I first realized my interest in engineering when I was a little kid. At the time, I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was a strong passion of mine. I always enjoyed Legos, cars, and “building” robots (which were really just cardboard boxes with wheels and drawn on faces). I would disassemble and reassemble things I found in my house, and was very into drawing in art.
The first time I was ever in any engineering-like class was in middle school in 7th grade. It was a wood shop class and I was terrified. There were only three girls in the class (me included) in a class of thirty. I was incredibly shy in middle school and I would have to mentally prepare myself the first couple weeks because I was so intimidated (for no reason). As I went through the semester, I found out I absolutely loved the class and excelled despite my worries, and made new friends.
As time went on I continued taking engineering classes and learned to enjoy the challenges. I found that with many teachers/professors, the sad thing is that you have to prove yourself before you are able to grab their full attention. I found that this gave me more of a drive to work harder in my classes. The trend of being one of the only girls in the classes did not change after that wood shop class, but I know the challenge will be worth the pay off.
Sophia's Blog <3 