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	Why don't girls/women sign up?
	Recruitment of female students must be proactive and female-specific to overcome the strong negative messages that girls and women receive -- that computer networking is not a field for females and that they won't do well in it. Only a strong female-specific recruitment campaign will be able to help the average female student to see that networking is a field they can succeed in.
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	Are personal invitations effective?
	Provide personal invitations to female students to join the Academy. Some instructors have done this by making presentations in related classes such as business education or introduction to computer technology, or by asking the instructors of these classes to identify female students who might be interested in the Academy. See Hagerman Academy; Lakewood High School; Gender Initiative Focus Group Report.
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	How can I interest girls in careers in IT?
	Hold a career orientation for girls/women. Some Academies have held female-specific orientations that have used female role models to interest girls and women in the Academy. See Franklin High School, see the Ignite Project. For more information on how to hold an orientation or career expo see IWITTS's WomenTech Project.
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	How can I interest male and female students in careers in IT?
	Hold a career orientation or school assembly for male and female students on the Academy and IT careers. In some schools it appears that simply informing ALL students about the benefits of the Academy Program was sufficient to recruit female students, and this was done via a career orientation or a school assembly. One community college provided orientations to factory workers about to be laid-off, on the work site. See Petit Jean College. See Focus Hope a community-based organization that made presentations to churches and community groups and coordinated with welfare caseworkers. Also see Citronelle Academy and the Focus Group Report.
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	What kind of marketing materials should be used?
	Develop marketing materials, such as flyers, to attract students. Some schools developed flyers and fact sheets on the Academy to both distribute and post around campus. The flyers emphasized the salary, career opportunities, the hands-on aspect of the program, and in some cases, female role models. One college simply sent a letter inviting all 1000 seniors about to graduate to consider applying to the new Computer Support and Technology Program, see United Tribes Technical College. See Alverno College, Petit Jean College, Citronelle Academy, and Franklin High School. For free images of females in Networking, go to IWITTS's Women in Tech clipart and photo gallery (http://www.iwitts.com/html/clipart.htm).
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	How do I recruit girls to Academies?
	Counselors should be enlisted to recruit females to Academies by presenting them with the benefits of an Academy education, by providing them with the information needed to "sell" the Academy program, and by communicating the Academy's goal of recruiting female students. Both high schools and community colleges have successfully enlisted the help of counselors to recruit female students. See Focus Hope, Lakewood High School, Focus Group Report.
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	What can I do to get parents involved?
	High Schools should get parents on-board to support their daughter's enrollment in the Cisco Networking Academy Program. This can be done via a presentation at a Parent Teachers Association Meeting or by inviting parents to participate in a career orientation or open house. Provide information to the Parents on the Academy Program, careers, and salaries, and include female role models in the field. See Citronelle Academy and Chicago Public Schools.
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	What can I do to create a comfortable environment in the classroom?
	Create a pipeline of female Academy instructors to help boost enrollment of female students and to increase their comfort level in the classroom. Focus group participants and best practice instructors reported that an increase of female instructors corresponded to an increase in the number of female students. While no hard number exists, there is general agreement among the Focus Group participants that the vast majority of Academy instructors are male. Proactively recruiting female instructors, perhaps through business education departments, is one avenue for boosting female enrollment and retention. See Focus Group Report, Northwest College, Focus Hope, Alverno College, Franklin High School, Lakewood High School, and Citronelle Academy.
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	How can I create an attractive learning environment to girls interested in IT?
	The Cisco Networking Academy Program should be housed in Business Education departments rather than Technology or Vocational Education departments since Business Ed departments typically house more girls or women, whereas Tech or Voc Ed departments typically attract more boys or men. Focus group participants were unanimous in their agreement that the number one reason that Academies were unattractive to female students was male-domination. Placing Academies in Business Ed departments will make them more attractive to female students and will counterbalance their male-dominance. Several focus group participants and best practice sites noted that their location in the Business Education department was important to their recruitment of female students. See Focus Group Report, Lakewood High School and Northwest College.
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	How can I introduce females to IT?
	Introduce 3 hour Networking modules in the middle school as a means of engaging girls in the technology and helping them to see it's a skill they can learn and in which they can excel. Female students in mandatory Academy classes that are part of degree programs are successful when required to take networking classes. IWITTS's WomenTech Project held a GirlTech Career Fair sponsored by Tech Corps that provided hands-on technology labs in the Cisco Networking Academy Program and other technology programs.
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	Who should I use to recruit females to IT?
	Female Role Models are key to recruiting female students. See the female role models on the Gender Initiative Web site. To identify female role models in your area in IT, connect with the many women in technology organizations on the web. See IWITTS's www.womentechworld.org, the national on-line home for women technicians to connect with each other, and visit the career center links page. To see Academies that utilize female role models, go to Franklin High School and Lakewood High School.