Commission release recommendations for attracting more women, minorities

U.S. Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a U.S. Space Shuttle mission, tries to encourage and inspire young women and minorities to follow their dreams of becoming scientists, engineers, and technicians. “I like to tell young women that there have been 12 men who have walked on the Moon, but not yet one woman, and you could be the first,” Collins, who is a member of the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development (CAWMSET), said at a July 13 hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Technology reviewing the commission's recommendations. Collins said she tells young women, “No one has walked on Mars, and you could be that person.”