Villanova Graduates Largest Group Of Female Engineering Students
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Commencement ceremonies are being held Sunday for Villanova's graduating class and among them is the university's largest ever group of female engineering grads.
The national average for female engineering grads is 18-percent, but at Villanova, female engineering graduates make up over 31-percent.
The main force behind that number is Dean Gary Gabriele in the Engineering Department.
He says the first step toward growing that number was to "increase the number of women faculty, so that when young women came here, there were role models that they could have and people that they could talk to about engineering."
One of the young women graduating Sunday is Hillary Guardo of Flemington. She is graduating with a mechanical engineering degree, and will be working for the Navy.
"We do all the design, maintenance, start to finish for all the nuclear reactors that power the submarines and the air craft carriers in the Navy," Guardo says
