STORIESSTories of Resilience and Inclusion of Engineering Students
STORIESWe’ve included a lot of information that might be interesting or useful to faculty or students about students’ pathways and experiences of inclusion or exclusion in engineering. We recommend starting on our pages, specifically for faculty or students (whichever one applies to you!).
On this page, we’ve gathered links to all of the student stories featured on this page. It has searchable tags to see stories clustered by student or by topic. If there’s a specific issue you are struggling with as an engineering student, you might want to check out the advice page to see if it’s answered there. If you have questions about the project, you can learn more about us, the project, our research, and some concepts and definitions on other pages. If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free to reach out through the Contact Us page!
Although John has an enduring interest in the visual and performing arts, he also describers himself as a ‘tinkerer’ who has always enjoyed taking things apart. He decided to pursue engineering because of its design aspects and strong career prospects, which led him to major in mechanical engineering. Read more about John here!
Always a good student, Tchuck attended a STEM academy for high school and took an engineering class in his senior year. Although the focus was on mechanical engineering, he was interested in what he saw and was drawn to his chosen university’s research on blindness and robotic limbs. Read more about Tchuck here!
For high school, Anna switched enrollment into a competitive science and technology high school. In addition to exposing her to a number of high-level science classes, Anna participated in novel design and research projects and was particularly interested in systems engineering. Read more about Anna here!
Josh was originally interested in programming and game design, but during high school switched his interest to mechanical engineering due to its focus on problem-solving and design. During Josh’s first year, he was able to spend time buildings things and enjoyed the opportunity to combine theoretical problem solving with hands-on building. Read more about Josh here!
During Lauren’s second year, one of her professors reached out to her about working as a researcher in his lab. As part of her work as a research assistant, Lauren has studied magnetic nanoparticles and has been an author on multiple papers and is tentatively planning to attend graduate school. Read more about Lauren here!
Amanda originally came to the U.S. primarily to play soccer, but has found herself increasingly drawn to engineering and is looking forward to her time in the field after her soccer career is finished. In engineering, she is drawn to the design aspects and has started a small design company with some fellow students. Read more about Amanda here!
Although Joy was homeschooled from kindergarten to high school, she was very involved in her local robotics team and made it to the world competition, experiences she links to her later success as an engineering student. She also became interested in prosthetic design from a friend, and through multiple internships has gotten hands-on experiences in a variety of design challenges Read more about Joy here!
All of our students have provided a wealth of information about their engineering experiences. If a particular student stands out to you, try diving in using the profiles above. On the other hand, if there’s a specific topic you’re looking for you can click the tags below to see what our participants said about it. Each quote will have at least two tags attached to it, so feel free to explore! You can always come back to this page to see the full list of participants and tags.
Is there a topic you don’t see below but you think should be tagged? Reach out to us through our contact page and let us know — we’ll see what we can find!
Is there a specific subject you’re curious about that isn’t showing in the tags? Maybe you want to hear how our participants are talking about robotics in their classes, or thermodynamics, or math. If so, this is the place to start! Below is a word cloud that highlights some of the commonly discussed subjects and topics. If what you’re looking for isn’t showing up, try entering it in the search bar below!
Note: As if April 2022, some of the numbers beside the tags (e.g., 3D printing (12)) are inaccurate, as we are still adding data to the website. We apologize for any inconvenience, and if you have any questions, please reach out to us through our Contact Page.