A Century of Advancing Women in Engineering
A Larger Purpose
As a school, we think beyond enrollment numbers — we want all of our enrolled female students to remain in the Cockrell School and graduate with engineering degrees.
“If we want more women in STEM, and engineering specifically, we need more ways for women to enter the pipeline, both in the years before they even consider applying and in the years they spend on campus,” Berry said.
Beginning with their freshman year, women in Texas Engineering join programs that are designed to support them early in their academic careers, such as First-Year Interest Groups, Women in the Second Year of Engineering, spatial visualization workshops, leadership training retreats and Connections Classes where faculty will spend time visiting with students about their research, hobbies, experiences and educational pathways.
“We’ve seen that involvement in our programs has a profound impact on graduation rates,” Berry said.
Over the past five years, graduation rates for women in engineering at the Cockrell School have jumped from 20 percent of undergraduates to 25 percent.
“I sought an environment where I would feel comfortable and proud of being an engineer, and the Cockrell School really provides that,” said Patricia Renyut, a petroleum and geosystems engineering senior. “Just as I’ve benefitted from interacting with female engineering leaders in the industry, I hope that younger girls will benefit from meeting female engineering students like me.”
When you’ve got the caliber of female faculty, staff and peer role models that we have in Texas Engineering, it helps to reassure our women engineers, like Renyut, that they’ve chosen the right field and particularly the right school.
It’s especially inspiring to see how successful our alumnae have been. To name just a few: Karen Nyberg (M.S. Mechanical Engineering ’96; Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering ’98) is a well-known NASA astronaut who became the 50th woman in space. Sara Ortwein (B.S. Civil Engineering ’80) started as a drilling engineer and is now an executive with ExxonMobil Corp. Rachel Kuhr (B.S. Mechanical Engineering ’10) successfully pitched her current position doing product design and innovation to Mark Cuban and now works with his “Shark Tank” companies to help them succeed from an engineering perspective.
“Seeing the successful and empowered women engineers from UT Austin, hearing about the hurdles they’ve overcome and connecting with them makes me feel confident that being a girl in engineering will in no way be a barrier to my achievements,” Renyut said.
The Cockrell School has not only led the way for decades, we’ve been defining it. Our efforts to recruit, retain and ultimately support women in engineering span the entire field and will only continue to grow.