Introducing A Girl To Engineering Day
Interest in STEM fields, science, technology, engineering, and math has grown of late with a renewed focus at the federal and state levels. One aspect of that interest, many hope, is that more women will break into what has long been a man’s world of engineering. Thursday is “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” and 47 ABC visited NASA Wallops Island to discuss the importance and benefits of women joining the force.
Growing up Cathy Hesh was fascinated by cars, airplanes, pretty much any machine that moved. Hesh tells 47 ABC, “Eventually some guidance counselors in my high school started to inquire maybe I should pursue engineering so I started to look into it and that’s sounded like a lot of fun.”
Hesh says that kind of encouragement needs to continue so girls can see that engineering, despite certain social stereotypes, is not just for boys. Hesh tells 47 ABC, “I think if we had more curriculum aimed at it when they’re younger that might help something more than just math or science and it kind of gets them involved in the different options that are out there. It’s a very exciting career path.”
One student taking advantage of all that engineering has to offer is Carolyn Olmsted, a senior at Nandua High school. Olmsted tells 47 ABC, “I’m looking to be a civil engineer, that started when I was really little.”
For example, her favorite part of Disney Land was the train ride just to get into the park. After moving to the Eastern Shore, she became fascinated by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Last year she took an online engineering class through NASA and her advice for aspiring engineers?
Olmsted tells 47 ABC, “It’s not based off your gender that anyone can do it. You can solve problems for the rest of your life and help people in a pretty major scale way so take as many courses related to stem as you can in high school and figure out what you’re getting into.”
Back at Wallops, Hesh says she’s encouraged by recent trends for women in engineering. Hesh tells 47 ABC, “We have seen it increase in recent years we’ve gotten more women around wallops and in the community working in engineering so I think it’s a positive trend. Hopefully more girls will be excited about it in the future.”
Hesh says as far as her favorite part of being an engineer, launching rockets. She tells me she gets to help launch 20 rockets a year from all over the world. As far as Olmsted, she is currently awaiting to hear back from a few colleges where she says she plans to continue engineering classes and hopefully some day become a civil engineer.
