10 young women from the South High School Robotics Team recently attended two different conferences in Manhattan to meet with successful female professionals in the engineering field.
Both workshops were part of a program known as the Day of Discovery, which is designed to introduce high school girls to careers in construction, architecture, engineering, and the STEM field. These full-day conferences were sponsored by the Skanska Women’s Network and the Thornton Tomasetti Women@TT Group.
South High participants were: Shifa Ali, Sarah Bernstein, Sabrina DePaulis, Tessie Dong, Ziya Jiwani, Eden Katz, Jessica Lin, Sana Merchant, Ballonet Sanguinetti, and Alice Zhang. These young women gained an overview of major construction projects in Manhattan and met with the professionals who make the projects happen.
The Day of Discovery at Skanska included discussions with successful female professionals about their rewarding careers in engineering, followed by a walk through the Moynihan Train Hall project, which is an expansion to New York City’s iconic Pennsylvania Station. They also toured the underground construction area linking Penn Station and the James A. Farley Post Office, located across Eighth Avenue, for a rare inside look at this tremendous transportation project.
The Day of Discovery at Thornton Tomasetti involved interaction with women in the field who are constructing 1 Vanderbilt, which will be one of Manhattan’s tallest skyscrapers. This also included a tour to the highest points on this new addition to the New York City skyline.
“The team and I had an amazing day learning about the significant role of women in engineering and how their work impacts the world,” explained Sabrina DePaulis. Alice Zhang added, “we went home feeling more passionate about engineering, inspired by the speakers’ stories and their overall encouragement towards females in the field.”
