engineering for females

VMT
Sat, 15 Jun 2019 19:42:23 +0000

I don’t know what ‘holistic elites’ means when it comes to engineering. Is that MIT? Cornell? Michigan? Purdue? I’m not being snide, I’m just not sure.

Engineering is so broad, I don’t know how any 17-year old could possibly have a concrete and realistic answer to the question of what engineers do on a day to day basis. Many engineers after 4 years of college education probably still can’t answer the question well.

And I don’t think it’s such a bad thing that one starts out a bit idealistic and strives to impact society and/or apply their love of math creatively. Even if the role is a small part of a very large project, it doesn’t diminish the contribution.

This is not meant to minimize the benefits of STEM EC’s. I was a coach for a FIRST robotics team. It’s a fantastic program for many reasons. Fortunately, pieces of it can be picked up elsewhere. Kids work collaboratively all the time, not just in a STEM EC. School orchestras, sports teams, Model UN and flipping burgers all provide valuable collaboration experience. I sure hope the holistic elites are open minded enough to consider the lessons learned from experiences outside of STEM.