Corrinne Cook and Anderson Deutschman, both 25, knew they\u2019d face some obstacles when they decided to pursue engineering as a career.<\/p>\n
Undaunted, they completed their degrees and both are currently employed as civil engineers at Herbert, Rowland & Grubic Inc., known as HRG.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized breaking into the field probably wouldn\u2019t be easy, but I had a passion for art and science, and those interests came together in civil engineering,\u201d Deutschman said. \u201cI put on blinders and just went for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cook also was determined to pursue her goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I\u2019d be a minority in the field, but I was okay with that,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve known since eighth grade that I wanted to be an engineer and I wasn\u2019t going to let anything stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deutschman is based in HRG\u2019s Lehigh Valley office, while Cook works from the company\u2019s Harrisburg location.<\/p>\n
They were among a group of women engineers and others who recently attended \u201cPowerhouses: Women in Engineering,\u201d a Breakfast4Success program sponsored by Greater Reading Chamber Alliance in partnership with Berks Women2Women.<\/p>\n
Attendees heard from a panel of five female engineers: Erin Connelly, an industrial systems engineer at Brentwood Industries; Erin Gift, director of manufacturing at Reading Bakery Systems; Kara Humes, market leader and senior environmental manager at Entech Engineering Inc.; Nikita Patel, a sales engineer for Sherman Engineering Co.; and Natalie Ruppert, process engineering manager at East Penn Manufacturing.<\/p>\n
Kristen Deysher, director of strategic relationships and business development at Entech Engineering served as moderator for the Feb. 4 event.<\/p>\n
Panelists shared their stories and offered advice to those in attendance, including a group of women engineering and architecture students from Penn State Berks.<\/p>\n
The Changing Face of Engineering<\/p>\n
The face of engineering is changing rapidly, fueled by tools including artificial intelligence, data mining, predictive modeling and others, according to Connelly, who holds a degree in chemical engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from Wilkes University.<\/p>\n
Connelly said she regularly employs AI for presentations and other purposes, enabling her to complete about five times as much work as previously within a given time, and is amazed at ongoing technological developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnology is advancing so quickly that we\u2019re limited only by ourselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Patel, who earned a degree in mechanical engineering and has an MBA with a focus in multinational business, encouraged young people to keep an open mind about the broad field of engineering, saying it has changed tremendously and will continue to evolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you move into the engineering world, you\u2019ll discover opportunities you couldn\u2019t even knew about,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as a traditional engineer anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Sometimes Overlooked, Soft Skills are Important<\/p>\n
Humes, who has been with Entech for 36 years, noted that while technical and operational skills are important in the field of engineering, soft skills also are needed to advance and be successful.<\/p>\n
Transitioning in her career from a technical expert into a position of leadership taught her first-hand the importance of relationship building and working effectively with others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized that this work isn\u2019t just about problem solving,\u201d Humes said. \u201cI was building teams and developing relationships so everyone could be more successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruppert, who graduated from Penn State in 2018 with a degree in energy engineering and serves as a member of the Berks County Dream Team \u2014 a group that works with students to promote careers in manufacturing \u2014 stressed the importance of good communication skills and relationship building.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tell students all the time that education and AI will give them a head start, but they also need to be able to communicate with others and develop relationships that will help them advance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Advice for Aspiring Women Engineers<\/p>\n
Gift, who has a degree in industrial engineering and has worked at Reading Bakery Systems since 2017, urged women to push for what\u2019s important, both at work and outside of it.<\/p>\n
She was only the third woman in leadership at Reading Bakery Systems to give birth while employed there, necessitating the implementation of a maternity policy that others now benefit from.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe worked together and came up with something I needed, but that also paved the pathway for others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Connelly advised women aspiring toward engineering and those already working in the field to always follow through and do what you say you will.<\/p>\n
Other advice included: Be thorough, do your research, fact check, stay consistent, know your audience, ask the right questions, and make your expertise visible.<\/p>\n
Finally, she urged the audience \u2014 try not to doubt yourself and be willing to express what you\u2019re thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou all have a voice,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cIt\u2019s the responsibility of everyone to speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corrinne Cook and Anderson Deutschman, both 25, knew they\u2019d face some obstacles when they decided to pursue engineering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,60,182,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-116085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-reading-city","13":"tag-reading-city-headlines","14":"tag-reading-city-news","15":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}