Meet 2023 Dugan & Associates Scholarship Contest Winner Chiara Sloboda, a senior at Butler High School. Following graduation, Chiara plans to attend college and pursue engineering. From all of us at Dugan & Associates, congratulations, Chiara!
To everyone else who submitted essays, thank you for sharing your stories with us! You can read excerpts of Chiara's winning essay below. This year's prompt: Mitch Dugan fights for the check you deserve. What do you fight for or aspire to fight for?
Chiara wrote her essay on fighting for women in engineering and women who want to work in a male dominated field. Upon enrolling in computer-aided-drafting (CAD) classes, she quickly realized how few women pursue engineering. That class had twenty-four students, but only four of them were women. About eighty-three percent of those students were men. When I walked into CAD 2 my sophomore year, there was only one other woman enrolled. She was a virtual student, leaving me as the only woman physically in the class.
Chiara strongly believes that change is necessary to make engineering less intimidating and overwhelming. She wants to make not only engineering jobs, but all jobs more accessible for future generations of women. A woman may be at the top of her class and still be overlooked in favor of less-qualified men. A woman should be able to pursue any job she wants without feeling the need to prove herself worthy.
Chiara became president of the Engineering Club to start encouraging change in her own school. Through this, she was able to recruit four other women and create a fully female team for the Design to Make a Difference competition. Her efforts have already been making a significant impact on young women. Although these steps are small, I know that my work will create a positive impact on the younger women in my school. The CAD classes have already begun to enroll more women than ever before, which is so promising to see.
Once again, congratulations, Chiara! We are glad to have you as our 2023 Dugan & Associates Scholarship Contest Winner.
If you want to learn more about this year's Scholarship Contest, click here.
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