Brogan Sheehey, the white blazer award winner, mechanical engineer, role model, and junior at the University of Maryland, came back to NDP March 16, 2015 to share her stories and insight on the captivating life as an engineering student at the University of Maryland. Brogan has now taken part in engineering for three years, first declaring her major as a civil engineer and made her choice in engineering due to her love of math and science, as well as her love to problem solve. Coming into the civil engineering major, her classes were a majority of men rather than women. Brogan explained that engineering is still prominently men and encouraged us to make a change. She inspired us that women in engineering is just what this major and field needs!

Brogan explained to us that being women in an engineering field requires that you continue to be yourself. It can be intimidating with a noticeably male-dominated field, although Brogan explained that being yourself is the change this male dominated field needs. With women’s input in engineering, this field can go deeper and continue to solve problems in an even more productive way.

Brogan shared with us that this past summer, she took part in the construction of the penguin exhibit at the Baltimore Zoo. This project taught her how to work with others, as well as leading the project. She is in an engineering sorority and loves to take part in many engineering activities such as QUEST at University of Maryland, an interdisciplinary honors program. Recently, Brogan has now switched from civil to mechanical engineering.

Brogan’s leadership and positive attitude inspire me as well as the NDP students to work hard and reminds us that we can do anything if we put the work into it! We were all so happy to have Brogan come back to NDP to talk about her engineering experience and to have such an inspiring alum to look up to. Thank you to the Science National Honor Society for providing this wonderful opportunity and thank you to Brogan for spending time and enlightening us about the field of engineering and being a great role model to all students at NDP.