By 雪莉DiBari

Over 50 admitted 和 current female engineering students learned about career pathways, 谈判工作, work-life balance 和 supporting each other during the 6th annual 女性 Excelling in Engineering (WE2) event March 25.

Hosted by the 巴顿工程学院 和 技术, WE2 is an opportunity for female engineering students to meet 和 learn from successful female engineers, 同行, 校友和行业领袖.

"This event is important because it's not just reaching out to young girls, but also girls already in engineering - people who are also going through this 和 who want to support you in your engineering career,”康妮·科利尔说, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering.

根据 美国女工程师学会， 2020年只有24个.2%的U.S. undergraduate engineering students were female.

赞助由 GBS集团 和 supporting student organizations, the 女工程师学会 和 的.

肯尼斯•弗里德利, 巴顿学院的院长, opened the event with a short history lesson on Lillian Gilbreth - the first woman inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, the "mother" of ergonomics 和 actual mother of 12 children as featured in the book, “按打算更便宜." "She changed our profession, changed our society 和 changed our country," he said.

Students then attended one of two concurrent panel discussions.

The "Managing your 本科 Journey," panel featured current ODU students. Topics included internships, managing course schedules 和 staying motivated.

第二个面板, 毕业后的道路," provided a recent graduate 和 early career engineer perspective. Panelists discussed self-marketing, work-life balance 和 the art of 谈判工作.

阿比迪安, '20 (CEE) project manager 和 design engineer at VDOT's Location 和 Design Department - Hampton Roads District, talked about her role in the installation of a new transportation safety feature on the Eastern Shore.

"As the designer on the project 和 the project manager, being able to speak one-on-one with people 和 show them although it's not something they are used to - it is going to be a safety mechanism 和 there's going to be a reduction of crashes,她说. "Being able to educate people is really helpful 和 fulfilling."

主持人Karina Arcaute, director of the Batten College's First Year Engineering 项目, made a point about the importance of language. "I think the narrative has to be changed,她说. "Engineering is not a male-dominated industry, it is a male-majority industry.”“你不会让任何人支配你."

主面板, "Building a Successful Engineering Career,凯伦·比布说, an aerospace engineer at NASA Langley 研究 Center, 摩根Speight, a principal engineer with Speight Marshall Francis, 和香农·特纳, project manager 和 senior structural engineer at Moffatt & 尼科尔. Speight '14 (CET) 和 Turner '96 (CEE) are ODU alumni.

主题包括指导, 专业工程师(PE)认证, 就业市场的状况, work-life balance 和 alternative career pathways.

Turner recounted a tale of taking a job in construction after earning her master's degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

"I did not tell them I had a master's degree in structural engineering,她说. "I told them I had a high school degree because I really wanted to see from the bottom up, 那是什么建筑啊. I wanted to see how that person had to work 和 what their lifestyle was like. I thought this would make me a better manager when I transitioned into construction later on 和 help me to supervise 和 underst和 them from every level. 它给了我一个不同的视角."

The panelists all agreed that support systems were vital to academic success. "The only way you are going get through engineering school is by finding a core group of folks that you're going to study with all the time, 和 that you're going to work through problems with 和 work through classes with,比布说。. "You are going to learn how to judge other people's different strengths, because everybody brings different things to the problem."

Another topic of agreement was the fulfillment of project completion. "I get a little teary-eyed every time I see a job completed," said Speight. "Seeing an idea go from drawings to real life is always such an exciting feeling, especially for schools 和 buildings that will be used to bring things to the public."

随着活动的结束, 斯泰西Ringleb, 多元化事务副院长, 股本, 包容和获取, ended the discussion by referencing actress Gabrielle Union's book, "We're Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny Complicated 和 True."

"We can't afford to leave any woman behind," Ringleb said. "We need every woman on the frontlines lifting each other up for the good of all of us 和 the women who come behind us."