My name is Helen. I am an electrical engineering major currently in my senior year at Tandon. Although technology has come so far since just a decade ago, there are still so many aspects that have not been modernized with the times. In the early ages o
Looking back at our history, in the earlier ages of engineering, like in the 17th and 18th centuries, much of the workforce was made up of men. This was not purely coincidental. At the time, men were the main breadwinners, however, even when women began to really enter the workforce, they were very limited in the fields they could take part in. When it came to working in tech and engineering, the machinery available was made to fit a man. This design failed to consider many diverse groups of people that could potentially be great assets to a company. Yes, yes I know, I asked myself the same thing; “that was way back then but things are different now… right?”
Why do I care about Diversity and Technology?
Things have gotten better in recent times, but personally, I still feel as though different groups are neglected in certain fields in STEM. Being a hispanic female in STEM, specifically Electrical Engineering, I have found myself in many situations in which I am the only one of my background in my class. Many times I have found myself to be only one of five women in a class of about 50 people and other times I have found myself to be the only woman AND the only one of an hispanic background in the class. Technology plays a major role in our lives today and for that reason I hope to explore more into the topic of Diversity and Technology. “Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession” is a book that seems interesting and ties in very much to the climate we are in today.
Last year, this class took a “Social Justice Tour on Gentrification of Metrotech/Downtown Brooklyn.” I look forward to take either the same tour or something similar because in the climate that we are in today, it is very important that we pay attention to gentrification and who are those being affected and displaced by it. Progress is good and it is something that we as a society aspire for. However, sometimes progress, achievement and greatness, can come at the cost of others. I have seen how much gentrification can change a neighborhood seeing as it personally affected me and the neighborhood I grew up in.
My Reading Suggestion:
Mental health is something that has become much more important to me in the past year than ever before. Being a minority in a field where I don’t see many people that look like me on a daily basis can become hard from day to day. When you don’t feel as if you fit in, it can truly feel as if you are not meant to be there or perhaps as if you should change your major or change schools all together! It can be truly hard to deal with all that but one book that has personally helped me have hope is “You Are Worth It: Building a Life Worth Fighting For” by Kyle Carpenter. It is a book about hope and personally I have found that it has helped me keep pushing forward when it has gotten hard to deal with school and just life in general. Another reading , more related to this Diversity and Technology class, that I have found interesting is Caught in the Wheels by Cynthia Cockburn. This is a reading I was introduced to in another class but it ties very closely to diversity in STEM.