Photo courtesy of Leah DeHaemer

“I’m in Delta Phi Epsilon, a social sorority on campus. I’m in the club SWE, Society of Women Engineers … Being an engineer, there aren’t really that many women in [the field], so this society is for women in engineering specifically. It’s just a great way for girls to meet other girls in engineering that don’t really have as much of a voice when it comes to engineering as a whole. So, you get to meet girls like that, and it’s really cool because you have a lot of the same values when it comes to a career … I would like to join more [organizations]. I was in a lot [of organizations] in high school, so I would like to, but I just don’t have the time for that. School, work, the sorority … it’s just a lot. I mean, I’m happy where I am, but if I do wind up joining things, that would be amazing. But I mean, if not, it is what it is … I’m an engineering major, math minor; it’s kind of hard but it’s fine, we’re thriving. With the minor, I actually got all the credits necessary with engineering, so they just said [to], like, put the name on it. So, [I] got the minor in that. And then with engineering, I literally grew up on Legos. I was made fun of because I was a girl into Legos, and my school was just something else. But I grew up with Legos, [and] I would always help my dad around the house with any housework. We had a place in Florida, and I was with my grandparents, and we had to make a desk [because] it was relatively new, and I literally made it all by myself, at like the age of eight … I’ve always loved building and stuff, and I tried architecture in high school [because] we had classes, and that was just not my thing, [because] I like to be more hands-on, working with other people. So, engineering was the next best thing.”