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A standard stereotype in society says that girls are higher at “gentle expertise” like communication and empathy than males; due to this fact, they’re higher fitted to professions outdoors of engineering.
Darlene Fernandez ‘06 is one girl who’s flipping that stereotype on its head.
In March, Fernandez was appointed govt director of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority. She is utilizing her knack for communication alongside along with her civil engineering expertise to implement the wants of Miami-Dade commuters whereas main an interdisciplinary workforce of engineers.
“I consider that girls’s capability to speak and work together successfully mixed with a robust technical background can take them very far,” Fernandez says. “We simply have to construct up younger ladies’s confidence and vanity first so that they know they will do that job.”
Fernandez says packages that introduce younger folks to engineering, like FIU’s Engineers on Wheels, are very important to getting extra ladies into the career.
“Quite a lot of younger ladies say, ‘Hey, I don’t need to be in an workplace all day. Is there the rest ladies engineers can do?’” Fernandez says. “When you present them what ladies engineers do who’re 10 to fifteen years out of faculty, then it turns into simpler to grasp how hands-on this career will be.”
Naomi Lowe is one pupil at CEC who interacted with engineering at a younger age. She was delivered to the career by a program at her highschool. Lowe continued on with it and is now a mechanical engineering senior and a driver for Panther Motorsports.
“For me, I similar to how engineering is a approach to apply and create your ideas,” Lowe says.
This early expertise is now resulting in a promising profession. In August, Lowe will likely be conducting knowledge acquisition for motor emissions as an intern for FEV North America, Inc.
“Making issues higher motivates me,” Lowe says. “Our air pollution drawback and greenhouse fuel drawback are issues that I need to work on.”
“If the chance is on the market, it means it is there so that you can take. When you’re intimidated, it means it is value taking.”
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