Exploring engineering and campus life with C-Tech²

"Keep the planes flying at the same altitude" "Whoa!" C-Tech² is a summer program, a two week summer program, where high school girls come in and they learn about the different disciplines of engineering and the different labs at Virginia Tech who do research on engineering. CEED hosts this with the purpose of completing our mission, which is being able to educate minorities towards what engineering is and their opportunities in the field while also seeing themselves represented. "And then you want to right away wipe it off" C-Tech² was pretty much the main reason why I came to Virginia Tech, I just had such a great experience that after doing it, I knew that I really wanted to come here, and I knew that, like, this was the place for me. This is a great time for them to really have that college experience without actually being in college yet. So I came here in pursuit of what kind of engineering I wanted to do. And when I talked to a bunch of professors about what mechanical engineering was, it became my interest. And when I stepped on campus, it became what I really wanted to do. Or for these girls to have the opportunity, to see themselves represented in women in engineering, who work as researchers, who work as professors, who work as outreach directors. It's really important for them to see the opportunities that they have. It's also really important for them to network and be able to meet other young girls who have their same interests. "Okay, Luisa, that's good. Good job, Luisa." In high school, a lot of the STEM classes that I took, like all my math classes, and science classes, they were predominantly male. I kind of felt like I was the only girl or the only one that was interested in these fields, which was discouraging. So coming into a camp where it's all women. You can see that you're not alone in it, and that there's all these other young ladies just like you that are also interested and that you're really not alone. So, along with Bloomberg Industry Group, who is our sponsor for this summer camp, the first day that they come here, we give them this challenge this year specifically. I was to design a Rube Goldberg machine. During the first week, they design, they come up with a blueprint of what they want to do, and then during the second week, it's fully building. This kind of challenge is bringing all disciplines of engineering into the mix, and I think that this is a fantastic opportunity for them to get exposure to this kind of problem solving aspects. This is the right time to make sure that we encourage them. We bring them into these facilities where there are tools available. There are capabilities available. There is expertise available and giving them challenges like this definitely helps them kind of stimulate that sense of accomplishment to kind of go further into this career which is more engineering focused. Seeing how the girls engage, not just with each other, but with the Virgina Tech community, being able to see their creativity, their wide range of skills. It really is a rewarding experience. And CEED has been really grateful and excited to welcome them back every single year.