The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in STEM

Science, technology, engineering, and math careers are crucial to the workforce today. These careers are often at the forefront of societal change, be it better methods of completing a task, or modifying the physical world which surrounds us. While these careers have a huge impact on the way we live, they are still predominantly held by white males. When one portion of society is leading the change for the future, we miss out on opportunities for other perspectives.

Companies and non-profit organizations are aware of the need for diversity in STEM fields. Many corporations or professional organizations have task forces or committees designed to bring more diversity into their work forces. However, the problem still exists that minorities are not graduating with STEM degrees that then feed into the pipeline of STEM careers. If there aren’t candidates out there to hire, then corporations will fail at increasing diversity within their offices.

How, then, do we increase the diversity of STEM professionals? We need to ensure we are promoting STEM careers to children at a young age, and we need to do so in a way that shows children that people who look like them or have a similar background as them can have these great careers. Minority children need role models that are representative of who they are. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers are just a few professional organizations that work hard to increase diversity in STEM fields. These organizations can be great resources to schools and educators who wish to bring in speakers or presenters who can connect with their students.

We need to ensure children who have an interest in these fields have opportunities to explore the careers and don’t get sidelined along the way.

The Importance of Trade Careers

It seems like everyone is told they need to go to college for a 4-year degree. Parents, teachers, and counselors can often make it seem like that is the only way to get a good paying job. There’s no shortage of stories in which parents see a trade worker and tell their kids to stay in school or they’ll end up in the same boat, working long hours, outside, in miserable conditions. However, a career in a trade industry can provide a great income and job stability. For many people, it can also provide them with higher job satisfaction than a career in an office. Not every person wants to sit at a desk all day.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the 2017 median income for the following trade careers as:

Electrician – $54,110

Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters – $52,590

Line installers and repairers – $64,190

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers – $40,240.

Many of these careers, and others which are similar, require little to no education beyond high school and provide on-the-job training. Additionally, many positions in the trade industry go unfulfilled because so many young adults are pressured to go to college.  https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/04/25/605092520/high-paying-trade-jobs-sit-empty-while-high-school-grads-line-up-for-university

Not only can trade skills be lucrative for those who aren’t interested in a 4-year education, but they’re vital to the success of the U.S. economy, including the STEAM industries. Trade workers are necessary for construction of many structures, and the knowledge that trade workers bring to a project is important to its success.

Often, a trade worker can tell an engineer whether or not a design will work, even if the engineer is confident in her calculations. Additionally, new trade careers are being created as technology advances, and those willing to learn how the new technology operates have a vast future ahead of them.

Many trade careers should also be viewed as STEAM careers. Just because a career doesn’t require a 4-year degree doesn’t mean it involves little to no science, technology, engineering, art, or math. Many of these careers involve multiple disciplines of STEAM knowledge, whether it’s how different materials transform under different temperatures or pressures, or how large a pipe should be to carry a certain flow. Trade jobs should not be viewed as lower-class jobs for uneducated people. If your Engirlneer is interested in a trade career, encourage her to explore it as a viable career. In doing so, you may help her find her calling.

How to Make an Internship Successful

Once an Engirlneer has an internship, she must understand that it is a professional job. Just because she is a student does not mean that she has free reign to act unprofessionally. I’ve known several interns who ruined their chances of getting professional references and a full-time offer because they didn’t act professionally. Some ways she can ruin her potential career at a company include:

  1. Not working her selected schedule. Employers understand that interns are college students, and may occasionally need an afternoon off to study for an exam or finish a project. However, if she has a set schedule with her employer, she needs to inform them when she will miss a day of work. No one wants to have an employee they can’t rely on to be there when she says she will.
  2. Not dressing professionally. An intern needs to dress for the position she has. If jeans are acceptable to wear to her office, then she can wear jeans. However, if her company requires business casual or business professional attire, then she needs to dress accordingly. Just because she is working an unpaid internship does not mean she should look unprofessional compared with her peers.
  3. Showing up unfit to work. College students are known for pulling all-nighters for various reasons. While looking tired (or worse) occasionally won’t hurt her career chances, constantly showing up to work looking disheveled will create the impression that she doesn’t value her career or have the fortitude to endure a hectic schedule when needed.
  4. Being disrespectful to other employees. I’ve known several interns who immediately felt that their knowledge from college courses meant they were ready for a full-time career and knew the ropes. They argued with those trying to mentor them, and created unnecessary tension. If an Engirlneer truly feels like her opinion is correct and she is being ignored, she should approach the conflict respectfully and truly try to understand the other party’s points of view.

A successful internship can pave the way for an illustrious career, and ensure an
Engirlneer has a variety of options to choose from as she gets older. Encourage her success in her future career to ensure a lifetime of happiness and professional growth.

The Importance of Interning

I’m often asked what’s one of the most important things students can do in college to have a successful career. The answer is simple: get an internship. The truth that every student in any major needs to hear is that full-time careers are way different than college. College courses only provide a small amount of the knowledge that anyone really needs to succeed in a career, and they don’t fully prepare a young adult for working 40 hours a week. An internship is like an experiment, and it teaches students so much even if they fail. It also gives them a chance for hands-on experience in their prospective career field, which can be vital to their future professional happiness. What are all the ways an internship can benefit an Engirlneer?

1) Internships can help her decide what career she wants to go into. Most majors can lead to a variety of career options, and STEAM careers are no different. In college, I was torn between traffic engineering and environmental engineering, both fields within civil engineering. As a college sophomore, I applied to an internship program for traffic engineering, and was able to intern at a local, large engineering firm. Throughout the course of the summer, I learned what traffic engineers do on a daily basis. I also was lucky enough to learn a little about environmental engineering by reading Environmental Impact Statements from my firm. I discovered that I was more interested in the environmental path than the traffic path.

2) Internships can help her decide what type of atmosphere she wants to work in. Does she want to work for a large firm, small firm, governmental agency, non-profit, etc.? Each of these different types of employers have very different cultures. Some allows workers to wear jeans to work every day, work flexible hours, and move up varying career paths within the organization. Others may require a suit and tie and that workers are at their desk from 8 to 5 with a 1 hour lunch from 12-1. The atmosphere of where someone works can be so much more important than the work itself. Studies are consistently showing that benefits of a company are often more important than salary, and being happy with where she works can greatly affect her happiness within her chosen career.

3) Internships lead to careers. During my junior year, I was able to find an internship in environmental engineering, and once I graduated, I knew I had a career offer on the table. I worked for the company full-time for a total of about six years, and I made many connections that have helped throughout my career. When I was interested in moving on to another company, it was a former coworker from this internship that hired me. Because I was a good employee during the internship and my career, he knew he could count on me to be a good employee at the new job. Some internships are only meant to be temporary; however, even if her employer can’t hire her full-time, the connections she makes can help her get a full-time job somewhere else. Having a respectable professional connection can do wonders for getting her feet in the door elsewhere. Networking is important, often who she knows is just as important as what she knows.

4) Most importantly, INTERNSHIPS GIVE HER EXPERIENCE. As I mentioned above, there’s a lot that college courses can’t teach a student, and employers value real world experience as much, if not more, than her college courses. When I got my internship in environmental engineering, I told the company that I was going to graduate school immediately following my undergraduate program, and therefore couldn’t start at their company full-time until graduate school was over. I was told by several managers that they would actually prefer the full-time experience with an MBA over a Master’s Degree in Engineering. Professional experience helps her learn the business skills that she just won’t learn in college.

Since internships are so important, what should an Engirlneer do to help her get one?

1) Join professional organizations at her college, and attend professional networking events. I say this constantly, to anyone who wants to be an Engirlneer or who is raising an Engirlneer, and I can’t say it enough because IT IS SO IMPORTANT. She’ll make connections and possibly learn about internships before they even become available. She may also make connections that can help create an internship, even if the company wasn’t planning on hiring one.

2) Attend career fairs. When she attends career fairs, she should have her resume ready and engage those attending company booths. A first impression can make or break an opportunity. Career fairs are also important because she may learn about companies that she had never heard of before, or learn more about companies that she had already heard about.

3) Apply for any internship available, even if it isn’t precisely what she’s interested in. The experience and connections are important even if she chooses to switch career paths. Most companies are extremely understanding if an intern chooses to move on, and if they aren’t, then they probably aren’t a place she would want to work anyway.

4) Apply for a position even if it’s unpaid. This is easier said than done if an Engirlneer is responsible for her own college tuition or other bills. However, she can always discuss options with the company to potentially intern only a small number of hours which would still allow her to work another job.

Encourage the Engirlneers in your life to polish their resumes and put effort into finding an internship. Her career could depend on it.

Help Your Engirlneer Find Her Purpose

Everyone wants to find their purpose, their reason for existing. For career happiness, it is important to be able to fulfill your purpose.

While many of us have multiple purposes, such as wanting to empower future generations, save animals or the planet, or even visit faraway planets, it is important to help your Engirlneer identify her purpose so she can find a career that will ultimately make her happy and bring meaning to her life.

Most kids will change their image of an ideal career practically on a daily basis. One day they want to be a firefighter, the next day they want to be a sanitation worker. Often, this change is based on something as simple as a sweet interaction between them and someone they know who holds the inspiring profession.

If you want to help your Engirlneer determine her purpose, you need to ask her why she wants to be in that career. If she doesn’t have a good answer, then she probably really doesn’t want that job, but she may learn that she likes certain aspects of the career that would translate to her picking one career over another in the future.

Maybe her response to, “Why do you want to be a sanitation worker?” is that she gets to be outside instead of working in an office. Now she’s narrowed down one aspect she’ll need in a career to be happy. Maybe she’ll also say that she sees so much garbage all over the street and that job seems like it would help keep the planet clean. Now she’s narrowed down another interest.

Often, adults will try to sway Engirlneers to a career the adult thinks is prestigious. However, instead of judging an Engirlneer’s imaginary career choice, follow up with the question, “Why?” This will help narrow down what an Engirlneer really values in a career and her life. Maybe your Engirlneer wants to be an artist because she wants to be creative and make art that makes people happy. However, maybe she wants to work with technology instead of with canvas and watercolor. Now she’s narrowed down her focus to something with graphic design.

Along with asking questions, let your Engirlneer explore activities she enjoys. Sometimes, letting her try a new activity will mean letting her give up one she doesn’t like. As caregivers, this might be the hardest thing for us to accept. Letting your daughter give up on the dreams you may have had for her so she can explore her own wants can be scary and disappointing, but we need to remember the focus of our parenting is to help our children be themselves and explore their individuality and what makes them happy.

By encouraging your Engirlneer, she will better understand how she translates her, “Why” into a fulfilling career. Actually DOING is the best way to determine if you enjoy something.

Maybe your Engirlneer really wants to be a chef, but after 6 months in cooking class, she realizes that being on her feet all day and working long hours doesn’t align with her other interests. However, thanks to the class, she has realized that she wanted to be a chef because she wanted to experiment with different flavors or recipes. Now that she understands WHY she wanted to be a chef, she can now explore careers in other areas that will allow her to experiment without requiring her to be on her feet all day.

This brings me to another point: study your Engirlneer for her strengths and what makes her excited. Do you ever notice that your Engirlneer gets really excited when she gets to work alone doing calculations, but that when she has to work with a group and give presentations, she’s nervous and quiet? Try to figure out why she has this preference, and how that can affect her career choice.

These types of feelings might not necessarily dictate the career your Engirlneer wants to enter. For example, an extroverted engineer can be just as successful as an introverted engineer. However, understanding how she feels may dictate where your Engirlneer chooses to work or who she chooses to work for. It may help dictate her career trajectory. There are so many different paths someone in ANY career can take, and I truly believe it’s possible to be happy in any career choice as long as it aligns with an Engirlneer’s true purpose. The earlier and more often she can test her likes and find her true passion, the easier it will be for her to translate that to a career she loves.

Engirlneers Need to Help Create More Seats at the Table

Women get a bad reputation for being in competition with each other.  Unfortunately, they are often accused of being catty. There’s a common belief that strong, smart women are always trying to outdo each other and vying for the last place at the managers’ table. To be honest, there is some truth to this.

I’ve worked for companies where women make up less than 10 percent of the managers. This created a culture where women felt like they were competing for the next open position.

Women inherently do not want to take each other down. They just want to receive recognition for their hard work; however, sometimes the amount of praise and accolades does not cover everyone.

There are also times when women just can’t give credit where credit is due. Once I created a spreadsheet that pulled in data from multiple files with a quick search function, saving me time and making the task more efficient. When I trained a younger coworker using my method, and it came time to give a technical presentation to our team, she presented the information as if SHE had created it. She provided no recognition that I developed the spreadsheet. Not wanting to make a scene, I held my breath and didn’t address this in the room full of people. I got no credit for the hard work that I put in.

While receiving credit is not why I work hard or challenge myself to achieve higher standards, it is always nice to receive recognition from the people you help or your superiors. This is important for acknowledging other’s hard work as well. The next time you have the opportunity to thank someone or recognize their efforts, make sure you take the time to do so.  As women in the workforce, it is especially important to support and lift up our fellow hard-working women.  A small “Nice job” can do wonders for another.

We need to teach Engirlneers that their lives will improve if they work with, not against, other Engirlneers. If they hear another woman has an amazing idea, they should find ways to help her, not try to sneak in and steal it from her or take credit for it. We need to help them understand that everyone has different strengths, and even if another woman gets her seat at the table first by capitalizing on their own, it doesn’t mean there isn’t space left for her. If women work together, and uplift instead of denigrate, that one woman at the table can turn into a table full of women.

Confidence is key to a successful STEM career

As women, we are known for doubting ourselves. No matter how solid our abilities are, we often don’t believe in them or ourselves. We are always trying to prove ourselves and often feel like we don’t deserve praise when we receive it.

Conversely, when we receive criticism, we often take it personally. This can be a huge detriment to our self-confidence, and greatly impact how we feel about our career choice. If we go to work every day feeling like we are letting others down, or not succeeding where we should be, we may begin to think we should move on to a less technical career.

In fields dominated by technically-minded people, it can be difficult to receive a lot of criticism and still feel like you made the correct career choice. Oftentimes, supervisors or managers in technical fields lack emotional intelligence and don’t know how to communicate in a way that doesn’t come off as condescending or arrogant. They can be stubborn and set in their ways. Often, these managers are promoted based on technical ability and are given little training on how to actually supervise or mentor younger staff. Some managers may not even want that role, but their company may include it as a requirement of a senior or leadership position.

Even if you feel like your work was amazing, if it’s different than what your manager had in mind, it can lead to conflict that will usually end in favor of your manager’s position. Self-doubt begins to creep in, and if it happens often enough, it can make you feel like you just aren’t cut out for that line of work.

It’s important to teach any engirlneer in your life to be confident in her abilities, even in the face of criticism. She is smart and knows what she is talking about. She wouldn’t have made it through her degree program if she didn’t have the technical skills to succeed. Her ideas and opinions are valid, even if others disagree. Her ideas won’t always be chosen as the best solution, but she can still contribute to the final product and deliver a quality document to the client. More importantly, she can contribute to the future of her career and make this world a better place.

Teaching Your Daughter to be an Engirlneer is Simple

Science, technology, engineering, and math, collaboratively, STEM, is a huge business. It seems like anything that requires assembly is now considered STEM to capture parents’ attentions and make them feel like a toy provides some sort of intellectual benefit.

My niece recently purchased a STEM activity the allows her to make edible eyeshadow. However, after spending $12 on the kit, we soon discovered that it came with a cheap plastic eyeshadow container, a brush, and two measuring spoons. The rest of the ingredients had to be purchased separately. The entire cost of the rest of the ingredients was $5. What should have been a $10 lesson turned into $17, all in the name of STEM. Additionally, instead of it being a project that required problem solving and critical thinking, it was really a project about creating makeup, which reinforced stereotypes for her that we have tried very hard to avoid.

While cosmetics are a huge industry that employs many STEM professionals, it shouldn’t be the only way girls are targeted as a demographic, either related to STEM or not.

Parents should know there are so many ways to teach their children about STEM that don’t break the bank and that really do reinforce STEM topics. Do a quick search on YouTube or Google for “engineering,” “science,” “technology,” or “math” outreach activities, and you can find instructions for hundreds of activities which cost very little to do with your children.

Remember that STEM is about solving problems. If you really want to teach your daughter about STEM projects and careers, do a quick search for interesting projects related to the above, and TALK to your daughter about them. You could create bridges or learn about solar energy. The internet can be a tool to help broaden your engirlneer’s horizon.  It is often a much better place to learn ways to teach your daughter about STEM than purchasing an expensive kit that is disguised as STEM, but in actuality just perpetuates the often dangerous stereotype that girls are only concerned with appearance.

You can also turn your daughter’s toys into an Engirlneer with a little imagination. The dolls below started off as Disney Princess dolls: Tiana, Cinderella, Alana, Anna, Mulan, and Pocahontas. But with a little imagination, some new hairstyles, and a quick change of clothes (some of which are courtesy of Ken), these dolls quickly transform into the Engirlneers Tatiana, Sally, Betty, Gillian, Chloe, and Elan.

Instead of your daughter playing Disney Princesses and imagining a scenario where her doll must be rescued by a Prince, your daughter could turn her doll into an Engirlneer and rescue not only herself but her community, as well. A quick search of STEM projects can inspire your daughter to join the Engirlneers in solving problems STEM professionals would actually face, one in which she and the Engirlneers can save the day.

Unfortunately, girls have been programmed to play with traditional gender roles assigned to their toys. Even when a company tries to branch out and include girls, they simply apply a cosmetic fix to the toys (i.e., painted the construction equipment pink to make it more “girlie”). Often, these toys don’t sell well.

Unfortunately, many girls just don’t know what to do with certain types of toys. Girls tend to create scenarios in which their dolls are raising children, heading to the beach, going dancing, etc. This may be attributed to the fact the girls imagine scenarios with dolls in which they engage in personal conflicts, as they often see perpetuated by traditional “girls” toys, like Barbie and more recently Monster High. Most girls don’t know how to create scenarios in which an excavator would be needed because this isn’t generally what they associate with women.

Even if they have women in their lives who do this type of work, they aren’t likely seeing it on an up-close and personal level. To get that to change, parents really need to research ways in which these types of toys could be used in a career and engage in play scenarios with their daughters to teach them what these pieces of equipment do.

The possibilities with STEM are endless and, more importantly, cheap. If you take the time to learn about STEM activities you will quickly learn ways in which to engage your daughter and teach her to become an Engirlneer without breaking the bank to do so. You will teach also teach her to use her problem-solving skills in a way that’s fun!

Don’t Be Afraid to Quit

“Quit” is often viewed as a bad word; synonymous with failure. People are scared of the concept of quitting. When you quit, you often feel like you’re disappointing someone. You may even feel like you’ve waste your time. giving up on something. You may even fear the idea of trying something different. However, if you acknowledge the reason why you’re scared to quit, you can overcome the fear, and start on a path to a happier life.

Fear of disappointing

One of the reasons people are afraid to quit is a fear disappointing someone else. As children, we often begin an activity because our parents encouraged us to: maybe they played softball as a child, and they think we will enjoy it just as much. Parents can invest a lot of time and money for their child to participate in an activity, and children don’t want to feel like they’ve wasted their parents’ resources, so they go along in an activity, being miserable the whole time.

This fear of quitting or disappointing others carries into adulthood. Women may feel like they can’t stand up for what they want because they will disappoint someone in the process.  There may be a better job opportunity within their current company, but your engirlneer feels like she owes her employer something. She could see that the employer has invested a lot of time and money into training her, and she feels a loyalty to the company. However, we need to teach our engirlneers that they should never stick with something that makes them unhappy just to please someone else. She needs to jump at every opportunity to better her life and increase her happiness.

There will always be a new employee to replace her position if she leaves. Her absence is not going to completely break a company. The hard truth is that in our current economy and corporate fields, employers look after their best interests. While it may seem ungrateful, or selfish, individuals need to be looking after their careers and happiness just as much as corporations look after their own success.

This attitude needs to be taught at a young age. You need to encourage your engirlneer to be open and honest about the activities she is involved in, and whether she is happy doing them. If she tells you she wants to quit something, sit down, have a conversation, and figure out a different activity that will allow her to grow but she will enjoy in the process. Teaching your engirlneer to think critically about her likes and dislikes and having her learn to express those same feelings will help her in every aspect of her professional, academic, and personal life. Self-reflection is an important skill for her to master.

Fear of wasted time

Another reason we have such a hard time quitting something is because we have invested so much time, money, and energy into it. Students are graduating college with an absurd amount of debt. If they discover they don’t enjoy the career they’re in, they feel like they’ve wasted an incalculable time and resources.

A person can spend decades in a career that isn’t satisfying just because they’re too stubborn to change direction. Instead of facing their disappointment head on and changing careers, they jump from employer to employer trying to satisfy a craving that they never will.

The important thing to teach your engirlneer is that life is a journey and choosing to go a different direction does not negate all the hard work she put in. No one would continue to walk toward the end of a cliff purely because they didn’t want to add another 5 miles to their journey. Changing direction can be the best thing for her.

Additionally, even if she wants to change careers, she has most certainly learned valuable skills from the career she started with. These skills will translate to multiple careers, whether it’s her ability to communicate, work with technology, or manage and coordinate projects. These skills don’t disappear because it no longer fits into her defined position requirements.

This same philosophy applies in every aspect of life, whether it’s professional activities, personal relationships, or leisure activities. The important thing is to realize what skills she has learned so she can pack them with her for the next journey.

Fear of the unknown

The fear of the unknown is a huge reason why people are afraid to quit. “The grass isn’t always greener,” is thrown out by employers a lot to persuade an unhappy employee to continue in a position that isn’t the right fit for them. Help your engirlneer understand that oftentimes, employers utilize this form of intimidation because they don’t want to be in the position of hiring someone new to do her work. While your engirlneers IS replaceable, it may cost a company more money to ensure someone is trained properly to take over her position.

Your engirlneer could also be unhappy with her current job, but she at least knows what to expect. She may know she is respected, has a stable job, will get a standard of living raise every year, and can go on vacation without it becoming an issue with her supervisor. When a new offer comes her way, she may hesitate because she worries it will be even worse. She needs to remember how unhappy she is at her current position, and realize that while there is a chance the job turns out to be worse than her current one, it could also turn out to be much more fulfilling and enjoyable for her.

When I hear someone say they turned down a job because they weren’t sure it would be any better, I think about the people that nearly cause a car wreck because they realized they are about to miss their exit, so they cut across four lanes of traffic. In the end, the person could’ve just taken a different exit and turned around. Similarly, nothing with a career is finite. If your engirlneer changes a company or a career, and she hates it, SO WHAT?!? She will have another opportunity to go somewhere else. Teach your engirlneers to take a chance for her happiness, and if that doesn’t work out, she can change again.

At the end of the day, your engirlneer should always put her happiness at the forefront of her choices.  She should never let a fear of disappointing others, fear of wasted time, or fear of the unknown prevent her from trying something new. Sometimes to try something new you have to quit something you’re used to. Taking that chance could be the best thing she’s ever done.

Learn Skills Outside of the Classroom

Many employers now require entry-level employees to have skills they don’t or won’t learn in their classroom.  While much of this trend can be traced back to advancements in technology, the trend towards a student entering the job market with a vast wealth of skills beyond their degree is not limited to technological careers.

Where once a researcher would use paper and pencil to record their findings, often there is a program for that now. The trend towards technology is only one example where your engirlneer’s broad knowledge in many different areas can serve her greatly outside of the classroom.

We no longer live in a world where education is limited to classroom experience.  Luckily, there are many opportunities for students at every stage of their education to explore and learn new skills.  While it is important for you to instill a love of learning in your engirlneer, it is also vital that you encourage her to take control of her own future at a young age.  Help your daughter understand that she will need to take charge of learning new skills her whole life. She will be responsible for her career path.

One of the simplest ways for your engirlneer to learn new skills is to have her take online courses.  There are many free or low-cost options where she can learn business skills, such as using spreadsheets or creating word documents.  Have her watch videos that have been posted online by others through services, such as Youtube®, that show her how to do specific tasks related to a topic she is interested in. She could take courses about computer programming or data science, or even photo editing.

Another simple way for her to learn new skills is for her to enroll in day camps or afterschool programs related to something that will help her in the future.  Search for programs online, use your networking skills, or connect with local professional organizations.

You can also teach your daughter business skills that you know, such as typing or creating presentations.  Teach her how to use spreadsheets to solve math problems or create charts.  It doesn’t have to be complicated, simple tutorials are fine. Set a time each week for you to teach her something you know.  This not only provides invaluable skills to her, but it also allows you and her to connect.

The important thing about learning new skills is that it can help your daughter learn what she likes.  Maybe she thinks she wants to be an accountant, but after really learning more about it, she discovers she absolutely hates it. Maybe she discovers that she’d actually rather be an electrician than an electrical engineer.  Maybe she discovers she can apply her artistic skills to designing logos or other marketing materials.

By helping your engirlneer expand her knowledge and skills outside of the classroom setting, you are setting her up for success academically, professionally, and in life. Teaching her that learning outside of the classroom can have many positive effects on her life will instill in her a thirst for knowledge as its own reward, and that mindset and attitude will benefit her greatly.