Last week I had the honor of meeting about a dozen students from my alma mater at a networking event. They were visiting Washington, DC to get a sense of what engineering is like in the "real world" (if you can call DC the "real world") by spending a day shadowing hosts (including myself) at various government agencies, research labs, and companies.
At the networking reception, I had the opportunity to speak with engineering students in several different programs. Most of these students are sophomores and are just starting to figure out what they want to do with their lives. I spoke with one young woman studying mechanical engineering who is interested in designing roller coasters. One young man studying chemical engineering is trying to decide between going into manufacturing of pharmaceuticals or entering the growing field of natural gas extraction in his home state of Pennsylvania. One young engineer is on her way to a career defending networks from cyber-attacks, another is looking to use his background to help shape policy.
Talking to these students, I'd have no idea there was a shortage of women engineers. The group was evenly split between men and women, and all of the students impressed me. The statistics show we have a lot of work to do still, but it was nice to be in a room of engineers and not be heavily outnumbered.
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