My Story
I first became interested in engineering when I participated in my middle school's FIRST Lego Robotics Team. Designing, programming, and building the robots made me fall in love with engineering and how it could be used to build solutions to problems. In high school, I pursued this passion by taking computer science classes at my school as well as by becoming an officer in Computer Science UIL.
But through it all, I've been a minority. On my robotics team, only 3 of the 14 students were girls. In Computer Science UIL, I am the only girl on the officer team, and my computer science classes in school are 90% male. Friends and classmates frequently mention how intimidating it seems to be in engineering when so few girls do it and how that discourages them from pursuing it.
I hope to decrease this negative stigma and clear up misconceptions about engineering and computer science. I believe that it's better to introduce kids to programming and engineering when they are younger, as it means they have had less time to form opinions on what engineering is like and whether they are capable of doing it or not.
As an EngineerGirl Ambassador, I want to support young girls and help them find their place in a community that often seems so hostile and unwelcoming to non-male people. My goal is to demonstrate that an engineer doesn't look one certain way - everyone has the potential to be one if they desire it!
My Project
My project is a 6-week web development course for low-income, underrepresented middle school girls held at my local library in April 2023 so participants can learn a useful engineering skill. There will also be an engineering fair in May 2023 for teens to get exposure to real-life engineering role models.