I grew up a BRAT (Born and Raise in an Army Town), so my family spent many hours traveling the Interstate system, sometimes to head home to see family and other times on our way to a new home. One thing I remember most about these trips is my father explaining the numbering of the Interstate system to my sister and me. He quizzed us on it during each trip. I-10? Even, so that is an east-west Interstate and 10, that is low, so that must travel through the southern part of the country. Looking back, these experiences of road tripping across the country and living in different communities played a significant role in me finding my place in transportation engineering; however, it took more than those quizzes to help me arrive to where I am today, and it wasn’t until college that I took the time to learn about transportation engineering.
As a child, I struggled with learning to read. I never really knew how concerned those around me were until recently when I found a note on my kindergarten report card that said in thick red marker: “I’m concerned about Tracy’s phonic skills.” I vividly remember being five or six and attempting to practice reading from flash cards and not having much success to both my and my parent’s frustrations. In about the fourth or fifth grade I was told by my teachers and parents that I was great at math and that I had a “mind of an engineer”. Although these things did not have much meaning to me, they significantly impacted how I viewed myself and the decisions I would make in the future.
During one summer around sixth or seventh grade, I attended a math and science day camp at Georgia Tech. As a typical middle school student, I did not want to go to the camp. I often told my parents that I would not go to Georgia Tech because it was for nerds (which I am now and was then). Once I was there, I loved it and I still have memories of the experiments we did. In high school, I became extremely involved in the band program and knew with 99.9% certainty that I would study music. The night before my audition for the University of Georgia School of Music, I announced to my family that I would not be auditioning and that I was going to accept my offer to attend Georgia Tech. I don’t remember there being much discussion, so clearly this was a decision my parents supported 😊.
I started college as an undecided College of Engineering student. At the time, the only thing I knew about engineering was that my uncle was an engineer and that it involved math and science. After orientation, I changed my major to physics because physics was something I had been exposed to in high school and that I knew I enjoyed. By changing my major, I was not exposed to the Introduction to Engineering class that GT offers undecided College of Engineering students to help them learn about the diverse types of engineering. It wasn’t until my second year at GT, after one of my college roommates exposed me to transportation engineering, that I changed my major to civil engineering.
Pay it forward
It is often difficult to imagine a career in something that we have not been exposed to personally. Although I cannot name all of the people that made a difference in my life by volunteering their time to expose me and other students to engineering concepts, I can say with certainty that those people are an essential reason why I became an engineer. Without them, I’m not sure that I would have landed in the transportation field.
As professionals in transportation, we have an opportunity to share our experiences and our careers with those around us to help guide them in their choices later in life. As a female, I feel this is particularly important so that younger women and girls can see that they too can be successful as an engineer. So, the next time you hear of an opportunity to volunteer at the local Future Cities Competition, to speak to a local class about your career, or to speak at an ITE or ASCE student chapter meeting, think about all of the people who made an impact on your life by volunteering their time and use your time volunteering as a way to say thank you to those who did the same for you.
It’s Engineers Week! Get out there and inspire young people to invent their amazing selves!
ITE is recognizing National Engineers Week 2019. Throughout the week, there will be posts from ITE members reflecting on how they chose to become transportation engineers, the importance of transportation engineers, and the need for diversity in the transportation profession.