March is Women’s History Month!

This year’s national theme is Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This theme is meant to honor generations of women who throughout American history have used their intelligence, imagination, sense of wonder, and tenacity to make extraordinary contributions to the STEM fields.

As part of our Women’s History Month celebrations, the Women's Center and CWIT are partnering to showcase six talented women in engineering and IT fields at UMBC. The future of women’s history is being created as we speak and there is importance in sharing our lived stories now. We invite you to join us throughout the month of March to learn more about these women, their experiences, and their dreams.

Nicole Racine, CWIT Scholar
Freshmen Mechanical Engineering major

Describe what sparked your interest STEM and the journey to choosing your major.
For as long as I can remember, science has intrigued me. One of my earliest school memories is clutching two plastic cups in first grade – one filled with hot water and the other filled with cold water – and watching sugar cubes dissolve. I remember being baffled when I saw the sugar cube dissolve faster in the hot water. What sort of miracle caused this to happen?

As I grew, I continued to be fascinated with the world around me. If my dad was working in our garage, I wanted to help him. In school, I thrived in my math and science classes, and especially enjoyed hands-on labs. Choosing my high school class schedule was always difficult because I wanted to fill it with all the science, mathematics, computer science, and information technology courses available.

When first I began to think about my educational goals beyond high school I was very overwhelmed. How was I supposed to pick one major that encompassed my love for mathematics, science, and physics? After exploring various careers and talking with family members, the answer became clear: mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering is the ideal major for me because it applies the laws of physics and mathematics to analyze problems and design solutions. It is a subject that incorporates all my intellectual interests and inspires me to study science, not only as a participant but also as a contributor.

Tell us about an internship, research experience or project that you are proud of.
In summer 2012 and winter 2013, I interned at the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate. I worked with a materials engineer and a mechanical engineer investigating the mechanical behavior of single-woven Kevlar® fibers at different loading rates. Based on the research, I wrote a document that was later published, summarizing the experimental procedure and results.

Who are your role models in the engineering or IT field?
I have a plethora of role models in the engineering field who have inspired me each in their own way to pursue my degree in mechanical engineering. I met many people, some internationally known, that motivated me to pursue an education in the STEM fields, but my most influential role models can be narrowed down to one person, my father. My dad is a mechanical engineer and he is the reason I love figuring out how things work and interact with each other. In elementary school, I used to go to my family’s garage with him and work on little projects that he graciously let me help with. I was awed by how talented he was with everything from woodworking to mechanics, and now, years later, I am still impressed by his talents.

Explain your experience as a woman in a STEM major, including the challenges as well as the rewards.
Growing up in a household with two engineers was truly a blessing for me. Dinner discussions about poorly designed systems, innovations in science, and available technical opportunities were a common occurrence. I used to take for granted the knowledge that constantly surrounded me, and I assumed that all my female friends felt the same about science and math as I do. But in high school, before I chose my mechanical engineering major, I became aware of the gender disparity that women face. The majority of the students in my upper level high school courses were male, and my female friends questioned my decision to major in a STEM field. I was surprised that my female friends felt uncomfortable with technology and were not aware of the opportunities available in my chosen career choice. As I advanced in my academics, I experienced the gender imbalance in technological fields firsthand. At my internship at the Army Research Laboratory, I am the only female in my branch of twelve people. If it were not for my excellent support outside of the workplace, I would have felt vulnerable and unwelcome in my chosen field of academics.

Once I realized that women are underrepresented in the technological fields, I decided to act upon it. I am involved in outreach events, where I help promote engineering and information technology fields of study to students of all ages. I love mechanical engineering and being able to share this field of academics with other students is extremely gratifying. Engineering is a challenging field of study, especially when you have to overcome gender inequality, but it is also very rewarding, and I embrace the challenge.

The Center for Women In Technology (CWIT) is dedicated to increasing the representation of women in the creation of technology in the engineering and information technology fields. CWIT efforts begin with nurturing a strong group of Scholars, grow to building community resources for other women in these majors, extend to fostering a healthy gender climate and ITE pedagogy in College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) departments, and finally expand into outreach efforts to increase interest in technical careers. A successful program for female-friendly engineering and information technology education at UMBC will help make UMBC a destination for women (and men) interested in technical careers and serve as a national model for other universities.

March is Women's History Month!

This year’s national theme is Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  This theme is meant to honor generations of women who throughout American history have used their intelligence, imagination, sense of wonder, and tenacity to make extraordinary contributions to the STEM fields.

As part of our Women’s History Month celebrations, the Women's Center and CWIT are partnering to showcase six talented women in engineering and IT fields at UMBC. The future of women’s history is being created as we speak and there is importance in sharing our lived stories now. We invite you to join us throughout the month of March to learn more about these women, their experiences, and their dreams.

Emily Scheerer, CWIT Scholar
Junior Computer Science major & STEM Editor of Retriever Weekly

Describe what sparked your interest STEM and the journey to choosing your major.
My interest in STEM was sparked in my sophomore year of high school. I took Computer Science 1 at my high school to fulfill my technology education requirement. My father encouraged me to take Computer Science over some of the "easier" options. I discovered that Computer Science was fun and came naturally to me. I had an amazing teacher who noticed my interest and convinced me to be in her Computer Science AP course the following year. My teacher continued to encourage me, pointing me towards various extracurricular opportunities, including MESA (Math, Engineering and Science Achievement) and NTHS (National Tech. Honor Society). I experimented with various kinds of engineering, but ultimately chose to stay with software design and Computer Science.

Tell us about an internship, research experience or project that you are proud of.
While I’m proud to have been a part of a lot of projects and programs, the one that shines out most is my internship at Booz Allen Hamilton the summer between my freshman and sophomore year.  I worked on a team of 12 interns, four of whom were women. The high concentration of women was significant in making it one of the best intern experiences I've had.  As a team we worked in conjunction with three full-time employees to build an automated testing capability for an existing project from scratch. In ten weeks, we built a library of automated tests that could be applied and used in many different ways, and created documentation for that library so that it could be easily referenced. After we left, our manager contacted us to let us know that the work we did was ultimately crucial to the final completion of the project.

Who are your role models in the engineering or IT field?
First, Dianne O'Grady-Cuniff, the teacher who inspired and encouraged me in high school, who spent many hours after her work day working with students to encourage our interests, and is super committed to education. I hope I can one day encourage and inspire young women the same way she does.

Second, Marie desJardins. I admire her confidence and the projects she works on. Whenever I have told Dr. desJardins I have doubt in my abilities, she tells me a personal anecdote about how she feels a similar way but still manages to achieve the successes she's achieved. Ultimately, I admire her self-confidence and strive to replicate it.

Third, Lady Ada Lovelace. Lady Lovelace is one of the iconic figures in computer science history. Although at the time her work was largely unnoticed, she predicted most of the common programming constructs that we use today. Lady Lovelace, like myself, enjoyed writing in addition to computing, and managed to raise a family while collaborating on one of the world's first computer. Her iconic success is my reminder that one woman can go a long way in changing stereotypes related to women in the STEM fields.

Explain your experience as a woman in a STEM major, including the challenges as well as the rewards.
As a woman in STEM, I'm always aware of the fact that I'm female in a class of mostly guys. I tend to count the number of women in every class I've been in at UMBC and am always aware that the ratio between men and women in my classes will be skewed. Another challenge of being a female in the STEM fields is that everyone, and even sometimes yourself, assumes your success can be attributed to the fact that you're a woman, and not because of your skills. The desire to prove you actually belong and have achieved your own success will never go away.

The rewards of being a woman in STEM include an instant community with other women in STEM.
Every woman in the field knows the battles you will face and they will help you to succeed. Additionally, being a woman in STEM means that you are defying a stereotype and hopefully becoming a role model for the future.

The Center for Women In Technology (CWIT) is dedicated to increasing the representation of women in the creation of technology in the engineering and information technology fields. CWIT efforts begin with nurturing a strong group of Scholars, grow to building community resources for other women in these majors, extend to fostering a healthy gender climate and ITE pedagogy in College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) departments, and finally expand into outreach efforts to increase interest in technical careers. A successful program for female-friendly engineering and information technology education at UMBC will help make UMBC a destination for women (and men) interested in technical careers and serve as a national model for other universities.

Learn more about our community athttp://www.cwit.umbc.edu/

March is Women's History Month!

This year’s national theme is Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This theme is meant to honor generations of women who throughout American history have used their intelligence, imagination, sense of wonder, and tenacity to make extraordinary contributions to the STEM fields. As part of our Women’s History Month celebrations, the Women's Center and CWIT are partnering to showcase six talented women in engineering and IT fields at UMBC. The future of women’s history is being created as we speak and there is importance in sharing our lived stories now. We invite you to join us throughout the month of March to learn more about these women, their experiences, and their dreams. 

Morgan Madeira, 
CWIT Scholar 
Senior Computer Science major & STEM Editor of UMBC Review

Describe what sparked your interest STEM and the journey to choosing your major. 

I decided to take my first programming course in high school even though I knew nothing about the subject. It only took writing one program for me to fall in love. I thought it was amazing that I could control the computer with only a few lines of code. It reminded me of solving problems in math class, which I had always enjoyed, but programming was way more fun. I remember when it came time to choose a major computer science was the only one that seemed to interest me.

Caitlyn Leiter-Mason and Dr. Phyllis Robinson are representing UMBC on this awesome page highlighting women from USM for Women's History Month! Check it out!

NCCWSL is an AMAZING opportunity to attend a leadership conference specifically designed for dynamic college women with incredible skill-building workshops, empowering speakers, a graduate school fair, and networking opportunities. The conference is May 30-June 1st at University of Maryland College Park.

Deadline to apply for a full scholarship: March 15th
When registering : Select the "NCCWSL National Scholarship" option.

Full Scholarship Covers: Housing, Food, and Registration Fees. You will be sent further instructions for the remaining part of the scholarship application via email after you register using the code above.