Engineering alums (from left) Cloelle Danforth, Sarah Davis and Meghan Flanagan, all members of Smith’s first cohort of engineering grads in 2004, have fun with some classroom supplies in Ford Hall.
Published May 23, 2024
校友们聚集在福特大厅三楼的教室里，一起坐在长方形的工作桌旁, 在第一次同学会周末交换意见，热切地完成彼此的句子. Twenty years on and teamwork is still their hallmark.
2004届八位毕业生于5月16日至19日在校园里庆祝他们在大学历史上的独特角色. 20年前，他们是澳门葡京博彩软件的第一批毕业生 Picker Engineering Program.
2004年，19名澳门葡京博彩软件的学生获得了工程学学位，这是第一批从美国大学毕业的学生.S. women’s college. 今年有40个，项目校友人数已超过550人.
2004届校友在校园庆祝他们的20周年聚会，他们是学院的第一批工程毕业生(左起):尼基·雷德福, Sarah Davis, Caitlyn Butler, Meghan Sheehy, Meghan Flanagan, Becky Silverstein, and Cloelle Danforth.
“Being the first still pops up, but now, it’s more in the background,” says Sarah Davis ’04, 谁是康涅狄格州西科斯基飞机公司系统工程的经理和生产技术主管. “在澳门葡京博彩软件，人们说‘工程’已经不是什么大不了的事了.”
“There are so many grads now!“ agrees Nikki Radford ’04, 他是联邦环境保护署东南部第四区的环境科学家. “Smith is laying a really great foundation for women in the sciences. I’m so grateful that this opportunity was here.”
Davis, Radford, 和另外两位同学最近在“设计诊所下载”节目中分享了他们作为澳门葡京博彩软件第一的经历,” a podcast produced by Susannah Howe, founding director of the college’s engineering Design Clinic.
Read some excerpts from the podcast.
Available on Smith ScholarWorks, 这个播客的特色是校友们分享在这两个学期的顶点课程中学到的经验, 学生在哪里为工业和政府客户进行工程设计项目的团队合作.
Howe, a senior lecturer in engineering, launched the podcast in honor of the Design Clinic’s 20th anniversary last year. “我觉得播客会很有趣，因为我可以采访不同年份的校友，”她说. “It’s really about capturing those voices.”
Howe has also used the podcast in her classroom, focusing on themes of collaboration, professional preparation, and personal growth that her alum interviewees address. 她目前正在为《澳门葡京博彩软件》撰写一篇研究论文 International Journal of Engineering Education.
At the reception during First Reunion, 2004届毕业生回忆起“绿色怪物”——在福特大厅建成之前的几年里，他们在那里上工程课的临时建筑——以及作为该项目第一批毕业生的起起落落(主要是起起落落).
Below are excerpts from their podcast episode. Interviewees were Davis, Radford, Caitlyn Butler, 马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校土木与环境工程副教授, and Meghan Sheehy, senior program manager for GE Vernova energy equipment manufacturer.
About their expectations coming into Design Clinic
Caitlyn Butler: “I learned not to have expectations. I don’t mean that in a bad way. But I mean we went through so many iterations. I think our curriculum changed three or four times…. So there was a letting go of expectations, 同时也对我们的教职员工有着不可思议的信任，相信你们会把我们带到我们需要去的地方.”
Meghan Sheehy: “I was excited. It was like, here we go. This is real work. We’re going to be doing very important things…. And the reality was, it was really hard…. It was way more challenging, 但我认为这确实有助于我们理解在现实世界中真正成为一名工程师是什么样子.”
Nikki Radford: “I just remember thinking, “哦，我要和一群女性一起在一个项目上工作八个月，我们会非常接近，我们可能会有一些分歧, but I think this is real-world team building…. So it will prepare me for whatever comes next after Smith.”
About skills they learned
Sarah Davis: “Adaptability. 你制定了一个计划，然后计划会被打破，你必须重新开始. 这就是一个不断尝试重新关注最终目标的过程——我每天都在使用这个方法.”
Nikki Radford: “I would say I definitely gained project coordination skills, but I think also a lot of technical writing skills…. 我可以把我的写作技巧和许多其他工程项目相比，你们做得很好.”
Caitlyn Butler: “这是一个将所有不同的团队成员聚集在一起的机会，在这里我们拥有一个真正的项目，我们拥有一些所有权, which was really fantastic.”
About being part of the first cohort of Smith engineering graduates
Meghan Sheehy: “When we started, we had one professor and one class…. 我认为这让我们成为了一个非常紧密的团队，因为我们觉得我们需要相互依靠.”
Nikki Radford: “刚来的时候，我完全没有决定要选什么专业，然后我看到有一门工程入门课程，我就想, why not? 在我的生活中，我的适应能力很强，在工作中我的适应能力也很强. 我现在可以很容易地即兴发挥，我认为这是我大学生涯的一部分. 我认为这个项目塑造了我的一部分，不仅是在事业上，而且是在做人方面.”
Caitlyn Butler: “我非常感谢教师们对听取我们的反馈、听取我们的经验并适应这些反馈的开放态度. So that’s something that has stuck with me throughout my career; that openness to getting student feedback in real time as part of the learning process.”
关于在校学生如何充分利用他们在澳门葡京博彩软件的经历
Caitlyn Butler: “我认为澳门葡京博彩软件的学生有一个特别独特的机会在文科环境中完成他们的工程项目. 我认为工程学和人文社会科学之间有很多协同作用, 在文科领域有一种不可思议的能力来获取这些东西. 所以我给那些在澳门葡京博彩软件大学攻读工程学的学生的建议就是好好利用这一点.”
Sarah Davis: “Be adaptable; understand what the goal is and then be present in the moment. 分享经验，从不同的经验中学习, because you will continue to draw on them forever.”
Nikki Radford: “Go see a play, take a class you normally wouldn’t take. I took a bunch of dance classes just because I was like, well I’m using my brain too much and I need to do something physical…. 对于Design Clinic来说，要珍惜你在团队中建立的关系. 试着和你所有的同学保持联系，或者至少和你的队友保持联系，因为是这些人造就了这个地方.”
Meghan Sheehy: “It’s not meant to be smooth, it’s not meant to be easy. 所有这些困难都是学习离开澳门葡京博彩软件进入现实世界的目的……. And if I could tell myself back then I’d say, ‘This is normal; this is how it’s supposed to be and you’re going to do fine.”