THUNDER BAY - When Joy Santos was getting ready to enter high school, she realized that science and engineering was something she wanted to pursue. Now in her fourth year of a mechanical engineering degree at Lakehead University, she wants to share her love of science and engineering with other young girls.
“I was about their age when I decided I wanted to be an engineer, so they are at an age right now where they are highly moldable, and I think it’s really important to show them how cool science and engineering can be because there is a lack of females in science and engineering,” she said.
Santos was one of several volunteers helping with the Go Eng Girl program at Lakehead University on Saturday. The annual program has been held at the Thunder Bay campus for the last 13 years and is held at universities across the country.
The program is meant to introduce young girls between grade 7 and 10 about opportunities that exist in science and engineering fields.
“We’re always trying to promote engineering as a potential career path for all students, but particularly for young girls and young women,” said David Barnett, dean of engineering at Lakehead University. “We want to make it fun, but also exposing them to some of the ideas and thought processes engineers go through when developing products or processes.”
More than 30 girls participated, including some younger members from Superior Science. Throughout the day, the girls participated in lessons about coding, 3D printing and modelling, and creative problem solving.
“We often think of young people as users of technologies, but the keyword is users,” Barnett said. “It’s much more than using technology, it’s how you develop it. Software plays such an important role in anything coming out so it’s good to get them exposed to that.”
Santos provided a lesson about the importance of 3D modelling in engineering and the girls even got to see a 3D printer in action.
For Santos, science and engineering was a big part of growing up, with both her parents working in the field. But she hopes through events like Go Eng Girl, more young girls will get involved in the field.
“I was exposed to that at a really early age and I always liked to solve problems with creative solutions and I thought that science and engineering would be the way to go” she said. “I really hope to see more women in science and engineering. There has been an increase so it’s been growing and that’s always good to see.”
