Middle and high school girls at the Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day at Tufts. Photo: Shari Small/WBZ NewsRadio
MEDFORD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Local female engineers introduced a group of middle and high school girls to the world of engineering at an annual gathering in Medford Wednesday.
Nitsch Engineering's 21st annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day took place at Tufts University's Cummings Center, where female students from 6th-11th grade engaged with 12 women engineers, some of whom remember going to the event when they were young girls.
"When I was in eighth grade, my dad took me to this Introduce a Girl event day," said Nitsch engineer and event instructor Jessica Wala. "He himself was an engineer, so I got to see a lot of women who were doing different types of engineering. Not only were they good at what they do, but it was so cool to see women passionate about what they do."
Each yearly iteration covers a different section of the world of engineering.
"Today was transportation, but we’ve done storm water management, computers, telephones," Wala said.
Nitsch CEO Lisa Brothers stressed that students do not need to be excelling in math and science to take part in the event.
"It’s really about being able to look up and see somebody that looks like you, and it’s like, I could do that," Brothers told WBZ NewsRadio. "Our purpose is really to have these young girls work with our female engineers to understand, yes, you can be an engineer."
"I actually like this," said sixth grader Nala Soffin. "My parents are both engineers and I think it’s cool because you’re designing problems to help the world."
When asked if engineering is something she sees herself doing, seventh grader Maria Martinez responded, "I'm really good at drawing, so probably. Because there’s going to be problems you have to solve and you have to draw what you see."
WBZ's Shari Small (@ShariSmallNews) reports.
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