#EngineerGirlShow highlights amazing women in engineering to inspire the next generation. This series was produced by George Retelas with his digital art students at SAE Institute.
Watch an interview with Carolyn M. Jones from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Dixon, California.
Interview Transcript
Why did you decide to become an engineer?
My passion for agriculture and my interest in the sciences, and I decided to go to UC Davis and get my degree in what's now called biological systems engineering.
Could you kind of describe what your life was as a teenager?
I got involved with FFA. I raised sheep, competed in the light horse judging competition, as well as the agriscience fair and a few others.
What was your favorite subject in school?
Ag. bio was really, really helpful to me. It really prepared me well for college-level biology and I learned how to take college-level notes in that class. Are you interested in agricultural engineering?
I am right now interested in anything really dealing with agriculture. I love FFA and definitely want that to be a part of my future but ag. engineering is always there and once I get into college and start taking classes I feel I'll figure out, kind of, what I want to do. What advice would you give to a young woman looking at going into the engineering field?
Start thinking about the ways that you want to save the world. Get into those math and science classes and really start pulling the knowledge together in your mind and learning about the technologies available, whether they're technologies in that natural world or they're the technologies that you see in the cell phone that's in your pocket.