The following is info on Sonia Day, coming up on Saturday, February 20,
1999.  Does anyone know if SWE or EGR is paricipating in this event?  It
sounds like a great thing to get involved in.

~Justina
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Dear Amy (and other WIMSE folks),
        Several of us in the Math & Stat Dept are in our annual January
frenzy of trying to pull together a good program for Sonia Kovalevsky
Day.  This is a math day for area high school girls and is named in
honor of of a Russian woman born in the nineneeth century who was the
first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics. This will be our Eighth Annual
Sonia Day. We've been hosting about 200 girls and teachers in the last
several years; most come from the greater Cincinnati area. To encourage
attendance, we do not charge any fee and
we provide lunch for everyone.
        We try to introduce the students to profesional women who use
math in their work.  We're trying to encourage girls to continue
studying math so they will be equipped for any of the majors and careers
which depend on good problem solving skills.  Part of what we're doing
is showcasing the variety of careers which depend on math skills;  the
other part is to introduce them to some role models and prove that real
women DO do math (and science).   I'm trying to line up women in various
math, statistical, financial, computer science, and chemical areas and
also to recruit women in architecture and music to make the point that
there's math in the arts too. We'll also have a lab hour when the
students can visit various science labs on the Oxford campus. So far, I
have physics, manufacturing engineering, computer science, and paper
science labs lined up.
        This year's Sonia Day will be Saturday, February 20.  I thought
I should solicit ideas from WIMSE.  Do members know of a particular
speaker they think could effectively address a high school audience and
convey what they do in their work, why they enjoy it, and its connection
to math?  Perhaps some of the students have presentations they'd like to
make. I'll be glad to listen to any ideas.  I'm hoping we can do
something to get the students involved in doing some actual problem
solving themselves.  Do people have any suggestions about how to make
this work or do they have interesting, tractable problems to suggest?
What would WIMSE members have liked to have known about college and
careers back in high school?  Etcetera.
        Thanks in advance for thinking about this.
Emily Murphree
Math/Stat
210 Bachelor
529-5826



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