Executive Summary
WAMM is a student-run directed reading program that pairs undergraduate women interested in a mathematics-related field with Ph.D. students from the Applied Mathematics Department at the University of Washington. The pairs meet every week over the course of a quarter to work through a project decided upon during the first meeting based on the mentee's interest. Projects typically involve a combination of reading texts or papers to learn new mathematical ideas, analytical work done by hand with pencil and paper, and numerical experimentation using a relevant programming language. In addition to their project material, participants are encouraged to discuss with their mentors other topics such as potential career paths, the graduate school application process, and what graduate school is actually like.
To promote a sense of community among the women in our program, we host and/or invite participants to a set of informal, but academically-oriented social events throughout the quarter including study halls and departmental "tea time". The program culminates with a mini-symposium wherein the undergraduates give short presentations on what they learned and accomplished during the quarter.