{"id":6207,"date":"2018-03-07T13:18:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T18:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/?p=6207"},"modified":"2020-02-17T16:53:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T21:53:11","slug":"paying-it-forward-with-futureintech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/paying-it-forward-with-futureintech\/","title":{"rendered":"Paying it forward with Futureintech"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a very fortunate person. I was born in a time when girls can receive an education. I was raised in a country where more than 60% percent of women are employed. I attended an all-girls high school with an inspiring physics teacher whose passion and enthusiasm were infectious<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If any one of these pieces was not in play, I would not be where I am today.<\/p>\n

As a transportation engineer, the idea of going to work every day excites me. There are real world challenges to be solved that impact people\u2019s lives. The projects I work on are monumental, and the physical evidence of my decisions will be visible in our infrastructure for decades.<\/p>\n

Finding my ideal career, one where I can make a difference, has been incredibly empowering. But I\u2019m also deeply disheartened when I hear about the lack of women in our industry. It\u2019s not because I expect every person to be excited by physics or want to pursue a career in engineering, it\u2019s because I know many women and girls are simply not exposed to the possibility of a STEM career.<\/p>\n

For the past two years, I\u2019ve been an ambassador for Futureintech<\/a>, an organisation that promotes careers in technology, engineering and science by bringing people working in STEM-based industries (such as myself) into schools to share career stories and run workshops. Futureintech helps raise the visibility of STEM in an effort to address the skills shortage, with a particular focus on increasing the number of women entering these fields. Run by Engineering New Zealand<\/a>, Futureintech will be implementing exciting changes to the programme, with one of its priorities to look at how to target Maori and Pasifika students who tend to be under-represented in STEM education.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of my favourite experiences of being a Futureintech volunteer was holding a Disaster Proof Roads <\/em>workshop for female high-school students identified as high achievers in science. As part of the workshop, students were given cardboard cut-outs of bridges, roads, bus lanes and other infrastructure elements with a cost associated with each element. The task was to build a resilient network within a certain budget. It was incredible watching the girls\u2019 faces light up as they solved problems and realized what they could be capable of doing.<\/p>\n

Futureintech allows me and my ArchTam colleagues who also volunteer to share our experiences at a critical time in the lives of young people. I hope to return the favour one day and be that passionate and enthusiastic person who serves as a role model, sparking interest and uncovering new worlds.<\/p>\n

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018<\/a> and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a very fortunate person. I was born in a time when girls can receive an education. I was raised in a country where more than 60% percent of women are employed. I attended an all-girls high school with an inspiring physics teacher whose passion and enthusiasm were infectious. If any one of these pieces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":6208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3693,4611,3590,101,1927,2024,3224],"yst_prominent_words":[458,3267,971,585,3232,1444,359,2686,367,3236,3266,3056,3234,3233,818,808,528,3235,539,1146],"class_list":["post-6207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aecomblueprint","tag-eweek2020","tag-pressforprogress","tag-australia-new-zealand","tag-corporate-responsibility","tag-inclusion-and-diversity","tag-international-womens-day"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8346,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6207\/revisions\/8346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6207"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}