When I grow up

I'm not one of the engineers that played with legos their whole life and always dreamed of building bridges. I actually didn't really know exactly what an engineer did until college. I never really knew the answer to the "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question (and honestly I still don´t!). My first year of college I had no idea what degree to choose and took basics at a community college. Then I decided that I wanted to try to do something that would help the environmental problems we face. So I went to UTA for environmental biology. Then everyone asked what I'm going to do with that degree and I didn't know the answer to that question either. My sister and her friend told me I should look into engineering since I like math and it has a lot of job opportunities. At first I was really intimated by it since everyone says it's so hard. I went into the program with the mindset of "I'll just switch back to bio if I don't make it." I chose Civil since they had an environmental engineering program. Unfortunately, I realized that's not exactly what it seems. So now I'm set on Structures. I like it and it's challenging and interesting. I used to be really scared and doubt my ability to succeed in engineering but now I realize that it's an achievable goal. Sustainability is becoming more popular in structural engineering. I want to work with sustainability and try to make it more widespread in the field of structures. I've already learned at AIDICO the amount of pollution that the manufacturing of cement causes. Using alternate construction materials could help reduce the negative effects on the environment. I also think that as a woman, I can offer a different perspective in the profession.

Becoming a civil/structural engineer will help me reach my professional goals as well as personal. I want to help inspire young girls to be confident in their abilities. When I was little I never personally knew a woman engineer and never saw one in the media. I actually didn´t meet one until I was in my first engineering class. Obviously engineering isn't for everyone, but I think young girls should know the door is open. People always make jokes that you get a lot of stuff handed to you just for being a girl, but they forget that girls know how do open doors for themselves too. I like helping kids in general realize math isn´t evil! Last semester I was involved in a project where high school kids made bridges out of balsa wood that met certain criteria. Then we tested them to see which was the strongest. It was really fun and hands on way to help them see that math and engineering are actually fun and useful!

I also tutored at a junior high school a couple years ago for an AVID class. AVID is a program that helps prepare kids for the path to college. It´s meant for the kids that are just on the edge of the honors classes. I remember when I was struggling in my first honors math class in 7th grade the teacher said, "Would you rather be at the top of the regular classes, or the bottom of the honors classes?" I´m glad I stuck with the honors classes so I enjoyed helping the kids stick with their honors classes. At the beginning none of them wanted any career that was math related at all, but at the end of the semester one shy kid asked me a lot about engineering. I was so happy that he has that option now! I like engineering because it gives you the knowldege and tools to literally design and build the world you want to live in. Engineering in it´s essence giving solutions to problems, and I think the STEM education is a huge problem. Not only do I want to be an engineer, but I want to be involved in getting kids to realize it´s a fun career.

A professional goal of mine is to perhaps work with airplane structures. It is a very specific part of structural engineering but since my dad is a pilot, I've always liked airplanes and am so intrigued by how they work. It is so crazy how they actually fly?!? This is a pic from the flight here, swiss air is so nice! I actually noticed while boarding the flight that the plane was made by the company ThyssenKrupp. At my previous internship I was working on a ThyssenKrupp project. We were designing the connections for the industrial plant that they designed the structure of.