Right to Choose

I think it's really important to make a special effort to encourage women to enter engineering. Not because women need a "step up" (the affirmative action logic) and not because it's important to have diversity (although it is) - but because women deserve to have a choice about the matter.

For me, being a feminist means being conscious of the implications of gender. I didn't have trouble deciding to become an engineer. I was lucky enough to have two parents with engineering degrees, a mother who often told me that an engineering degree is the best degree to have, and a close bond with the science department at my high school. I even had the opportunity (well insisted on having the opportunity) to participate in a pilot hands-on Women in Science and Engineering program that my high school started my senior year. So it's hardly a surprise that I'm here studying engineering today.

However, for hundreds of other women, deciding to study engineering is a much bigger deal. There's a lot of implicit socialization out there silently convincing women to not become engineers before they even have the chance to consider it. Just as an example, there are tons of girls out there who are talented in every subject who have no idea what they want to do with their lives - why don't they all study engineering? After all, an engineering degree is arguably one of the most versatile degrees out there. Instead they're advised to become a doctor, lawyer, scientist - all noble professions, but is engineer on the list? I guess it depends on the advisor. We need to make sure that engineer is on that list.

Then once they do decide to become engineers, the battle continues. When you feel like you don't belong in a profession, it's so easy to drown yourself in negative self-talk. Maybe you have a bad day and bomb a test, what's your first thought? Oh man, I bombed that test because I had a bad day? Nope. It's - God, I don't belong here. That's why women drop out - it's not because they're not smart enough.

Olin Application Essay

The core value of "quality and continuous improvement" is integral to the Olin Community. How do you see yourself contributing to the betterment of the College in this area? What special qualities would you bring to the Olin Community? (Please keep your thoughts to no more than 500 words.)

The panic first begins to set in as I stare at our topographical map: the trail is unmarked and we need to cross a mountain. By lunch, I am close to tears. It is the tenth day of my Outward Bound backpacking trip and I am the navigator. In that moment, I realize the limit of what I can accomplish alone. I ask the counselors for help and they give me a set of directions to the effect of turn right at the train tracks and left at the pile of garbage. My group and I take turns reading the map and consult each other before taking shortcuts. Together, we finally stumble onto our campsite as the sun lowers over the horizon. We have to set up camp in the dark.

That trip was more than a series of close calls and exhausting labor. It was about finding out what I was capable of and using that drive to do more. I had thought I was incapable of navigation, but I just needed help. No matter how impossible my task seemed, I knew that all I needed was to figure out how to make it possible. A similar state of mind is required for Olin College’s goal of quality and continuous improvement. No matter how much work has been done, no matter how many miles have been walked, there will always be more.

Likewise, research is never finished. This year, I am participating in the new Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program in which I work with Hopkins professors to immerse myself in the academic world of science and engineering. I was so excited to get involved in research that I was shocked when I discovered the reality of it. I had thought that science was full of glamour and discovery, not experiments that fizzle out and equipment that does not work. However, I soon realized that challenges are more interesting to tackle than easy questions. From this experience, I took away the knowledge that research, like hiking, is about pushing. Whether I am pushing myself or what the rest of the world thinks is possible, I am making progress.

Olin’s objective of reinventing engineering education requires students who are willing to look beyond themselves to the larger world; I am capable of that. To the Olin community, I will bring energy and stamina, the flexibility to change my mind about the world around me, and the willingness to keep trying even in the face of adversity. In order to maintain a quality institution, Olin College needs to remain full of individuals who are willing to change and take risks. From my experiences with Outward Bound and WISE, it is clear that I am more than willing to jump in the deep end. I have all of the skills necessary to aid Olin College in its mission of quality and continuous improvement, I only need the opportunity.

WISE Application Essay

When I was in elementary school, I entered the school science fair. My experiment tested the effect of different liquids on plants including Windex, Coke, and Orange Juice. At the time, I was amazed to discover that the plant watered with Windex grew taller and brighter than the plant nourished with water. This surprise exemplifies the reason I find science fascinating. No matter how much someone may think they know about how the world works, it could always turn out to be a little bit different.

I remember having that same feeling in ninth grade when I took biology. When we first began learning about photosynthesis, I was completely shocked that it was such a complicated process. Biology opened my eyes to how miraculous and intricate the natural world is; it proved to me that everything is not quite as it appears. I never could run a mile the same way again. Now when I run, I cannot help but think about my heart pumping blood into my veins as I breathe deeply, the lactic acid building up on my muscles as I push harder and harder. I love understanding why something happens; it makes it so much easier to appreciate.

The next year, I took chemistry and I liked it even better. I have always enjoyed math and the synthesis of the two was incredibly appealing. I liked watching chemicals react, creating gases and solids, changing color and temperature. But I liked knowing why that happened even more. I would watch a solution start to fizz and imagine the atoms dancing and switching partners. It was so strange to talk about the actions of matter that we could not even see. To make up for it, I imagined whole lives for my little atom friends. When I was studying, I would make-up interpretive dances about ionic and covalent bonds that, I have to admit, were more theatrical than scientifically accurate. While the raw numbers and innumerably laws of chemistry may not have seemed exciting, in my mind they were the biggest soap opera of all.

However, my favorite science class so far has to be physics. As Mr. Lawler often says, “we have to rise above Aristotelian thinking to Newton’s”. Physics has definitely blown away my previous assumptions about how the world works. Ever since I took an existentialism class one summer, I have been interested in philosophy and its goal to try to explain the universe. Until I began learning about physics, I had never found those answers anywhere else. Now, I can hardly separate the two in my mind. Only in physics have I sat down and thought about the mechanics of force and then built a bridge to physically explore my understanding. That application of the abstract idea reminds me of Kierkegaard, considered one of the first existentialists, and his theory that it is not enough to talk about philosophy; it is a way of life. For me, science is a way of life. It is a way of looking at the world and perceiving the way it interacts. For me, life and science are inseparable.