A professional civil engineer for over 30 years and author of three children's books, Purdue Civil Engineering alumna Cheryl Cunningham (BSCE '80) says she wants girls to feel empowered to pursue interests in STEM fields such as engineering. She would like the next generation of children to have even more female role models.

In short: Cunningham strives to be the example for young girls that she never had.

Cunningham grew up in Crawfordsville, Indiana. She loves her hometown, but she knew she would have to go elsewhere to achieve her dreams.

"I knew I wanted to build things, and I knew if I was going to get the education necessary to do that as a career, Purdue University was where I needed to go," she says.

However, her career choice was not as clear as it was for the boys in her grade school.

"I remember very well when I was a little girl and we were given aptitude tests," Cunningham says. "The results listed appropriate careers segregated by gender. There wasn't even an engineering career option result for us girls. Even my teacher said I'd make for a great engineer — if I were a boy."

Despite less-than-overwhelming support in her younger years, Cunningham remained determined to get an engineering education — and to Purdue she went. Unsurprisingly, female contemporaries were few.

"Pretty much all the friends I made at Purdue were guys," she recalls. "In all of my engineering classes, I was the only woman."

Although this was somewhat intimidating at first, Cunningham says she was quick to make friends with the guys in her classes and was immediately accepted by faculty and fellow students.

"Honestly, it's funny, but the one place where my gender didn’t present an issue was among other civil engineers," she says. "After graduation, there were issues with other professionals, but never the engineers. All they seemed to care about was if you could do the work."

After Purdue, Cunningham went to work for Bechtel Corp. in California, first working on construction of a nuclear power plant in San Onofre, California, and then a plant in Palo Verde, Arizona. With nuclear power on the wane, Cunningham moved to consulting work in Austin, Texas, and Southern California, where she became an expert in drainage, hydraulics, hydrology and site-plan engineering.

In 1992, she moved back to Indiana, taking a job at Parsons & Shartle Engineers Inc., founded by Chet Parsons (BSCE '74) in 1986. Two years later, she became president of the firm, which was renamed Parsons, Cunningham & Shartle Engineers Inc. She served as president until the company was sold in 2017.

Since her retirement, Cunningham has taken up writing a children's book series with her sister, Judy Cunningham, an early education specialist. The series is called "I Can Be an Engineer," and the books encourage young girls to pursue their passions.

"It's important that all children receive encouragement about their passions and see how engineering is part of everything they do," Cunningham says. "Whether it's tinkering with their bicycles or playing with a stream of water — what they are doing is connected to engineering."

For more information about the book series, visit icanbeanengineer.com.