Welcome HeadsUP Readers:

This month our newsletter runs the gambit from our Mahr® Bar Screen handling unimaginable quantities of large scale debris in Puerto Rico, including huge chunks of concrete and giant plastic hoses, to the details of how chocolate unclogs the debris in your blood system. We cover Headworks’ employees moving away from their desks and heeding President Obama’s call to a day of community service on Martin Luther King Day to our Marketing Director’s questioning our government’s focus on our television sets as we go from analog to digital this month. And as this month we all honor our Engineers during the week of February 15th to 21st, there’s a short article on how much engineers do for our world.

February 19th is INTRODUCE A GIRL TO ENGINEERING DAY!
Now in its 8th year, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is a coalition to publicize the need for more women in engineering. Women are severely underrepresented in the engineering profession. Only 10 percent of the engineers in the United States are women. Research shows that girls and young women lose interest in subjects and the fields of study leading to engineering careers long before they enter college. Experts contend that the major culprit is one of perception among girls and the people who influence them, including teachers, parents, peers, and the media. Today, only 20 percent of engineering undergraduates are women. Introduce Girls to Engineering Day hopes to reverse these trends starting with K-12 girls by offering positive messages about math and science education and engineering careers. In short, girls have to perceive they can be engineers before they can be engineers. According to the National Engineers Week Foundation, nothing conveys that message as effectively as mentors and role models and these program leaders hope to effectively bring girls and role models together. So, if you’re an engineer, take time on the 19th to mentor a girl. For the USA to lead the world with new innovations, we will need all of the best and brightest in the engineering field!

Michele LaNoue
Team Leader