Miriam Walls | The Roanoke Times

Joyelle Combs of Grayson County High School (above) sets up an e-mail client on her tablet notebook during the networking portion of the Summer Bridge Program, an initiative of Radford University to introduce information technology to interested high school girls. Below: Ju’Quaena Irby of Franklin Military Academy creates a database on her computer.

RADFORD -- On a Monday morning in late June, 29 high school students from all over Virginia arrived on Radford University's campus and challenged a common stereotype.

The students, who were all female, participated in a Summer Bridge Program hosted by Radford's College of Information Science and Technology.

The three-day camp took place for the first time this year but has been on the college's agenda for five years.

It was designed to encourage rising female high school juniors and seniors to explore information technology as a future career.

"The field of IT is stereotypically male," said Hannah Garman, a rising senior at Glenvar High School who attended the camp. "I've had two other girls in my IT classes in the past three years."

Elizabeth Meade, a rising senior at Lebanon High School, agreed.

"Two of my girlfriends wanted to take an IT class but then decided not to because they didn't want to be in a class with a bunch of guys," she said.

Joe Chase, the acting dean of the College of Information Science and Technology, remembers when he graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor's degree in computer science 20 years ago.

"In 1986, 40 percent of IT students were female," said Chase. "Starting in 1987, the percentage of females in the field dropped like a stone."

Hwajung Lee, an assistant professor in the department of information technology at Radford and director of the program, said the percentage of women in IT was down to less than 23 percent by 2000 and fewer than 10 percent by 2005.

She identified three reasons that female students might be shying away from the field.

"First, there are a lot of negative prejudices toward women in this field. It is not thought of as girly," said Lee. "Secondly, female students don't have other female peers in their classes for a support system, and often, because of negative prejudices, they may not have support from their families either.

"Thirdly, a lot of people think a career in information technology is lonely because it must involve sitting in front of a computer all day. This is not true at all. The workplace is very team-oriented with many collaborative projects."

Chase also thinks that information technology has been given a mistaken identity.

"Many people associate an IT career with Milton from the movie 'Office Space,' and that is just not the case," said Chase. "The feedback that we get from top information technology employers is that they are looking first for candidates who have strong oral and written skills and a can-do attitude.

Miriam Walls | The Roanoke Times

Mary Jackson and Jackie Murrell of Tucker High School write HTML code for a Web site during the Internet design track of the program.

"Technical skills are just part of what they are looking for, and they haven't even been particularly specific about which ones."

Students at the camp could choose between three tracks of study, and most received their first choice.

Students participated in a network track, a database track and a Web site track, each taught by Radford University instructors and teaching assistants.

"I think the students got a lot of insight from the program," said Robert Phillips, instructor for the database track.

"Now they understand more of what they would do if they pursued a career in IT, and that's what the bridge program is all about. I'm glad they got a taste of it. Most girls don't consider an IT career, when they really should."

"I really enjoyed creating a Web page with Microsoft Front Page," said Haleigh Moore, a rising senior at Christiansburg High School who participated in the Web site track.

"I had only had the opportunity to use Dreamweaver software before."

Throughout the three days, the campers participated in sessions of lectures, projects and closing presentations, got a campus tour, had an ice cream social and game night and had dinner with speaker Stephanie Cruise-Whyte, a Radford alumna and director of information services for Montgomery County.

Chase said the ultimate goal of the camp was to promote for RU but also to recruit more people, especially women, into IT.

"Back in the late 1990s, we couldn't generate enough graduates for the industry," he said.

Chase suggested that the reason behind this is the introduction of certification programs into high schools.

"Many high schools have programs in which students can take two classes to get into the information technology industry," he said.

Chase said students who decide to go this route, as well as those who choose to attend an IT program at a community college, are dealing with a low glass ceiling, because most employers are demanding a four-year degree.

The Radford University IT department participates in high school recruitment mainly through high school principals.

Most of the girls at the camp were contacted by their high school principal, a teacher or a guidance counselor about the camp.

This year, the camp was funded by the College of Information Science and Technology, and was of no cost to the girls.

Chase said the university is unable to guarantee this sort of bargain in the future, but is working on a variety of sources of funding.

"It is our intention to have a math, science and information technology bridge program next year," said Chase.

He hopes to recruit as many as 120 students to the program.