DP Engineering Academy is No Good Ol’ Boys Club

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The academy's freshmen and sophomore classes enroll as many girls as boys.

When Dos Pueblos High School opened the doors to its engineering academy four years ago, a predictable thing happened: The class filled up with boys, with the exception of one or two girls.

Then something less predictable happened. A teacher decided it was unacceptable, and began to seek out girls who excel in math and science.

Now, the freshmen and sophomore classes of the academy enroll an equal number of boys and girls. Not bad for a field that is dominated by men.

“All of us in society use products on a regular basis — men and women,” said the teacher, Amir Abo-Shaeer, the director of the academy. “So both men and women should be designing products.”

As an example, he likes to cite the desks in the classroom, which were built in the 1960s. The desks are held together by rivets that have a tendency to snag long hair.

“Those desks were designed by a man,” he said. “The girls are always having to put tape on the rivets.”

This summer, in a grant proposal he sent to the state, Abo-Shaeer touted, among other things, the academy’s impressive boy-girl ratio.

Several weeks ago, the school learned that the engineering academy qualified for a state grant of up to $3 million to help build classrooms. The goal is to triple the size of enrollment, from the current 128 to around 400.

Currently, the academy turns away half of its applicants for lack of space. By creating more classrooms, the program can be even more inclusive, Abo-Shaeer said.

The hitch, however, is the school itself must raise an equal amount of money in about a year’s time in order to receive the windfall.

To meet this difficult challenge, a group of Dos Pueblos parents has started a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the money. In a reflection of the program, four of the seven board members are women — three of whom are math and science professionals.

One of them is Sandy Seale, a retired UCSB seismologist who earned an undergraduate engineering degree from Princeton, and then a master’s and doctorate from MIT.

“My whole life, I was the only woman in every one of my classes,” said the Hope Ranch resident.

Seale said she was impressed with Abo-Shaeer’s abilities long before the engineering academy. Seven years ago, he taught her daughter in AP physics.

“He encouraged her to join the physics Olympics,” Seale said. “She actually won. I saw the difference this person made in her life.”

Of course, whenever educators are improving the diversity of a program, thorny questions about affirmative action lurk closely behind. Abo-Shaeer insists that no such practice has occurred.

Girls, he said, are asked only to apply, which entails both participating in an interview and producing a transcript. Not all of them make the cut. However, he concedes that a higher percentage of girls have gotten in: This year, of the roughly 30 kids who were turned away, five or six of them were girls.

But, he said, this is because the girls who possess the skills and gumption to give it a shot tend to be “trail-blazer types” in the first place.

“These are people who are willing to buck the social trend,” he said. “Once you’ve made that step you’re already in a differential state.”

The goal, he said, is to avoid having to recruit altogether. Eventually, he hopes, girls will learn about the academy from their friends or sisters, as opposed to always being pulled aside by a science teacher.

For some of his students, this is already the case.

“My sister was on the (Dos Pueblos) robotics team last year,” said sophomore Anjali Daniels. “I sort of follow what she does, because she’s cool.”

But others have benefited from the encouragement of teachers.

“I used to feel kind of intimidated by science,” said sophomore Ellen Feldman. “But in junior high I had some really inspiring teachers who made the subject really interesting.”

Both girls have math in their blood, however, and on the female side of their families: Their mothers are mathematicians.

For Abo-Shaeer, the ultimate goal extends well beyond gender diversity. For him, it’s all about getting more people enthused about math and science — regardless of gender. Hence the plan to triple the enrollment of the program.

A former mechanical engineer in the private sector, 35-year-old Abo-Shaeer said he worries about the ability of the United States to stay competitive in the global market. To do his part in addressing that issue, he hopes the engineering academy not only succeeds, but also serves as a model for others to replicate around the nation.

“The number of engineers the United States graduates every year is ridiculously low,” he said. “I think it’s important we maintain the innovative spirit of the United States.”

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