voice of youth

We asked our Youth Think Tank to write letters describing their thoughts around Engineering to the people who matter in their world. Listen up WEMADEIT community!

Over the last 2 months I’ve been part of a Youth Think Tank to investigate why less than 20% of engineering students are women, and to create a website that talks about engineering in way that’s actually appealing to teenagers. Because of my experience, I have a few insights I’d like to share with you about how to communicate with high school girls, how to talk with us about our futures and decision making, about our attitudes towards STEM, and how gender issues affect all of this. Check out our website wemadeit.ca for more interesting things about engineering and how you can pursue it.

Despite the strive for equality, the first person that comes to mind when thinking of an engineer is a guy in a hard hat, which in reality is only small part of engineering. Engineering is a vast and flexible field that spans pharmaceutical production (making medicine) to building skyscrapers to designing smart phones. Pretty much anything that makes your life easier was made or improved by an engineer.

Isn’t engineering is all about math and science, you might ask. The answer is, not really. Yes, math and science are important to engineering, but engineering also involves problem solving, creativity, curiosity, design and communication. It’s about seeing the world problems and wanting to do something to solve them, whether it is climate change, conserving the environment or improving healthcare. Best of all, engineers are really flexible in their abilities and have a unique perspective and way of thinking. That is why there are engineers working in banks, graphics design, schools and other places you wouldn’t associate with engineering.

Engineering is a wonderful post-secondary path that leads to countless opportunities. Definitely consider studying it!

Best wishes,
WEMADEIT – Youth Think Tanker
P.S. Go Engineering!

We asked our Youth Think Tank to write letters describing their thoughts around Engineering to the people who matter in their world. Listen up WEMADEIT community!

Over the last 2 months I’ve been part of a youth think tank to investigate why less than 20% of engineering students are women, and to create a website that talks about engineering in a way that’s actually interesting for teenagers. Because of my experience, I have a few insights I’d like to share with you about how to communicate with high school girls, how to talk with us about our futures and decision making, about our attitudes towards STEM, and how gender issues affect all if this.

Firstly, high school students, boys and girls, are stressed out and confused about their futures. None of us know for sure what we want to do for a career, which isn’t surprising, since we’re only aged 13-18! We never stop thinking about universities and our futures, so parents of high school students need to be understanding of and patient about this. We need to know all of our possibilities and opportunities, and be able to thoroughly research each in order to make an informed decision – after all, it’s a huge decision! We can’t be expected to just know what we want to do with our lives – we need to have the chance to really look into it before coming to a decision.

Secondly, gender stereotypes and expectations can be stressful to high school girls, depending on our families and friends, and their personal expectations of us. If a girl’s family believes the gender stereotypes – say, for example, that women should stay at home and cook and clean and take care of the kids – that girl may be less likely to go into a professional career, because she may feel discouraged from it. Parents and friends of high school girls need to be open minded and accepting. We need to feel encouraged and supported.

Lastly, high school girls need to believe that we are going into something worthwhile, and feel like we’ll be making a difference in our specific fields of study, especially in STEM careers. Parents need to be supportive of STEM careers and encourage their children to go into STEM if it’s something they want to do. We rely on our parents’ approval and support in order to make appropriate decisions that we’ll be proud of later in life, so it is incredibly important that parents support such a crucial decision.

Sincerely,
WEMADEIT Youth Think Tanker

We asked our Youth Think Tank to write letters describing their thoughts around Engineering to the people who matter in their world. Listen up WEMADEIT community!

Dear Guidance Counsellor & Student Support,

Over the last 2 months I’ve been part of a Youth Think Tank to investigate why less than 20% of engineering students are women, and to create a website that talks about engineering in way that’s actually interesting for teenagers. Because of my experience, I have a few insights I’d like to share with you about how to communicate with high school girls, how to talk with us about our futures and decision making, about our attitudes towards STEM, and how gender issues affect all of this.

What I have learned through my experience with the Youth Think Tank is that many students have very limited perception of what engineering is and what engineers are capable of doing. I have done interviews with some friends from our school and I was surprised to find how they did not know the extent of creativity and imagination that engineering actually requires.

What I have come to believe is that the cause of the inaccurate perception of what engineering is, is the lack of similarity and connection of the classroom material and the actual possibilities of a career in engineering. The students have very little information about how the subjects studied in class can actually contribute to a career.

As you are a member of the student support and outreach, I believe that you can think of possible events that can showcase what engineering really is. I personally learned a lot about engineering through talking to professional engineers, many of whom are eager to volunteer and talk to young kids and teenagers about engineering and its capacities.

To learn more about these individuals and their work, I suggest you take a quick look around our website, WEMADEIT.ca.

Sincerely,
WEMADEIT Youth Think Tank Member