My Story
I can relate with young girls who don’t think they’ll enjoy STEM topics. I never planned to pursue engineering. In fact, I used to despise STEM in general and aspired to be a sociology professor. But taking an engineering class in high school ignited my curiosity. My teacher told me that he had a teacher made him dislike chemistry, but he still majored in it and graduated from college.
I took that class because I wanted to see if I might prefer engineering, and it turned out that I did. I feel like I've always had a passion for engineering without even realizing it because I always play this game called Roblox, and it's shown me I like building things, particularly houses. That is why I now want to be an architectural engineer.
My Project
I will be meeting with students weekly and covering units on different kinds of engineering. I expect to cover about one unit each month. For example, one of the units will be architectural engineering. First lesson we’ll cover the basics of architectural engineering. I’ll introduce what they do and some women of color in the field. The second week students will learn how to blueprint, sketch, and design a building. By the third week, students be introduced to a project in which they will work in partners to come up with a design for a building with a few requirements. Students might put their design in a website called TinkerCad. Some of the weekly sessions will include problem packets where students will come up with solutions to the problems and present them to the rest of the group.
Towards the end of the school year, students will receive certificates and have an award ceremony where parents and others are welcome. Students will present the projects they have created throughout the school year to their peers and family.
My Interview
Check out my interview with NAE Member Barbara Rusinko where she discusses her motivation for becoming an engineer and her experiences as a woman in the male-dominated construction industry.