I Want To Get ” A”

By Author: asdfas
Total Articles: 105
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When J was a kid, everything in my bedroom was pink. I have two sisters and we had a complete miniature kitchen. A herd of My Little Ponies and several Barbie. Tomboys we weren't.
So some people may think ironic that I grew up to be a mechanical engineer. In fact, I am the only innate engineer at my company. In order to get my college degree.
I'm proud to say that I got A's in all my classes, including multivariable calculus and differential equations. I've always been pretty good at math and design, but I didn't understand where that could take me. No one ever told rue I'd make a good engineer someday.
When f was in high school, I didn't know this thing about engineering. I couldn't have distinguished ;I transmission" from an alternator'. The car I drove needed some work but I was afraid to Sake it to the mechanic. Because honestly, the mechanic could have shown me an electric can opener and said. "This is part of your car and it's broken -- pay rue to irks it."
At the end of my junior year of high school, I heard about a summer program designed to interest girls in engineering. The six-week program ...
... was tree, and students were given college credit'' arid a dorm room at the University of Maryland. I applied to the program, no! because I wanted to be an engineer, but because I was craving independence and wanted to get out of my parents' house for six weeks.
I was accepted to the program and I earned six engineering credits. The next year I entered the university as an engineering major. Five years later I had a degree and three decent job offers.
I can't help shuddering when I hear about studies that show that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to math. They imply that I am somehow abnormal. I' m not, but I do know that if I hadn't stumble into that summer program, I wouldn't be an engineer.
When I was growing up I was told, as many students are, to-do what I am best at. But I didn't know what that was. Most people think that when you are good at something, it comes easily to you. But this is what I discovered: just because a subject is difficult to learn, it does not mean you are not good at it. You just have to grit your teeth and work harder to get good at it. Once you do, there's a strong chance you will enjoy it more than anything else.
In eighth grade took algebra. On one test I got only 36 percent of the answers correct. I failed the next one, too. I started to think: Maybe I'm just no good at this. I was lucky enough to have a teacher who didn't take my bad grades as a judgment of my abilities, but simply as an indication that I should study more. He pulled me aside and told me he knew could do better. He let me retake the tests, and I pulled my grade up to an A.
I studied a lot in college, too. I had moments of panic while sitting underneath the buzzing fluorescent lights in the engineering library on Saturday afternoons, when I worried that the estrogen in my body was preventing me from under.