Chantilly High School in Fairfax, Virginia, has developed a program called “Girls Exploring Engineering” (GE2) which encourages female students, grades 10-12, to explore the engineering industry under guidance of female engineer mentors.
As a second-year participant, I recently gave a presentation about civil engineering, with a focus on traffic impact studies. The students were interested in the topic, but when I started to sense boredom, I brushed over the “dry” information and started telling them real-life engineering stories. I stressed the importance for an engineer to visit the site she will be designing, in order to identify, first-hand, features of the terrain, constraints, and existing elements including manholes, poles, trees, and any other elements that may not be present on their map. I also shared with them one of the biggest rewards when designing a development: Walking or driving through a neighborhood and seeing in “concrete” what she envisioned and drafted on the computer screen.
To the delight of their teacher, I emphasized that having a solid understanding of math and physics will serve them well—whether in the engineering field, or elsewhere—and that there are real-life implications to the formulas they’re learning about now.
Luckily, on the day of my GE2 presentation I had the opportunity to talk to three more groups of students, both male and female. All of the students asked great questions ranging from general industry knowledge to more specific solutions for problems at intersections closest to their homes—where many accidents happen. By interacting with the students and allowing them to tell me why certain things were happening, they were focused and their curiosity and interest were peeked.
Being among young people and enticing their curiosity is one of my favorite ways to volunteer my time. This week is National Engineers Week, and after this experience, I’m excited for the future of the engineering industry. I’m looking forward to presenting to this group of students, and others, in the future.