Tech Trek History
Tech Trek is a program of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) but the first Tech Trek camp was truly a grassroots campaign put together by many generous and dedicated AAUW California members.
In 1991 the, AAUW educational foundation published research called Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America. The report indicated that young women tended to drop out of science and math courses during their middle school years. In response to the 1991 study as well as their personal experiences in their own lives and the lives of their daughters, members of the AAUW CA board applied for and received a $5,000 grant from AAUW National in 1996 to establish a camp. In 1998, the first Tech Trek camp was held at Stanford where 151 girls from 134 branches spent one week in the program. |
New camps were added in 1999 (CSU Fresno & UC San Diego), 2001 (Mills College & Whittier College), 2005 (UC Santa Barbara), 2008 (Stanford II, Mills College moves to CSU Sonoma), 2010 (UC Irvine), and 2011 (UC Davis & UC Santa Barbara II).
Because of its success across California, Tech Trek has now become a national program with camps in Florida, Alabama, New Mexico, Oregon, Iowa, Washington, New Jersey, and Ohio. In 2006, the first survey of campers was conducted. The survey, which focused on campers from 1998-2001, found that campers were positively influenced by camp. In 2013, another survey was performed, this time targeting alumnae who attended camp in California between 2006 and 2009. To learn more about the efficacy of Tech Trek, check out the report published by AAUW. |