"I’m Pragna Subrahmanya, a third-year ECE student at the University of Texas at Austin. Being in a challenging and rigorous program like the Electrical and Computer Engineering program at UT Austin, I have come to appreciate the strong and supportive community that has been built all over the years on our campus. There are many resources that female engineers can avail and many people that we can turn to when we need help. But when I interned at a start-up tech company over the summer, I realized that a professional workplace can be very different from a college campus. I was the only female college intern that summer and I realized I didn’t necessarily have that same community to fall back on. Over the course of my internship, I learnt a lot more than just the technical aspects of my field. I learnt that I couldn’t afford to be nervous about asking questions. I had to speak up when I had to because nobody was going to do it for me. I had to accept the fact that there would be people who knew more than I did, and all I was there to do was learn and observe. I learnt that while there is power in knowledge, there is immense power in accepting that you don’t know something and that you’re willing to learn.
It’s tricky being a female engineer because we’re a minority in our field. And most of us feel the pressure to overperform and fight against the stereotypes that go against us. During my internship experience, I realized that while I had a responsibility to perform well, I also had a responsibility to myself to learn from the mistakes I made and develop my skills and experience. We can’t distract ourselves by worrying about what other people might think. The major obstacle I’ve constantly faced is not others’ assumptions of me but my own self-doubt and lack of confidence.
I’m looking forward to Resonate 2020 because the convention strives towards enabling female engineers to be confident in the workforce. The world is pushing the bounds of innovation and creation, and it’s a great time to be a scientist and engineer. More than proving to the world, let’s prove to ourselves that we have a right to be in the middle of it all."
-Pragna Subrahmanya, 3rd Year, ECE Major
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