Letters from Friends
Connecting high school girls to STEM careers
Benjamin M. Williams
Benjamin M. Williams earned a master's in 2000 and a doctorate in 2006 from the college's Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program, School of Educational Policy and Leadership. His advisors were Faculty Emerita Ada Demb for his PhD and Faculty Emeritus Bob Rodgers for his master's. He expresses appreciation for the experiences gained in EHE's Student Personnel Assistantship program and for the support from various EHE scholarships and fellowships, including the Porterfield-Dickens Graduate Research Support Award in 2006.
Why don't more Ohio female secondary students choose careers in science, technology, engineering or math? Ben Williams spent the last two years helping schools in Cincinnati, Dayton and Marietta learn exactly why.
He conducted this much-needed pilot work as state lead for the Ohio STEM Equity Pipeline Project, a part of the STEM Equity Pipeline Project. Ohio was invited in 2009 to join the initiative, administered by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity and funded by the National Science Foundation.
Williams dedicates the other two-thirds of his time to working as an admissions advisor and coordinator of the Carl D. Perkins Program at Columbus State Community College.
"The success of the early STEM Pipeline pilots attracted the attention of the Ohio Department of Education," said Williams, now director of the Ohio STEM Pipeline Project. "Officials contracted with Columbus State for me to train eight additional schools to use the model. We help districts that struggle with getting enough nontraditional students to complete their STEM programs."
How to change a state equity-in-education profile
At one career center, an outstanding example, the local team of secondary, postsecondary and business and industry partners was trained to discover the root cause of low female participation and completion in its STEM career and technical programs. The team found that girls felt they lacked enough career information and counseling to pursue science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
After surveying more students, plus counselors and teachers, the team chose a research-based solution: career counseling that helps all freshmen clarify their career directions.
One of the most innovative aspects of their counseling," Williams said, "is that each student is exposed to each career pathway. Once they choose and complete a secondary career and technical program, they've earned credits toward a college degree in that discipline at Sinclair Community College in Dayton."
Williams says the beauty of what is now the Program Improvement Process for Equity (PIPE-STEM) model is that a school selects solutions based on national trends and research, which are verified through local action research. The school districts appreciate the model as well.
"One principal called it one of the most purposeful initiatives he's been involved in during his career," Williams said. "I find training others to use the PIPE-STEM model exciting and intellectually satisfying."
East Coast meets West Coast in Japan, then lands in the middle
Williams credits his time teaching English in Japan with opening his mind to many things, including working with diverse students. He spent three years there after his bachelor's degree at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.
In Japan, he met his future wife, Marla, from Seattle. The pair married and went to work at the Idaho Youth Ranch, a residential treatment facility for delinquent youth. As he considered graduate schools, Williams heard about the field of student affairs administration.
He chose Ohio State's highly ranked HESA program because it gave him the best combination of offerings. This included a 20-hour-per-week job at Ohio State as part of the Student Personnel Assistantship program.
He advised students at Ohio State's Office of Graduate, International and Professional Admissions, and later, in the Office of International Education. These experiences deepened his passion for working with diverse students.
About his own advisors, he said, "It was exciting to work with such phenomenal advisors/teachers/authorities in the field. Ada Demb cared and still cares, genuinely, about my well-being and success and that of my fellow alumni. But she never hesitated to challenge our ideas. I would leave sessions feeling energized from the exchange and the learning. She pushed us intellectually while supporting us emotionally.
"Bob Rodgers was the same way. We would have wonderful conversations about ideas, other authors to consider and research studies to examine. His depth of knowledge about the field is amazing."
Williams was gratified when the college invited him to teach the HESA course on community colleges to master's and doctoral students last autumn. He introduced the future administrators to the richness of the community college choice, which is so different from the four-year experience. He also introduced them to the work of the Ohio STEM Equity Pipeline and the excitement of career and technical education of today.
"Professionally, I love the variety in my work and my life," Williams said, "and I think my graduate preparation, particularly my doctorate from Ohio State, has positioned me to do many different things, from advising students to being an administrator, to being a project director to teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels. It's opened more doors than I could have anticipated, and I'll forever be grateful."
Writer: Janet Ciccone, Office of Advancement, College of Education and Human Ecology
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