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Math and science have been the things
that interest me since a young age. I

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always liked math, I always liked
sciences. I just have these early

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memories of being interested in science
and eventually engineering, once I

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realized that engineering was just
problem-solving with the tools you

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learned in science. I think I got
interested in STEM as a child because I

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was just curious about everything that I
saw. I wanted to know how computers

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worked, I wanted to know how the machines
worked, I wanted to know how cars worked.

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For me, it's kind of simple. I really
liked to build things and I really liked

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going fast. And to do those things, I
needed to understand science and

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technology. Because to build the things
and to go as fast as I wanted to go, I

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needed to understand physics. My
grandfather was a sixth-grade science

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teacher. And even we were on vacation
visiting my grandparents, I would ask to

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go to school with him and sit in his
class all day just to see the different

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things that we got to do. And so that is
really what gave me the love for science

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and math as I was a young kid. My
mom took me to every science museum you

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could imagine. She was so involved. Part
of that, I guess, as a child was my dad

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was a geologist. And so, I kind of just
grew up hiking the mountains, looking at

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rocks and talking about science. I first
got interested in science

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really as a kid just playing in the
backyard. I was always interested in math

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and science, and my mom really encouraged
that. My dad's an engineer and that was

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inspiring to me. And then as I got older,
I started taking some courses, these

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after-school programs for both math and
science at, you know, at the local

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college. I showed interest in math and
science when I was young and I was able

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to continue that interest in STEM
through school and internships

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throughout my life. And then in high
school I think it was cemented because I

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had some really awesome role models and
mentors

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when I was kind of developing what I
wanted to do. That made me want to

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continue on that track in college. I
think my initial interest in STEM was

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sparked in high school when I got
interested in amateur rocketry and

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started building my own large, amateur
rockets in my parent's garage, and

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dealing with all of the math, engineering,
and problem-solving associated with that.

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When I was in high school I got really
interested in airplanes and flying –

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basically everything that had to do with
airplanes. As an undergrad, I decided to

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study aerospace engineering and that led
me to a career as an engineer and also

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just working in scientific research.
That piqued a curiosity in me, that

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piqued a desire to explore the world
around me that led me into the STEM

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field. When I finished high school and I
was trying to consider what to study, it

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was a very logical thing for me to
decide on mechanical engineering because

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that was a field in which I could study
the machines around me that made our