Girls on Teams going to Engineering

[Kel D]

I am in college right now so I hope you can still use my answer...

1. I joined FIRST because my friends were on the team and they bugged me to join forever and the mentor of my team was my physics teacher so I gave it a shot. I went down to the workshop and was able to help out right away and I knew that FIRST was something I wanted to do. I think it actually was what made me really consider engineering as a career field seriously.
2. I was in FIRST for 3 years and it has been 2 years now since I graduated.
3. I currently attend the University of Arizona (which by the way has an excellent engineering program and you can’t beat the weather!!).
4. Yes, I am planning on going into the engineering field, particularly Aerospace and Mechanical engineering. I chose this path because I love to build things and I have always been fascinated by planes. Hopefully I will get a pilot slot in the USAF (*fingers crossed*) but if I don't/after I get out of the AF, I want to design/build planes.
5. I think that the question is not why should women be engineers, the question is why shouldn't they be engineers! Now, I am not one of those people who think that there are no differences between men and women and that men and women are exactly the same, but when I applied to the college of engineering, I did it because I was genuinely interested in it and that it is exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So, if engineering is someone's passion, whether or not they are a guy or girl, then it's a no-brainer. I do agree though with some earlier comments that men and women do think differently, I have noticed this during my short experience with engineering so far in college and even in high school. When it comes to something like physical strength and what not it’s clear that men are more capable of doing things like that, but when it comes to using your brain, men and women were made to work together. But I guess it is good that people start getting used to women in engineering because I know I have gotten comments about how it is going to be difficult being a woman in engineering and how people will treat me differently, and this was from an adult who knew what they were talking about. But I love it so far, even though it can be really hard at times...ok, at majority of the time.