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Jul. 16--BEAUMONT -- Alyse Trahan wants to become a doctor.
But after a week at a Lamar University computer camp, she's seeing other options.
"This camp has actually affected me, how I think about my career later on, a lot," the Nederland High School 16-year-old said.
"Because people have come and talked to us and talked about their careers. And it's actually really interesting listening to how they enjoy their work."
The "Girls WIRED for Computer Science," camp targets girls in middle and high school.
The goal is to teach girls "computers are cool" and encourage them to join a profession in which women are underrepresented, Lamar officials said.
Jessica Hunt, 15, wasn't a tough sell -- she attended the camp because she likes computers. She doesn't know what she wants to study in college, but math or even singing may be options.
But the local job market is a consideration, she said.
"There is a shortage of jobs here for sure," she said. "I guess I would just like (to go to) Dallas (or) Houston. Heck, if I did computers, I might could go to NASA."
Elaine Nguyen, 15, also is considering the medical field. She likes math and thought the camp would be fun.
And the Southeast Texas employment market has been on her mind as well.
"I thought about how there are so many refineries around here, so I thought about being a chemist," she said. "But I don't know yet. I'm just looking around."
Students from Nederland's Central Middle School participated in a day-long camp Saturday, while a group from Port Neches Middle School will attend in August.
The pilot programs are funded through a Texas Workforce Development grant from the Texas Engineering and Technology Consortium, as well from ExxonMobil Corp.
The camps are designed to expose girls to computer science and its applications, said Peggy Doerschuk, Lamar professor of computer science, who along with Jiangjiang Liu is leading the camps.
The girls have learned how to program robots and computer hardware and design Web pages.
On Friday, the participants from Nederland High School showed off their new programming abilities.
Their Lego robots -- Henry, Lost, La Cucaracha and Aries -- buzzed around a 5-foot-square "simulated mine detector" site, guided by the programming the teens installed.
The camps will show the girls the roles of computer science in medicine, science, business and entertainment. Guest speakers and a session on preparing for college are included.
"Girls lose interest in computer science really early," Doerschuk said.
"The literature says they're more socialized and the image of computing is that it is a solitary occupation, which is really not true."
There also is the belief that computer science is just for males, she said.
"We hope to dispel that misconception," she said.
"Girls stay away because they don't see many other girls in the profession."
Today, she said, it is important to attract young women to computing because the United States faces a shortage of computing professionals.
Computer occupations are expected to be among the fastest-growing career fields in the United States through 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Doerschuk said the field provides many opportunities, especially in the coming decade.
Of the 20 fastest-growing occupations in the U.S., five are related to computing, Doerschuk said.
The career also brings job diversity, with many positions paying an average of $44,000 to $102,000 per year, Lamar officials said in a news release.
While there are jobs locally, Houston, Austin and Dallas also provide many opportunities, she said.
But the number of computer science degrees awarded in the U.S. has decreased dramatically in recent years, Doerschuk said.
In the last decade, fewer than 20 percent of computer-science bachelors' degrees awarded in the U.S. went to women.
At the undergraduate level, about 15 percent of computer science majors at Lamar University are female.
jlane@beaumontenterprise.com (409) 880-0729
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas
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