NDSU Students Mentor Eighth Grade Teens on Engineering

NDSU Hosts Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day for Eighth Graders in the F-M Area

FARGO, N.D. — Eighth grade girls in the F–M area learned that they are capable of pursuing an engineer career.

“‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering’ is for eighth grade girls of Fargo–Moorhead Schools to come to us and we do activities with them to expose them to engineering and show them what it’s about,” said Jordyn Johnson, a mechanical engineering student at NDSU. “Show them that they’re capable of doing it and that it’s something for them to consider in the future.”

Johnson said girls can bring different skill sets to the job.

“I think just exposing girls to engineering and just telling them what it is and showing them that it’s not as hard as it usually comes out to be,” she said. “They’re capable of doing it and so getting them excited about it and just showing them the activities and the projects they can work on will hopefully inspire them.”

“I think it would be kind of cool to see stuff that I designed being used in everyone’s everyday life,” said Annika Hanson, a student at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Middle School.

Although some 8th graders don’t know what they want to do in their future, they say their gender won’t hold them back.

“I think that I could be an engineer if I wanted to be an engineer because there’s nothing stopping me and I’m fully capable of being an engineer if that’s what I want to be,” added Hanson.

“I’m going to do whatever I want to do and nothing is going to hold me back just because I’m a girl,” said Addi Dauner, a student at Holly High School.