engineering for females

lvvcsf
Mon, 17 Jun 2019 14:21:00 +0000

My engineer D claims she knew she wanted to be an engineer in 8th grade. How she could know that I’m not sure. The test she took to determine her “strengths” indicated she should be a farmer. By 10th grade she settled on Chemical Engineer because of a particularly good AP Chemistry teacher. She never looked back and never changed her mind. She is now a Chemical Engineer with a major Chemical company and likes her work. One of these days I’ll have to ask her if the job is anything close to what she envisioned in 8th or 10th grade.

Both my Ds have been quite firm in their career choices early on. I do think it has helped. It has made it easier to choose schools, get scholarships, put themselves into positions to create opportunities and excel in things they enjoy. By knowing what they’d like to do it has helped them persevere when things were difficult and show others, both professors and others students that they have a passion for what they are doing. I think it also has saved them money or in the case of my Chem E daughter made her money. Her coop paid for a large chunk of her degree. She actually had a small amount in savings when she graduated. I understand that many if not most students don’t know what they wish to do as an occupation in the future. I know many students who are quite certain what they want to study but not what they wish to do make a living. For those students the optimism they display freshmen year often turns to fear by junior and senior year. When you combine the uncertainty of career with student loans the future can be very stressful.