Power behind Community Outreach

Leah Crossley is a third-year Geological engineering student pursuing a secondary major in Environmental Studies. She shares her experience as the Vice-President Outreach for UNB’s Diversity Within Engineering group and the impact community outreach can have on a single individual.

Currently, I’m the VP Outreach for the Diversity Within Engineering here at UNB. My role is primarily focused on encouraging and empowering women who are hoping to enter engineering. One of the first things that girls in grade 9-12 usually express to me is they say “I don’t think I’m smart enough”. It seems to be such a common trend too that they always underestimate themselves. But these girls are absolutely brilliant. They have some of the best averages, so I always tell them “you are smart enough, you are good enough”.

Sometimes women tend to lack confidence more so than men and I don’t know exactly why that is. I know when I was in high school, teachers would often pick on the guys and ask them questions instead of girls. And there isn’t always that pressure on women. Women aren’t expected always to be smart as men because men are “supposed to be good at everything”.

When I was in high school, I think if I had someone sitting down with me to ask me questions or about any concerns I had, I would have been confident from the get-go about pursuing engineering. Despite wanting to be an engineer since grade 7, I severely lacked confidence throughout high school, but luckily ended up changed my mind and took a leap of faith in grade 12 to apply to UNB. Thinking about it now, it’s so ridiculous. I did have a decent average in high school but for some reason, I just never thought I was smart enough to enter the engineering field.

Now I can’t imagine my life not being in engineering. I get so many unique opportunities such as hands-on work in in the field and pursuing my passion for the environment. So whenever I do meet with high school girls, I talk to them openly and honestly and seeing them take it in gets me every time. This is why outreach is so important. Because you never know the profound and inspiring effect one small interaction can have on someone’s confidence and their ability to see themselves as successful.

Fostering Community Connections

Dr. Katherine Barclay is a human physiology and pathophysiology professor here at UNB. She shares her insight on how important it is to foster connections with those around you, both with student peers and professors, during your university experience. Below are some tidbits of advice she has for any students struggling on how to foster such connections!

There are so many benefits to connecting to people who are in the same field as you, beyond just getting notes from classmates when you miss class. You can all get together and work on assignments so you can get that academic support together, but then also have fun outside of the classroom together! I’m such a geek- I played Dungeons and Dragons with my friends- but people can do whatever activity they find fun.

One way to do this is join a club or society! I was President of the Physics society when I was here at UNB, and believe it or not, I was actually quite shy when started here as a student. But both my friend and I forced each other to join a society, and to this day, we’re so happy we did. By joining societies, I began to foster these connections, I can definitely say that because I grew in confidence, but also comfort.

When in class, feel free to stop by and ask a question or make a comment about class to your prof after.  Could be something as easy as “I found ‘so and so’ quite interesting”. I know when students come up and talk to me, I’m like “oh yeah, there’s that student that spoke to me and engaged in class. ” I think connecting with people, particularly professors, is such an important but undervalued skill. At the end of your studies, people are all going to need references and if you haven’t connected with anyone, then what kind of reference are you going to get?

For any students that are shy, I encourage them who are shy to come and sit in class within the first three rows. It’s usually there, you have the students who are most attentive and willing to engage. I mean, you sit in the back, you’re going to be with the kids who are taking a nap, on their phones, so please, don’t sit in the back. Sit in those first three rows and I guarantee, those are going to the people you connect with. And I know that even with that being said, it’s not always easy within the classroom stimulating conversation with those around you within the classroom. But then I encourage you to go to group tutoring sessions like PAL, chat to people in labs even, and you never know how far friendship can go.

It’s definitely important to remember that university is not all about notes and doing STEM. It’s about developing communication, listening skills, learning how to interact with others, working on a team- all basic survival skills for life.

Lessons Learned from Leadership

A third-year Electrical Engineering student, as well as, the VP External of Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS). In this role, she is responsible for things such as conference delegate organization, school outreach, maintaining relationships with the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES) and Atlantic Council of Engineering students.

During this interview, Hannah sheds some light on current female engineering statistics with future goals student-led engineering movements have, as well as, advice for anyone running for leadership positions in student organizations.

One thing I have noticed when conducting some of the advocacy work is that female under-representation in the engineering field is a national problem. Engineers Canada has adopted a “30 by 30 rule” in which they hope to increase the women as professional engineers population 30 percent by the year 2030. The CFES decided to adopt that as well because it is such a prominent student issue, particularly in Canada. Currently, UNB is sitting roughly between 17-20 percent. What is inspiring though, is the high amount of turnout- almost 45 percent- we get from our female peers at these national events or conferences! So, to me, this shows that though the numbers for ladies in eng may be lower, they’re engaging heavily and being more involved in our communities. This is obviously great and I think it happens for a number of reasons but ultimately, I think it’s because the girls feel like they have something to prove. Maybe it’s something we need to prove in order to make a difference.

It could be some nonsense of ‘nurturing a community’  or something along the lines, but I think it’s that female engineers have to prove that much more. Like they have to prove that they’re equally just as employable and equally as driven as guys. So if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.

One of the challenges of running for leadership positions as a woman is that you can’t look like you want it too bad because then society labels you as something negative and power-hungry. But if you don’t put any effort into making your ambitions known, then no one will know who you are. Whereas often times, if a guy has a laidback campaign, it’s still perceived that they care a lot about what they are pursuing, and they’re still smart, driven guys. So, unfortunately, women just have to prove it more.

But a word of advice I have for anyone, regardless of gender, running in any leadership position is to understand the position and know where you can add value and where your passions are. If you’re doing it just for your resume or a checklist, then it’s not really worth it. Know that if you work hard enough, it’s ultimately going to pay off.

Passion and Perseverance Creating Paths and Positivity

A Chat with Dr. Val Reeves about how pursuing what you want to do the most, as opposed to what you do the best in, can lead to developing a stronger toolkit and better work ethic in the end.

My story starts at UNB and how I came here with a mindset that I was going to do marine biology. And then first year happened, and oh gosh, what a learning curve that was. To top it off, I didn’t enjoy biology, not even a little bit! And in high school I hated chemistry, but here I was, in university, enjoying it.

Socially I was a mess. Academically, I was not where I wanted to be. At Thanksgiving, I had my room packed up and I was not planning on coming back. I failed my physics and math midterms, and I had myself convinced that I wasn’t cut out for university. But you know the weirdest thing? Chemistry was my worst subject but I was enjoying it the most.

So I decided to stay in the end and after changing my habits a bit, I ended up on the Dean’s List- but just barely! I actually decided to major in the course I was getting my worst mark in and I think that’s an important lesson. You shouldn’t major in the thing you do the best in, you should major in what you enjoy. You will have more passion and perseverance when you’re enjoying what you’re learning- even if you’re not excelling at it- than if you’re just doing it to get through. Go after what you enjoy.

When people start a science degree, they feel so restricted to the path that they’re going to follow. But if you keep your eyes wide open and stay true to your passions (don’t lose those- I lost mine for a while and it wasn’t a good place to be in), there will be so many paths.

The beauty of STEM is it isn’t always the content knowledge you come out with, it’s the skill set you have built. So it’s not necessarily that I can regurgitate chemistry from this textbook or that textbook, but it’s that I have learned important skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.

You really develop this mindset and toolkit and that it can be applied to so many things. Like I love seeing people that do chemistry and go to law school. I love seeing people come from science and go into law or education because, wow, do our kids need STEM education. It’s like a tree! The trunk is your B.Se and all those branches are all the places you can go. It’s a skill set, a toolbox you’re building up.

What is the Importance Behind Resilience?

A Response from Dr. Janice Lawrence

UNB Biology Professor and Assistant Dean of Science

I've faced challenges before that have required me to go away and lick my wounds for a bit and eventually I've come back, otherwise, I wouldn't be here! But I just want people to know that it's ok to step back and gather your strength and go at it again. I genuinely hope people don't ever quit but it's ok. I remember during some of the really challenging times of my Ph.D. in oceanography, my mom called me and said that "Janice, you know that you don't have to finish this, right?".

At the time, I was just gutted. Like I really needed somebody to help push me forward. But I think at the end, she really just gave me the biggest gift which was saying "you don't really have to do this, we're not going to be disappointed or ashamed”. You are not letting anyone down. This is really really difficult." And I think that her giving me permission to leave and give me a perspective that this journey was my decision to make actually made me feel more powerful.

All women in STEM have a few things in common: they require resiliency and grit. On the journey there, we're all going to have different reasons, backgrounds, and pathways. But if you're going to be a woman going into a STEM field, you need resiliency and it's ok to back down too sometimes.

You don't have to be resilient 24/7. You also have to take care of yourself. The only way you're going to make it through the long haul is to take really good care of yourself because there's no end of challenges.

You could call anyone who treats you horribly because you’re a woman a million things like “narrow-minded” or  “misogynistic”. But that doesn’t get us anywhere. Getting mad at individuals just perpetuates and contributes to ongoing negativity. It’s important to be resilient and take the time to stop, befriend, and educate someone to open their minds up.

How can we encourage, promote, and influence allyship?

Shanece Wilson

Fourth-year electrical engineering student with a dedicated work ethic and inspiring message. Fun fact, Shanece is 1 of the 16 people -- and the only woman-- competing in the Senior Design division of the Atlantic Engineering Competition this weekend! She shares the following when asked about how to foster allyship in STEM:

As a university student, I think it’s very important to support or encourage STEM classes among the female demographic. But it’s also important to go beyond that. Right now, one of the reasons why we see a low percentage of women in engineering, especially in electrical, is because we don’t often see women portrayed in this field- whether it be at the university level or later in a job position. I think that’s a big factor in why women may sometimes think that engineering may not be meant for them.

Right now, women are constantly being interrupted or their opinions aren’t being heard as much when they try to share new ideas. I think something men as allies can do is ask women for their opinion, encourage them to speak their mind openly, and especially encourage other male individuals to notice when they’re interrupting their female counterparts in STEM.

I know I’ve certainly grown in my ability to be confident and trust myself to take those leaps and bounds. I find a lot of time my male counterparts seem to find that confidence out of thin air and they have no problem taking on those challenges that are still out of their scope. I’m not sure if it’s just myself- and I don’t want to speak on behalf of all women when I say this- but there definitely seems to be a trend in where women have a harder time finding that confidence.

I know for a lot of women thinking about pursuing in engineering it comes down to “do I really want to work in a place where I may not be considered good enough?”. That’s why it’s important to foster the idea among everyone, particularly women who are hesitant, that it's ok to take a leap of faith and challenge yourself. For instance, taking part in things like this conference or doing anything that works towards fostering allyship and perseverance among females in STEM helps!