Earth and Atmospheric Sciences - Interview with Ashley Yang

Welcome to VIEW! Voices of Incredible Engineering Women! Today we get to enjoy the natural world around us and explore Earth and Atmospheric Science.  As a special treat I got to sit down with my colleague Ginger, and she helped us understand what EAS is like here at Cornell! In addition we spoke with current student, Ashley Yang, about her experience studying here and how her passion for social justice fits in with climate studies.  As always, we also take a few moments to chat with Scott Campbell, Director of Cornell Admissions to hear more about what a first year course schedule looks like in engineering and what classes can prepare you for an engineering program!

https://visit.engineering.cornell.edu/project/earth-and-atmospheric-sciences/

https://www.eas.cornell.edu/eas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMEsGG7vvk

Transcript

Intro Segment:

Teri

Hi, I'm Teri Carey and welcome to VIEW, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. Are you interested in math and science? Are you curious about the world? Are you an engineer? Well, maybe you don't know yet! The world of engineering is huge and we want girls to be included in the future of it. So grab a cup of coffee, get your curiosity going and listen in as we talk to real women studying engineering at Cornell.

We hope you enjoy our view.

First Segment:

Teri 

Hello everyone, welcome to VIEW I'm Teri Carey and I am so glad you're here with me today to hear about another major in the College of Engineering. Today, we are going to get in tune with the natural world around us and explore the field of earth and atmospheric science. When preparing for an episode, I like to look through history and find women who have made their mark in the field. Interesting stories or things that people may not know about because oftentimes in history, women in STEM especially, were not taken seriously or even noticed at all. And one of those women that I found while researching in EAS was Eunice Newton Foote. She was born in 1819 and was a woman's rights activist, an inventor, a painter, an amateur scientist. And in 1856, she conducted an experiment that predicted one of the largest problems we are facing today. She took glass cylinders, filled them with different gasses and put them in the sunlight to see what would happen. One of those gasses was carbon dioxide. What she found was the container with carbon dioxide heated up much quicker and at a higher rate than others. And when cooling, it also took a longer time as well. She found that CO2 traps heat more than other gases do. She predicted and found that an atmosphere with carbon dioxide in it would heat up our earth in the same way, giving it a higher temperature. She was the first person to discover the greenhouse effect. Now, she wrote all this down in a paper, and at that time, she was not able to present it herself. She had to have a male scientist do that, but because she was overlooked, her findings were lost to history. Many people credited Irish physicist John Tyndall with discovering the greenhouse effect based on his experiments. However, they weren't done until three years after Eunice's in 1859. It wasn't until recently in 2010 that someone found her work and gave her the proper credit for this amazing discovery that was way before her time. Incredible, right? She saw this issue before it became one of the biggest challenges we are facing today. And Earth and Atmospheric Sciences is a field that needs more people like Eunice Newton Foote. So let's learn a little bit more about the field itself. And I have a surprise for you all. Today is special because with me here is one of my amazing and lovely colleagues, Ginger. She was gracious enough to come on the podcast and chat with us. I am so thrilled to have another staff member here from our office. So Ginger, can you say hello and introduce yourself?

Ginger 

Hello there, thanks Teri I am, I'm happy to be here. And I'm really glad to be here talking about my favorite engineering major. Are we allowed to have favorites?

Teri 

I am so happy you're here.

Teri 

Awesome. I think so. I think you're entitled to that, especially because you just know so much about it. 

Ginger 

Thanks, it's my secret favorite. My name is Ginger Jung. I am assistant director of admissions at Cornell Engineering. My job is to share information about our College of Engineering with prospective students, and then to select applicants for admission to build our first year class of engineers. I, Teri, I am by no means an expert on Earth and atmospheric sciences. Um, but as you said, I have tried to gain a bit more literacy around the field and the major, so I can share it with students who might be interested and might be listening today.

Teri 

Yeah, absolutely. We're very lucky to have you. Can you tell me how long you've been working in admissions?

Ginger

Thanks. I've been in this office, the engineering admissions office, for just a little over seven years now.

Teri 

Awesome, we're very lucky to have you. Ginger is such a wonderful person to work with, so I'm so glad that she came and was able to introduce herself to some of our listeners. It's very exciting.

Ginger

Aww. Thanks Teri.

Teri

So yeah, so the reason why I asked Ginger to come on today's podcast, like I said, is because she is a bit of an expert in this, or at least she has done a lot of work with EAS. She has made some amazing graphic art and marketing to promote the field. And she has spoken to a lot of our phenomenal faculty to learn about what they research. She's interviewed our current students about EAS. And so I could not have done this episode without consulting Ginger and getting her help on breaking it all down. So my very first question is the question that I always ask, what is earth and atmospheric sciences and especially here at Cornell, how is it presented?

Ginger 

Well, earth and atmospheric sciences or EAS, as we call it at Cornell, um, to put it in a tiny nutshell is understanding the past and the present to guide us into the future. Earth and atmospheric scientists and engineers literally try to understand how the earth works. They use a deep knowledge of science and engineering to solve very big, very complex problems concerning our planet. They are at the epicenter of studying climate change, natural hazards, moving toward clean energy, and how to engineer solutions to these issues. Scholars in earth and atmospheric science are responsible for the big scientific breakthroughs in understanding climate change and innovating a sustainable path forward for the whole planet. What's super cool is at Cornell and EAS, you will get a complete understanding of the earth from the standpoints of air, life, rock, water. And then as an engineer, you will get this amazing skill set in engineering, in technical problem solving, in modeling, in data analysis. And you can take this knowledge and toolkit and pretty much go anywhere with it. You can scale up. You want to study the moons of a distant planet? You know, do you want to monitor the most active volcanoes in the world or predict the next earthquake? Um, do you want to save starfish from environmental pollution? What's the coolest thing you can do? You can really do meaningful work with this major. There are smaller class sizes than in some of the other majors. And there's a really incredible faculty to student ratio. The professors are just very accessible and down to earth. And you have the ability to sort of take this, um, where you want, where you want to make impact. The other thing about EAS is you can choose a concentration to focus your studies. I believe they're climate change, ocean science, environmental science, or geological science. And then if something else floats your boat, you can design your own concentration. So it's very adaptable to your interests.

Teri 

So it's more than just rocks, right? 

Ginger 

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

Teri

I think that a lot of people look at EAS and think, oh, that's not for me, because it's not doing something I'm interested in, but it's incredible how much that it covers, how much of the world that it covers and the universe even, right? And I also wanted to note that EAS is one of those majors that is cross-listed between colleges. So engineering does have an EAS major component to it, but it's also offered through the Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Arts and Sciences colleges too.

Ginger 

Yes, yes, that's true. We sort of call it one of our super majors. You can study earth and atmospheric sciences, whether you are in the college of engineering, um, the college of agriculture or life sciences, or the college of arts and sciences. 

Teri 

Absolutely.

Ginger

It's sort of confusing. But it reflects it really reflects. I think the multidisciplinary nature of this field. Professors from all three colleges do research and teach courses in EAS. The major itself is the same no matter which college is your home college But the college graduation requirements are different for each school. So the big difference I see in taking EAS through engineering is that you are going to get a serious first-rate engineering education

in concert with deep learning of Earth processes. It's the same study with a rigorous foundation in math, the core sciences and engineering principles, if you take it in the College of Engineering.

Teri 

Right, yeah, absolutely. So you touched on this a little bit already, but what kind of interests would people have entering EAS? You talked about climate change. You talked about exploring moons that are far, far away to other planets. What kind of things are people looking at when they're in this field and interests that they're covering?

Ginger 

Hmm. Well, first and foremost, of course, like any engineer, you have to love math and science. I see this field as a way to imaginatively use math and creatively apply knowledge of science and systems to explore the grand mysteries of our planet and also beyond, like you said, into the depths of our solar system and the universe really. So if you're a tinkerer, if you like building things to solve a problem, there's a lot of building instrumentation, designing experiments, making sensors. Also, if you are into computer science there can be a lot of programming. A lot of computational modeling in earth science modeling in earth science. Also if you like to travel, be outside. There's a lot of opportunity to travel for research and you know not to mention I guess scientific conferences and symposia.

Teri 

Mm-hmm.

Ginger 

I think if you have a passion to know more about our Earth, you know, if you want to fight climate change, if you want to save many, many lives, make life on Earth better for all, you might check out EAS. You know, now is the moment. If you're concerned about the planet, the environment, and you have a scientific interest, this is a very direct way to be involved with a substance of change.

Teri 

Yeah, and it's a problem we all have, right? This isn't a problem that only some people are going to be facing in their lifetime. It's a global issue. It's something that we are all in the same place, all in the same boat. There's no plan B. Yeah, thank you for cracking that open a bit and showing people that it is more than what they might think EAS is. I mentioned earlier that you have done some incredible work promoting EAS. And one of the pictures on our websites you edited and for those who haven't visited the website, it's a huge picture of an iceberg in the water. And then next to it, it says, you have to understand the earth to save it. And when I read that, it just hit me as I'm sure it hits many people who see it that sometimes I think EAS is really misunderstood that it's just about rocks, that it's just old things in the past. But in reality, this is a field that our future depends on. So can you tell me how important this field is and why we hope that more people are entering it.

Ginger 

Sure, I think quite simply it's important because the future of our planet, humanity, all the living things on earth, all of these are important. This is a dynamic place, our planet. Things are constantly changing, both caused by humans and some not. But if we want to protect and sustain our life here, we need to understand these changes and find ways to mitigate the changes as well as adapt to shifting conditions of climate change. So I see it as a sort of all hands on deck kind of problem. We need smart, innovative, passionate people to be trained in these sciences. I see it as an imperative.

Teri 

Yeah, absolutely. I, it is imperative. You've, you've put that so well that it is something that we are all facing. So I joke on this podcast that I'm kind of a broken record when it comes to talking about how interdisciplinary engineering is. Because we see this all the time that the engineering fields are not things that stand alone. You have civil engineers that work with computer scientists. You have biomedical engineers that work with chemical engineers. You have chemical engineers that work with EAS. So can you tell me about how the fields overlap and what other fields EAS works with?

Ginger 

Oh yeah. Yeah. It's exceedingly interdisciplinary. It's no joke. Um, engineering is not done in a vacuum ever really these days. It's a team effort to tackle these, these really big problems. Um, so I guess a great example. Part of Cornell's climate action plan is to be carbon neutral by 2035. So a big part of that plan is to sustainably heat our very large campus. We are in a cold weather zone, and we definitely need heat during the winter months. And it takes a lot of energy to heat our campus. So the scientists and engineers at Cornell are innovating this geothermal heat system that would directly use Earth's internal heat which is nearly infinite in the ground below us, to warm the Ithaca campus during the cold months. So this is a huge project. It's very complex. I believe on board we have mechanical engineers, environmental engineers, energy specialists, geophysicists, and the principal scientist is Professor Jeff Tester and he is a chemical engineer. So incredibly interdisciplinary project.

Teri 

Right, yeah. So again, this is another field where you see that it's not isolated. There are so many other connections to be made within engineering. There are a number of incredible EAS faculty here on campus. And their research is literally changing the world. One that I always love to highlight is Dr. Brittany Schmidt. She actually made the Times 100 Most Influential People list last year. She was on the same list as President Biden, Judy Bloom, Drew Barrymore, Beyonce, Olena Zelenska. Dr. Schmidt is someone I would actually love to interview here one day to get her on the podcast. But can you tell me about research that you've heard being conducted by faculty like Dr. Schmidt here in EAS, like Dr. Tester trying to create this heating system through geothermal energy? These are incredible things that are happening. Can you share any other ones that you have heard?

Ginger 

Sure, and I certainly don't know all of the research that's going on because Cornell is an R1 research intensive institution. This means that all of our faculty at Cornell run their own labs and certainly EAS is no exception. The faculty are all doing important work in their research. So, yes, Professor Schmidt her team develops robots and instruments to do their research, as well as, I think, use spacecraft to study planets. Her most recent work was developing and deploying Icefin, which is an autonomous underwater robot underneath the Thwaites Glacier, which is in Antarctica. This glacier is about the size of the state of Florida and it's melting. So Icefin is used to monitor how and at what rate the, the ice is melting. Um, in this work Schmidt's team is capturing the impacts of climate change on the Earth. This is a great example of how we have to really know a process, how something works before we can predict what's going to happen in the future and plan accordingly. If the Thwaites Glacier totally melted, it would raise sea levels by two feet around the world. So this is important work. This same work also helps us understand great mysteries out in the universe, like what processes are at work on ocean worlds, like Jupiter's moon Europa. So Dr. Schmidt has a long history with NASA and spacecraft involvement and the study of other planets and celestial bodies. Another professor of EAS that comes to mind is Natalie Mahowald. She's an atmospheric scientist. She works with big climate models and long-term climate change. Her work, I believe, is primarily on aerosols. Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere. So they interact with light and clouds in the atmosphere, and they also deposit nutrients or pollutants on different ecosystems. Aerosals can hurt people's health if there are too many. So her work focuses on understanding how aerosols behave with human-made climate change and how these aerosols impact climate. Another professor, Matt Pritchard, he's a geophysicist, and he uses satellites to measure changes to the solid parts of the Earth.

Volcanoes, glaciers, also earthquakes. So he basically spies on volcanoes from outer space with satellites, and he monitors their movement in millimeters from outer space. 

Teri 

That's incredible to say you're a volcanic spy.

Ginger 

So, you know, with this work, I think the hope is to detect eruptions earlier.to forecast what's going to happen next. You know, when will a volcano erupt? When will the eruption end? So I think work like this can save a lot of lives and homes.

Teri 

Yeah, yeah, this work is incredible. The research that they're doing, the things that they're taking on, the problems that they are approaching and trying to solve. Again, EAS is a field where you're impacting lives directly. You are trying to save so many lives and property and the world. If we had water levels that were two feet higher than they are, it would have such a tremendous impact on all of our lives and the world.

Ginger 

Oh yeah, that would, that would mean, um, basically coastal cities being, um, you know, destroyed, uh, yeah.

Teri 

Yeah.

Teri 

And so they're coming and trying to solve this and approaching these problems, and it's incredible. So I only have two more questions for you, and we're gonna wrap up this intro segment, but the first is what kind of jobs do students get after majoring in EAS? What are they going on to do afterwards?

Ginger 

Hmm. Yeah, there's, there's an incredible range of opportunity after graduating in EAS. Um, some of that comes from the versatility of an engineering degree. Um, I think as well as the caliber and sort of well-roundedness of this education, EAS majors, um, they learn a wide range of tools, you know, that, that can easily be adapted to other, um, to study other problems. So, um, you know, a training in EAS makes a student very adaptable to the, to the...Variable job market gives them skills that can be used in a wide range of industries. EAS grads are able to find careers dealing with natural resources, water and minerals, natural hazards and disasters, climate forecasting, ocean resources, and any number of environmental issues. It also prepares students for careers in environmental management and policy, even law or medicine or science journalism or science education. A lot of our graduates go on to research and academia and graduate school. There's a tremendous opportunity in the government sector with the USGS, the US Geological Survey, which is the nation's largest water, earth, and biological science agency. Um, they go into all manner of industry. I was looking up some recent alumni and they are everywhere from being a data scientist at Metta, Facebook and Instagram to, um, to being business executives at, um, green energy startups. 

Teri 

There's a lot of pathways you can take. There's a lot of directions you can go. It's a field that opens a lot of doors, I think. And I'm so glad that you're here to shed some light on that. So my final question, is there anything else that you think people should know about EAS?

Ginger 

Yes, I'll say that, um, Snee Hall, which is the physical home of EAS at Cornell. It's just one of the coolest buildings on the engineering quad, maybe the whole campus, it's sort of tucked away in plain sight. It's this brutalist architectural gem from the 1980s, but, um, it's filled with light and has this, uh, sort of natural history museum vibe. There's this there's this small gem and mineral museum off the atrium and a live seismograph 

Teri 

Yes, I was gonna say, I used to work in Snee Hall and there was actually a small earthquake while I was there. It was very small, most people did not notice it, but it registered on that seismograph. It was so cool to go down to the lobby and see it.

Ginger 

Wow. That is so cool.

Ginger 

Yeah, this, the space sort of just invokes wonder and exploration. I love it. I think if you're ever on campus, you should check it out. Snee Hall.

Teri 

Yeah.Yeah, it's a really neat building and a lot of cool things are happening in that building. That's a nice topic to bring up that it's not just necessarily the field, even the places where you're going to be studying are incredible here. And we're really lucky to have these resources, the people, the community, everything that goes along with it. So thank you. Ginger, thank you so much for coming on this podcast. You have been so helpful in illuminating this field for us, breaking it down, showing how incredible and important this major is to the future of us all. I hope to get most of my colleagues on here at some point, but truly thank you for being the very first to jump on and lend your expertise to us. And I'm really excited because Ginger helped me find a student for this episode. Our next interview will be with current EAS student, Ashley Yang.

Ginger 

Thanks, Teri.

Student Interview:

Teri 

Hi Ashley, how are you doing today?

Ashley 

I'm doing good, how are you today?

Teri 

I'm doing really well, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on our podcast. Can you just introduce yourself?

Ashley 

Of course. I'm Ashley. I'm from Syracuse, New York, and I am a senior in EAS.

Teri 

Wonderful, so you're not too far from Ithaca.

Ashley 

Yes, very close.

Teri 

Yeah, just like an hour drive up in Syracuse. Wonderful. Well, thank you again for joining us. So tell me a little bit about your engineering journey. When did you start learning what engineering was or got interested in it?

Ashley 

Yes, so I feel that from a young age, I've always been encouraged to pursue STEM. And luckily in my middle school, I had a class, a technology class, and I tried to sign up for the afterschool programs because I found it so interesting. So I learned how to like code in a program called Scratch 

Teri 

Yeah.

Ashley

and also build VEX Robotics. And we would attach sensors to, so that... once the robots sense a different color they would stop and then turn. Stuff like that. I just found it really interesting that I could do something like that and want to pursue more of it when I grew up.

Teri 

Yeah. That's really cool. So you were introduced to it in middle school. It was a certain program that you found interesting. So you started with that. Did you build on that and like continue to get interested in engineering and continue to pursue that through like middle school and high school?

Ashley 

Yes, so after that I moved, that was when I was in New York City and then later on I moved to Syracuse. 

Teri

Oh cool.

Ashley

And then Syracuse, in high school I also did robotics throughout all four years. I wasn't as involved in the coding then, but I was very hands-on and built all the robots that my teams used.

Teri 

Very cool. That's awesome. I love to hear when girls get introduced to it in middle school, because then they can really build on that. They can really continue to find that interest and continue to go with that. So tell me about your journey to Cornell specifically. You're in Syracuse, so you probably had heard about Cornell because you're pretty close to where it's located. But tell me about why you applied to Cornell and what it was like to get in.

Ashley 

So, honestly, I did not think I was going to get into Cornell because my school is in a very underfunded area, so I didn't have much access to resources. 

Teri

mm-hmm

Ashley

But luckily, someone from Cornell actually reached out to me and encouraged me to apply. 

Teri 

Oh wow!

Ashley

That was, yeah, I think it was from a program called HEOP, so the Higher Education Opportunity Program in New York. And someone just reached out and said, "I think you have a really good chance of succeeding at Cornell. You should definitely apply." And that just gave me that push.

Teri 

I love that. They gave you, yes, they told you that imposter syndrome creeps in. And we've said that before. And if you have somebody that can encourage you and see you for who you are and your potential, that's so awesome that they were able to show you that, to reflect that back to you, to say, yeah, Cornell can be a place for you. So can you tell me about your application journey? Did you apply ED or regular decision? What was that process like?

Ashley 

I applied regular decision. So I think I applied for biomedical engineering and then once I got in, even then, they knew that because I am first generation and low income that I would probably have trouble adjusting to Cornell. So I did the pre-summer freshman program.

Teri 

Yeah.

Ashley 

at Cornell. So even before my first semester, I really had a summer semester.

Teri 

That's so cool. So tell me about when you actually got the letter saying, yes, you are admitted to Cornell. What was that like?

Ashley 

I was excited but also in disbelief 

Teri 

Yeah.

Ashley

so I didn't really tell my parents until it was like time to finalize my acceptance.

Teri 

Oh my goodness, oh that's crazy. Yeah, well I'm so glad that you did. So did you have other, you don't have to name the colleges, but did you have other options that you were trying to figure out where you wanted to go?

Ashley 

Um, I did, but rather than my academic interest in them, I was more worried about the financial commitment and how far I would be from family.

Teri 

Yeah. Right, exactly. Yeah, it's a lot. It's not just the program. It's so many other things that you have to fit into it. Well, I'm so glad that you did choose Cornell, that you came here.

Ashley 

Thank you.

Teri

I'm glad that person reached out to you because, I mean, you never know, right? You just don't know unless you try and you were able to do that. That's really incredible. So you said you started off as a biomedical engineering major or thinking about it at least, but you came into this world of EAS. Tell me about EAS, what it really is in your mind and how it's shown here at Cornell.

Ashley

So EAS in my mind is really studying the Earth system, so everything around us. Like yes, we have many problems in our society that are because of humans, but I think the biggest problem we've caused is our harm to the planet. I think it's really important to study our past, present and future to see how future generations can improve and survive.

Teri 

Yeah, absolutely. That's important. There's no plan B. I said that in the intro. Like there's no other option. What are we going to do? This is our only home. Yeah.

Ashley

Yeah, I'm really, I think EAS is a super cool major and that it's very customizable, I guess you could say. So there are four concentrations, but there's actually a secret fifth one where it's, it's called like design your own.

Teri 

Oh, very cool. Yes.

Ashley

You just have to speak with your advisor.

Teri 

Yeah, so you can definitely customize it as to what you want to study and where you want to go with it in the future. If you see something that you're like, that's really incredible. Let's see if we can make that fit. That's cool. So which one are you currently studying in?

Ashley 

I'm studying climate sciences. It's really emphasizing the study of the climate and how we're modifying it. I think I just find that really interesting due to the social justice aspects of it as well.

Teri 

Mm-hmm.

Teri 

Oh yes, that's really interesting. Tell me more about that. Tell me how those two are tied together in your field.

Ashley 

So from research, it's been found that many of the pollutants that we expel into the environment disproportionately affects lower income, underserved communities, 

Teri 

Mm-hmm.

Ashley

and just as well, like with the rising sea levels and stuff, the people that are most disadvantaged are going to be affected the most. And that's just going to continue into the future, especially even disregarding first world countries, the developing nations it's just a huge problem

Teri 

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so you're studying that and you're trying to figure out this ginormous global problem within this climate problem.

Ashley 

Exactly.

Teri 

Yeah. So that's a really interesting, I haven't heard much about tying the social justice part into it. That's really incredible. Can you tell me about your classes and what you're studying here at Cornell and how that all ties together?

Ashley 

Yes, so one of my favorite classes that I took is really regarding the instrumentation. And that would be all your weather station stuff, sending weather balloons up to the sky, your satellites, your sonar and radar stuff. And it's just a huge amount of data. So for example, one of the Excel sheets I was given was six and a half million rows.

Teri 

Oh my gosh.

Ashley 

Just a huge amount of data, which is very good. It gives us a more accurate picture of the real world. But just running models, writing code to actually process that information and make it digestible, it's a lot to learn. Yeah.

Teri 

Yeah.

Teri 

Yeah, so you have the computer science. So you said like in middle school and high school, you did participate in this coding robotics part and you brought that into EAS. And I always like to think of how the fields of engineering overlap so much and how computer science is really in everything, how EAS is so much bigger than people really think it is. It's not just rocks. It's not just thinking about the history. You're bringing real other fields into it like computer science and coding and trying to figure out these problems and applying it to a real world global issue. Yeah, so tell me more about that if you can about your classes, the computer science aspect, the lab components, everything that goes into the EAS.

Ashley

I feel that EAS is unique in that you are required to take a field course, which is basically what it sounds like. You go out on the field and experience it for real. So instead of just purely theoretical, you are actually applying those concepts you learn in class. And of course, yes, it's the future. So we're going to have to incorporate it into everything. 

Teri

Yeah.

Ashley

And I think that EAS does a very good job in incorporating that into your early education so that you understand how vital it is to actually process things.

Teri 

Yeah, oh, that's so cool. So you get to actually go out, is it in the Ithaca area? Like you're just out in Ithaca for this field class that you're participating in?

Ashley 

So for my concentration in climate science specifically, it was just in Ithaca, but others can be like all around. The field course does not specifically have to be a course offered by Cornell, as long as it meets the standard requirements.

Teri 

Oh.

Ashley

So it could be summer research or it could be your own independent research, as long as Cornell approves it. It's all right.

Teri 

That's really cool that you have an opportunity to travel and go maybe even back home or somebody somewhere you've never been before to do that. That's really great.

Ashley 

Yes, absolutely.

Teri 

So can you tell me about other things that you're involved in at Cornell, whether it's research or project teams, or maybe it's something that has nothing to do with academics like music or architecture or whatever kind of club you're in?

Ashley 

Yes, so as mentioned earlier, from HEOP, the Higher Education Opportunity Program, because I'm so grateful for it, and because it's a community that I can really relate to, as it's full of other first-gen low-income people of color, that kind of, the students that may not be as easily find a community at Cornell, I'm very involved in it.

Teri 

Yeah.

Ashley

And I've worked for their office, and I'm also an ambassador to really advocate for that program.

Teri 

That's wonderful. I love that. I love that you're able to give back to something that kind of gave you a little bit of a shot. You worked hard, you earned it definitely. But for you to be able to then come back and support this community, that's really awesome.

Ashley 

And similarly, HEOP is located in the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives, and I like to really hang around that area because there's also many other programs offered there, such as things that help you accelerate your graduate school education, like your apps and stuff. I'm involved in Ryan Scholars, which is more of an engineering-specific program that helps you.

Teri 

Very cool. Awesome. What do you want to do with EAS in the future? What are some things that you're looking at for after graduation, whether it's more schooling or you're interested in going into industry and finding a position?

Ashley 

Currently, I am interested in grad school, but I feel that I want to get out of the Cornell bubble like for a bit and really explore how my, I guess the industry perspective, how I can apply my knowledge and find a niche that I really want to focus my efforts in. So I want to tighten the social justice aspect of it, but I am into like academically and intellectually and very interested in the climate change aspect of it.

Teri 

Yeah, we need you. Absolutely. Everything you're saying is so necessary for our future to be able to bring these two things together. And I'm so glad that you saw that as an area of need and you're able to apply your skills and knowledge to it. That's really important. So I'm glad you're doing that. Can you tell me about your experience being a female in engineering? And how you can actually be a role model being a woman in this field.

Ashley 

Yeah, so in high school when I was doing robotics, I was like one of two or three girls total. 

Teri

Mm-hmm.

Ashley

But so I'm really grateful for Cornell and that in my experience, there's usually more women than men in a lot of my classes. I've always felt welcomed as a woman at Cornell, so I'm super grateful for this type of environment. And I, I'm a bit hesitant or anxious to enter like, like you said, the very male dominated field of engineering.

Teri

Yeah, but do you feel like prepared or at least empowered by the fact that you have this foundation to stand on?

Ashley

Yes, I do. I always think of the amazing women that I've met at Cornell and how we're going to be successful and really prove ourselves once we get out of here.

Teri

Yeah, yeah, we're really making these leaders and being able to see a future that you guys are building. And like I said, your ability to find the social justice and bringing it into climate change is incredible. It's just so necessary, like I've said. And so you being able to be a part of this future that EAS is building as a woman in the field is needed. And we really appreciate it. It's really important.

Teri

So who is your support? This field can be rigorous, and it can be something that can be a bit intense, and everybody needs a community or a support person. Who helps you feel like you can get through this?

Ashley 

I would definitely say my grandma. She raised me up to when I was like 11. And I know there's just a lot she did for me and she's always very encouraging. Anyway, I call her every Sunday, and she's always like, oh, take care of yourself first. Don't worry too much about your grades. But I also know that she does want me to try my best, and I don't always do that, but whenever I think about her, I'm like, it's, yeah.

Teri 

I bet you do. I bet you do your best, but we all get like, you know, worn down. There's always those seasons of like, this can be incredibly difficult, but that's why you have people who can help you support you. You have a community and special people like your grandmother who see you and they see what you're doing and the incredible, the incredible work that you're doing. It just it probably makes her so proud to see that her granddaughter as a first gen student, getting into an Ivy League institution at an incredible program like Cornell Engineering, she's just gotta be beaming and just so happy and incredibly proud of her granddaughter. So I think that that's really awesome. And I'm glad that you have that relationship with her, that you can call her and tell her about what's going on and she can see that progression of when you came in to, I'm sure now she's really seen that change in you and how you've kind of grown as a student throughout the program.

Ashley 

Thank you. I feel that I've grown because her hard-working nature inspires me to also stay diligent.

Teri 

Yeah, yeah, that's incredible. That's wonderful. All right, so my last question for you is if you can tell me your view of engineering and why girls should explore EAS as a field in the future.

Ashley

Yes. So for me, engineering is problem solving. So if you think there's anything wrong in this world or needs to be improved, engineering is you learning how to take it into your own hands so that you don't have to wait around for other people to make that change for you. And I feel that specifically for EAS, it's really about understanding the planet, addressing environmental challenges and contributing to policy and decision making. And it's also just so much innovation and technology that we need to develop in order to inspire future generations and have that passion for community and collaboration.

Teri 

Absolutely. Oh, that was great. What a great little wrap up of that. That was a really great way to put it. I'm glad that that's how you see engineering, not waiting around for other people. Just do it. Like, you know, we've got the tools, we've got the knowledge and the skills. And yeah, how important EAS to the world. It's truly a global issue. So wonderful. Thank you so much, Ashley, for bringing your voice to us, sharing your experience. This was a really great interview. I appreciate your time.

Ashley 

Thank you for having me so much. I enjoyed this conversation as well.

Teri 

Wonderful, thank you.

Admissions Segment:

Teri 

Hi Scott, welcome back.

Scott 

Hey Teri, it's good to see you again.

Teri 

Nice to see you as well. It's the big day, January 1st, which means tomorrow. We are going to have our regular decision applicant pool ready and waiting for us. We're so excited to start reading.

Scott 

We've got a lot of reading to do and a short amount of time to do it.

Teri 

That's right, it's our busy season, but it's exciting for us. We get to really see our students who are gonna come through, and I'm really looking forward to reading all of the wonderful things that they've prepared and done for us.

Scott 

Yeah, I am too.

Teri

Yeah, so with that, I wanted to pivot a little bit and actually talk about academics, because the students have put in all of the effort into their application. Let's talk about what they're actually gonna do when they're here. So the question I have for you is, what does a first year class schedule look like for an engineering student?

Scott 

Yeah, first year class schedule is pretty standard, no matter where you do engineering, honestly. Most, if not all, undergraduate engineering programs in the United States are accredited programs by an organization called ABET, and they, to a large degree, determine what the early curriculum is for any engineering program. And usually what it entails is calculus classes, some physics classes. Chemistry is very typical and normal. Increasingly, we're seeing biology classes come into play and computer sciences obviously become much more important in the last decade or so. At Cornell, our students will take, depending on where they left off in calculus in high school, they'll take a specific set of calculus classes. Depending on what major they're migrating towards, they'll take... Um, either two or three courses in physics and all of our engineering majors will take at least one chemistry class for chemical and biomolecular engineers they clearly take, um, more, uh, more chemistry in a deeper set of, of chemistry classes. We also ask our engineers to take a technical writing class. Um, there's a certain style and, um, discipline for writing in the engineering world and will help our students start to understand what that is as early as their first semester. And then finally, we will do two courses. One is what's called an engineering 1050, which is a way to advise students. They'll come together, 15 first year students, a faculty member, and two upper class peer advisors and whatever that group wants to explore in any given week the faculty and the peer advisors will facilitate that. So it's a way to sort of do guided exploration and a team of first year students through that first semester. And then the other one is an intro to engineering course, which we offer intro to engineering courses for all of our engineering majors. So students can get a sense of what civil engineering is like for instance, by spending a semester, really understanding what civil engineering is at Cornell and what it is in a broader professional plane. So that's a..that's our curriculum and that's also sort of just a glimpse of what a pretty standard opening engineering curriculum would be almost anywhere really.

Teri 

Thank you. That's really great to hear. So yeah, there's definitely a mix of the chemistry, the physics, the calculus. But we're also trying to help you introduce you to what you're interested in engineering, whether you're questioning what your major should be or just exploring your interests to figure out what your next pathway should be.

Scott 

Yeah, all of these things are really important. We want to sort of build the technical skills that the students will have going towards the majors. That's the Calc Physics, Chemistry piece. But we also want to make sure that they have ample opportunity to really understand the terrain that's here. That's the Engineering 1050 piece. And then we also want them to get the opportunity to do something hands-on and exciting for any one of our engineering disciplines, which is the Intro to Engineering courses, which is designed to really give them that opportunity to have hands-on opportunities and not just do theoretical work during their first year.

Teri

Right, absolutely. All right, so we are onto the advice portion. What do you have for us today?

Scott 

Well, since we were talking a little bit about the early curriculum in engineering, we should talk maybe a little bit about the linkage points academically for students when they're thinking about engineering in high school. And actually, a lot of people start thinking about, well, what do I take in 11th and 12th grade? I would actually back that up and talk to people about, well, what do you take in 8th and 9th grade to get ready for engineering, mostly because of the math pathway to get onto the engineering superhighway is super important. So algebra is actually critical to success in calculus and algebra usually starts for most students around eighth or ninth grade. And so taking algebra early and taking as much as you can and really going as deeply as you can into algebra is a really good way to start the progress towards doing engineering in college. So in college, you heard me say that calculus is an important part. So anything that leads, any math classes that lead up to and into calculus is really, really important. So the more deeply a student can go in calculus in high school, the better position they are to succeed in engineering. The beauty of calculus today is that you can take it not just to your high school, but you can amplify what you're doing in calculus through online courses. And there's all types of different online courses available to students to really push the boundaries of calculus if they wanna do that. Physics is probably next in line and we want students to be able to take physics typically, although not exclusively, but typically, if they're taking it in 11th or 12th grade in high school, that's a good timing for physics to set you up for engineering. Calculus-based physics is optimal, but honestly, any good physics course is a good sort of platform to get ready for engineering. And in chemistry is the final piece of the puzzle in terms of just baseline curricular preparation. We think that's really important for any of our disciplines. And so good chemistry courses, always important. Taking one step outside of that, all your courses are important. Every single class that a student takes to get ready for engineering is is important. So the entire high school schedule is important. One of the things we hear frequently from our alumni and from our faculty is that anything students can do to build up their writing skills and their communication skills are really super important. And the reason for that is that engineers are not just builders and inventors and technical wizs. They have to communicate their ideas to other people so that other people can actually understand what they're thinking about. And so really focusing in on communication courses that could be anything from English literature all the way to intensive writing to public speaking classes, whatever that might be. These are also super important. So lots of things, everything's important. Math and science are clearly at the top, but there's other things that you can build in that will help you prepare for engineering as well.

Teri 

I want to go back a little bit and talking about the track for math too, that it's so important to think about the building blocks of that, that it does really start in eighth or ninth grade. And being able to get into that algebra class maybe a little bit early or being able to just go deep into algebra so that you can expand into calculus so that when you hit calculus you're able to go deeper and further in it. And that's really going to set you up well for an engineering program.

Scott

Yeah, and I think one of the ways to think about this is that mathematics is one of the first starting points that, you know, students will get to that will help them understand what engineering is. It's also later on, it's one of the pieces of the puzzle that will either rule students into engineering or it will rule them out of engineering because it's such a necessity. You have to have it a really good level of mathematics to be able to be a successful engineer. So the sooner you start, the more deeply you go, the better position you are to join that world of engineering that's out there that's super important and needs a lot of talented people engaged with it.

Teri 

Wonderful. Thank you so much, Scott. I really appreciate the insight, especially into the academic portion of this. I think that's going to be really helpful for people. And we're going to get ready tomorrow's the day to start reading. So here we go. I want to sincerely thank Ginger from Cornell Engineering Admissions for coming on as a special guest and teaching us all about EAS. Thank you to our amazing student, Ashley Yang. Thank you, Scott, for always giving us some great advice and helping us to answer all of our questions. And finally, thank all of you for listening. I hope you learned something today, and maybe it was that you're an engineer.

Closing Segment:

View, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women Is a podcast produced and written by the Cornell Engineering Admissions Office. Please remember to like, follow, subscribe and share our podcast and help us bring engineering to the ears of young women everywhere. To find out more information about Cornell engineering please visit our website visit.engineering.cornell.edu.