This week’s Wednesday’s Women in STEM Series features the STEM Mentors from our October Parent-Daughter Workshop. These women volunteered their time to help lead activities, guide participants through Design Challenges, and speak to the girls about their backgrounds and experiences in STEM.
The women had broad backgrounds and career paths including:
- Industrial and environmental engineers from Intel
- Senior engineer for the Portland Water Bureau
- Environmental educator for National Wildlife Federation
- Process Controls Engineer with Jacobs
- Global Marketing Operations for Bio Techne
- Portland State College of Engineering undergraduate students
The girls asked lots of questions about college, choosing a career path, and what it’s like to work as a scientist or engineer. Here are some things our mentors shared.
“The great thing about college is that you get to explore what you love.”
“I love how engineering lets you solve problems and work with other people.”
“Once you find what you’re passionate about you need to find the people who support you. It’s always hard to start [in engineering], it’s always hard to keep going, but it’s worth it.”
“I do a lot of project work so it’s different each day. And I get to work with a lot of people which is rewarding.”
According to a recent Microsoft study, girls cited a lack of female role models in STEM as a key reason they did not follow a career in the sector. STEM Like a Girl hopes to change that by providing mentors so our girls can see all the possibilities they can pursue in STEM and beyond. We were so inspired by the mentor’s stories and are thankful they shared their expertise with our girls!
Are you a women working in a STEM field in the Portland area looking for a way to to inspire young girls? STEM Like a Girl is recruiting mentors for future workshops so check out our Volunteer page for more information.