[Ellery]

Well all I can add to this thread is if you let them participate and give everyone the opportunity they will learn. Gender should not be a criteria of differentiation. Our team has always had a pretty good 50:50 split between male and female but that is by design since our team motto has always veiwed diversity as a strong point and gender so happens to be one of those metrics. We will always try to give the students their first choice of interest but if we beleive that a particular student would benefit being in a particular role we'll encourage them to try it out.

Every year I find a student that I will tend to mentor more just because he/she is willing to take the initiative to work with me. If they are willing to invest their time with me I will in return do all I can do to help them achieve the most out of this program.

Team members with initiative would prove to be best value you can have on a team.

Ellery