Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneYoung
How many girls actually go through the FRC program and decide on an engineering major? How many women that had their start in these robotics programs have gone on into fields of math, science, and engineering?
I welcome posts from the women who are scientists and engineers and who read CD. Share your thoughts.
Jane
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Well I figured it was time to share my piece...
I was a junior in high school when my school started our FIRST robotics team, The Robettes. Up until then, I was planning on going to college for psychology. After I joined FIRST, like everyone else who is on a team, it became my life and I knew engineering was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. You know the saying "Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life," well that is how I feel.
I did not decided go to a "regular" college, I went to an engineering and science college. So if I changed my mind about my major I would have to leave because they offer math, science, and engineering degrees. I am now a junior working toward my electrical engineering degree.
Let me just say if I wasn't a member of the Robettes AND I didn't attend an all-girls high school, I probably wouldn't have made it two semesters. None of my college classmates would let me do any work in our labs and they always dismissed what I would say. Unfortunately for them, they didn't realize that because of the Robettes I knew I was good at engineering and I knew what I was talking about and I wasn't going to let them walk all over me. It's horrible, but the girls that didn't make it just couldn't stand the way they were being treated and decided to switch to a different field completely (hey if they were getting treated like this is college, they really weren't looking forward to working in the real world).
As a freshman in college I got an internship with EchoStar. The man who hired me said he knew I haven't taken any core EE classes yet, but he was familiar with FIRST and knew I could handle it. As a sophomore in college I got a internship with John Deere. They hired me because of my previous engineering experience and my GPA. And as I type this I am currently in Atlanta doing a co-op with Johnson & Johnson. If it wasn't for FIRST getting the ball rolling none of this would be happening for me.
I am one of only 6 girls in my college's whole Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. I was the only freshmen in my class to get an internship and I was the only sophomore in my class to get over 8 internship offers and work for a huge engineering company. Junior year I got over 15 internship and co-op offers. Please don't take this as me bragging, take this as if I couldn't be involved in FIRST because single gender teams weren't allowed look at all the opportunities I would miss out from.
Sexism never goes away. And maybe I missed over it, but I didn't see any females in this thread agree that single gender teams shouldn't be allowed. Because until you are a female in a male dominated interest, you honestly don't know how hard it is for us and all we have to go through.