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Albany, NY – It's a constant challenge for liberal arts women's colleges to encourage women to enter fields like science and engineering - and to find ways to offer those courses. Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, has developed partnerships with neighboring schools to offer the widest curriculum possible. I spoke with Smith's president, Carol Christ, about the school - and how it's stayed so vibrant as a single-sex school.
A few years ago, Ariel Hodges found her place at Russell Sage. She loved the small classes and responsive professors - and especially the understanding that the administration showed her as a young single mother. 51%'s Jill Rontey sat down with Hodges to talk about her educational balancing act.
St. Margaret's School for Girls is located in the small, river front town of Tappanhannock, Virginia. Over the past 85 years, the school has expanded from teaching 17 students in a room above a pharmacy...to an idyllic boarding school serving more than 150 young women, grades eight through twelve. The diverse student body comes from all over the world, and maintains an enviable 6 to 1 student to faculty ratio. St. Margaret's School for Girls places a special emphasis on science education. The school has developed hands-on programs that offer students a real chance to enjoy science and succeed at it. One way St. Margaret's does this is by bringing the river that flows right by its classrooms into its curriculum. Shea Shackleford reports from Virginia.