Winning the FIRST Chesapeake Women in STEM scholarship is not just an accomplishment for me, but it is also a testament to the achievements women have made in STEM for years. This scholarship is an avenue for young women to be encouraged to step out of their comfort zone, try something new, and engage with their community: I am proud to carry this legacy. I hope that through this scholarship, I can enhance my involvement within my community and inspire more girls to find the wonders of the STEM field.

I want my students to ‘fail forward. They need to know that in engineering, failure in design is inevitable. No one gets it correct the first time. Instead of giving up and saying, ‘Oh well,’ I want them to analyze, reflect and attack the problem again with a new perspective. I want my students to be comfortable with failure. Dust themselves off and try again. Keep going until they get it right. That’s life.

FIRST has impacted me in many ways. Most recently, my six years of F T C team experience helped me through my first ever college group project using the skills teamwork, knowing how to stick to rules and still be creative leadership and public speaking imparted on me through my first experience. My group was able to not just pass the assignment but to do very well on it. 

I am so grateful to have received the Women in STEM scholarship from FIRST Chesapeake. This scholarship is a form of recognition for all women in STEM, showing that our goals and future careers in a STEM field are not only supported but encouraged. For me personally, receiving this scholarship shows the dedication and effort I have put into building up a community for young girls in FIRST and STEM overall has not gone unnoticed. This scholarship and the words of the speakers at the breakfast serve as reminders to continue challenging the norm and developing my own knowledge and innovative ideas.

This is an excellent pipeline to get people interested in the work we do. And if you happen to have a lot of fun along the way that’s cool too. They get to go through the full engineering process, from a blank piece of paper to a full robot in a few weeks.

FIRST has helped me develop so many skills and it has helped me become a more versatile person. Now I work in a small business and every day I'm using a different skill than I was able to strengthen through FIRST programs.