My Story
The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I participated in the Engineering Summer Program at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, a six-week journey that changed both the way I viewed engineering but the way I viewed myself as a girl attempting to enter the world of engineering. During this program, my peers and I worked to build a prototype for a source of renewable energy that could be implemented in Puerto Rico to help with hurricane relief and prevent such disastrous damage as Hurricane Maria in September 2017. As a junior in high school, I am now taking my math classes at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, but I now notice more and more how few girls are interested in engineering and the STEM field. I read that many girls, like me, begin to turn away from STEM in middle school, so I want to do everything I can to try to prevent that from happening and give girls the support they may need in such a male-dominated field.
My Project
I am creating a club for middle school girls to get interested in engineering by doing an environmentally friendly engineering project about their lives. For this project, I intend to start a club at Wedgewood Park IB Middle School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that allows girls who are interested in pursuing and exploring the STEM field to complete a hands-on engineering project and discover engineering and how it may pertain to their lives. One of the main ways that I intend on helping these girls become more comfortable in the engineering field is to create a supportive environment that will help them grow their love of STEM.
Update
Lucille graduated from high school in 2020 and is attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she planes to study astrophysics and engineering machanics, with minors in German and math!