I think it’s impossible to be a person of color and a woman and not think about the fact that your community is marginalized and disadvantaged. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how I can contribute to changing that.
When I was a student I thought I didn’t really have a lot of time to do anything to give back and make a difference, but in my senior year something clicked for me. Growing up I didn’t have any role models in engineering, nor did I see any examples of people that looked like me in engineering. This made me realize that just my presence in this field makes a difference, and the more visible I can be to people like me, the better. That is why it was important to me to become a TA for introductory engineering courses during my Master’s program, and why I am moving to Cape Town to work as a civil engineer building a sustainable technology center in a community disadvantaged by the legacy of apartheid.
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Emma Kaeli
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When I first started college, someone asked if I wanted to join the Society of Women Engineers, but I didn’t understand the importance of getting involved at the time. I’d been raised in the small suburb of Medway, Massachusetts, and had always felt well-supported by family and friends in my STEM studies. It didn’t feel like I was experiencing any type of bias.
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