanced manufacturing jobs.