JUNE 2026 | LIVE NATIONAL COHORT

JUNE 2026 | NATIONAL COHORT

Designed specifically for community college STEM and CTE faculty teams.

While at the Hi-Tec Conference in Kansas City, I ran into Tim Tewalt of Chippewa Valley Technical College, who recognized me from the online WomenTech Manufacturing Bootcamp he participated in October 2020 with a Team from his College. I was thrilled to hear that the Mechatronics program now has one-third female enrollment (up from 1 or 2 females only per semester). In this WomenTech Educator's Video podcast, I interview Tim - the founding program coordinator along with Nate Boden, an instructor in the program - to learn how they did it. I am happy to say I learned some new things myself in this delightful interview!

If you want to achieve results like Chippewa Valley, please get in touch with me. You’ll walk away with a robust recruitment and retention plan you will create during the training. Plus, you'll receive hands-on coaching for its implementation. The training includes access to outreach materials we have developed for other colleges. You don't need to start from scratch!

-Donna Milgram

What Your Team Takes Away

✓ A recruitment and retention plan customized for your STEM program

✓ Implementation coaching calls with Donna Milgram

✓ Proven outreach materials from successful STEM programs

✓ Women & STEM Meet & Greet agendas and moderator scripts so you don't recreate the wheel

✓ Recruitment and retention dashboards that help programs track enrollment, persistence, and outcomes          for reporting and improvement

✓ A school-wide leadership team that will champion your program for years to come

Recruitment System: How to Increase Female Enrollment

✓ Identify where potential female students currently discover automotive careers

✓ Host Women in STEM Career Pathway Meet & Greets that convert interest into enrollment

✓ Partner with high schools and workforce partners to recruit female students

✓ Use messaging that resonates with women considering STEM/CTE careers

✓ Access proven outreach materials used by successful STEM and CTE programs

    including flyers, web pages, fact sheets, role model bios, and event agendas.

Retention System: How to Help Students Persist and Complete

✓ Identify the most common reasons female students leave STEM/CTE programs

✓ Build peer support and mentoring strategies that increase persistence

✓ Structure early program experiences that improve student confidence

✓ Address classroom dynamics that unintentionally discourage women

✓ Teach building block skills to students who come without prior STEM/CTE experience

"The WomenTech Educators Training helped us think outside the box for recruitment and retention of female students. The mostly male faculty of these programs became more aware of the simple things they can say and do to encourage women to pursue these career fields.

"Donna Milgram’s partnership was instrumental in helping us significantly grow enrollment in our new ARMTech certificate program — not only among women, but across the board. With her strategic guidance, we launched targeted outreach initiatives, including a Women in Robotics Meet & Greet and focused communications that resonated with prospective students. 

I would recommend the WomenTech Educators Onsite Training & Coaching to other schools. This is a great way to get the conversations started around how to help women feel more welcomed into male-dominated career fields.

The greatest benefit was seeing almost immediate results."

As a result, our enrollment more than doubled, increasing from 10 to 23 students, and the number of women rose from just 1 or 2 to 6 — representing 44% of the incoming class in Fall 2024."

~ Hao Lo, NSF ATE Principal Investigator, Quinsigamond Community College, MA 

~ Pam Gibson, Dean of Engineering & Applied Technology, Fayetteville Technical Community College, NC

"The WomenTech Makerspace Training brought our team together and was expertly facilitated.

Now we have an action plan for a short timeframe, so we can be ready for students the next semester.

I don’t think we could have gotten to this point without Donna's facilitation. I knew from my past experience with IWITTS that Donna could help us create a plan that would produce results. The materials, the research-based strategies, the PowerPoint slides, and the sample Student Leads Sheets were all so valuable and engaged faculty in the process. The WomenTech Makerspace Training enabled CCSF to achieve our grant’s goals to make our MakerSPHERE inclusive to ALL students from day one."

~ Maura Devlin-Clancy, MakerSPHERE Coordinator, Faculty, CNIT Department - Web Development Programs, City College of San Francisco, CA brought a team to a 2018 WomenTech Makerspace Onsite Training. CCSF achieved 50% female participation in the new Makerspace 101 course, 2 semesters in a row.

Faculty and staff teams learn recruitment and retention strategies while building their program’s recruitment and retention plan.

A short 90-minute orientation prepares your team of 6-10 and helps identify the target audience for recruitment.

Three follow-up coaching sessions help teams implement strategies and sustain progress.

Each participating college attends with a small team of 6-10 faculty and staff.

During the training:

• each school develops its own recruitment strategy

• teams complete structured planning exercises

• schools share ideas and strategies with other programs

• by the final session every team has a completed recruitment and retention plan

This format allows colleges to learn from each other while building customized plans they can implement immediately

By the end of the Bootcamp, every participating program leaves with a completed recruitment and retention plan ready for implementation.

Track Workforce Outcomes in Real Time and Prioritize Students 

Ready for Internships and Jobs

Job Placement Data Dashboard: Track Workforce Outcomes and Improve Placement

"The Job Placement Data Dashboard makes it easy to prioritize student job placement. We can instantly see which students are ready for internships or jobs and move them to the top of our placement efforts. Real-time visibility has helped us place more students before graduation."

Many community college workforce programs track only a few placement indicators. The optional Job Placement Data Dashboard helps programs track student progress across the entire career pathway—from enrollment to employment.

Examples of indicators programs can track include:

• internships and apprenticeships

• certifications and credentials

• career preparation activities (resume, LinkedIn, portfolio, interview preparation)

• job placement status within the program’s career pathway

• average wage at placement

• outcomes by gender and other student characteristics

With this type of real-time information, faculty and workforce coordinators can quickly identify which students are ready for internships or jobs and which students need additional support.

Programs can also use this structured data to make grant reporting and program improvement easier for NSF, Perkins, and state workforce initiatives.

Kevin Bradley, Work-Based Learning Coordinator, Transportation Technologies, Community College of Philadelphia, NSF ATE Project

Instead of waiting one or two years for placement data, faculty and workforce coordinators can see which students are ready for internships or jobs right now.

Optional Add-On: Job Placement Data Dashboard

Custom Dashboard: $2,500

Bootcamp Participant Price: $1,500 when bundled with the WomenTech Bootcamp

This dashboard helps your program track workforce outcomes and identify which students are ready for internships or jobs.

Save $1,000 when bundled with the WomenTech Bootcamp.

This optional dashboard can be added to the WomenTech Bootcamp to help programs track workforce outcomes after implementing their recruitment and retention strategies.

Many community colleges fund WomenTech training using existing workforce and equity initiatives.

Common funding sources include:

• Perkins V – Nontraditional Participation Funds

• Workforce Development or Strong Workforce funding

• Grant budgets (NSF, Department of Labor, or state grants)

• Equity and student success initiatives

Because the training is delivered online, it can often be funded as professional development for faculty teams working to increase enrollment and improve student success.

The June training schedule also allows colleges to use remaining funds before the June 30 fiscal year deadline.

We can provide sample language describing the training for grant proposals or internal funding requests upon request.

IS THIS BOOTCAMP A GOOD FIT FOR YOUR STEM PROGRAM?

Increase female enrollment while strengthening overall recruitment and growing total program enrollment

Meet Perkins V nontraditional participation goals for CTE programs

Supports Perkins-funded CTE initiatives and recruitment strategies

Build a high school recruitment pipeline that includes female students

Improve retention and persistence of female STEM/CTE students

Develop a clear recruitment plan for a new program i.e., robotics

This training works especially well for:

Community college STEM/CTE programs

NSF-funded programs (ATE, Innovation in Two-Year Colleges STEM Ed)

STEM programs that want a reliable system for recruitment and retention

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Most colleges try to solve recruitment challenges through individual meetings over many months.

The WomenTech Bootcamp accelerates that process by bringing the full team together to build a plan in just a few sessions. Teams from several colleges participate in the training, but each college works on its own recruitment plan.

STEM instructors

Workforce or apprenticeship staff

Career education deans

Outreach coordinators or marketing staff

Department chair or Program director

High school or workforce partners (i.e., employment programs) or industry advisors

Counselors, Career Advisors, or student support staff

Female Student

Schedule a 15-minute call with Donna to discuss the WomenTech Bootcamp

Schedule a quick 15-minute call with Donna to discuss your program's goals and determine which training option will work best for your institution and/or who should be on your WomenTech Leadership Team or email her @ training at iwitts.org 

June 2026 Cohort, WomenTech Educators STEM Online Bootcamp  

Ready to Build Your STEM/CTE Recruitment and Retention Plan?

Join other STEM programs in this live WomenTech Bootcamp.

Recruitment Dates: June 11 & 12, 2026

Ideal for programs using remaining Perkins or CTE funds before June 30.

Retention Dates: June 25 & 26, 2026

Times: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT (1:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET)  

Limited to four STEM programs to allow individualized coaching. 

By the end of the Bootcamp, every participating program leaves with a completed recruitment and retention plan developed with guidance from Donna Milgram.

Contact us to ensure there is still space - training at iwitts.org 

Payment Terms & Cancellation Policy

I've dedicated my career to helping schools significantly increase STEM and CTE enrollment and retention.

As the Principal Investigator of 5 National Science Foundation grants, I've worked intensively with schools—boots on the ground—to develop the strategies and systems that help STEM educators increase enrollment by 100% or more.

My NSF-funded CalWomenTech Project was highlighted by the National Science Foundation for demonstrating significant achievement and program effectiveness and chosen as 1 of 3 model projects by the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

After 30+ years of service in the field, I've "cracked the code" for increasing enrollment and retention in STEM and CTE programs and developed a 10 point system for recruitment and a 12 point system for retention that provides significant, measurable results in about one year—not just the hope of eventual change 5-10 years down the road that nobody can measure.

I've developed Recruitment and Retention Plan templates based on my 20 point system that requires you to use the plan elements which have resulted in success for so many of our past Training participants.  

I love being able to make such a big impact on STEM classrooms around the country, and in turn on the lives of students who have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Donna Milgram speaks at U.S. Department of Education’s “Moving STEM Forward in Career, Technical, and Adult

Education” Symposium.