Left to Right: Marie Victor, Alana Newbrook, Christine Ha
As a scholarship donor, WSP positively contributes to the lives of engineering students, enabling them to take advantage of opportunities at UNSW and further develop as individuals, supporting their education and enhancing their future careers. We are proud to be part of this legacy in helping train the next generation of engineers.
Christine recently came by our Sydney office to meet with both Alana and Marie Victor, Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant, who took a moment to ask some questions and provide us with insight into her perspective of engineering.
Left to Right: Alana Newbrook, Christine Ha, Mark Hoffman - Dean, UNSW Engineering
What do you find exciting about engineering?
“I am most excited about the range of opportunities and work that a career in engineering opens up across different industries and sectors,” says Christine. “The constant change in the type of projects I could be involved in is both motivating and interesting. Within this challenging work environment comes greater potential for growth, learning and development, leading to personal reward and satisfaction as well.”
Why do you feel it’s important for more women to pursue engineering?
“Decades of research by scientists, psychologists and economists clearly indicate that a diverse workplace makes people more innovative, creative, hardworking and diligent,” says Christine. “Diversity makes us smarter, and it comes in many forms, gender being only one of them.
“Currently there is a clear imbalance in the number of females pursuing a career in engineering compared to males, both at university and in the workplace. Sitting in an engineering mechanics lecture at university, I noticed that I was surrounded by males and the only females in sight were a few rows down from me.
“The problems that engineers of the future will be solving are only going to increase in complexity, and we need more women to pursue engineering to provide fresh perspectives to solve those problems,” she says. “I decided to pursue engineering because it has the ability to make a meaningful impact on the cities that people live in, physically, socially and economically.
“Engineering is meaningful design. Everything we see, an engineer has touched at one point. I want to be able to influence people in that subtle way. I want to drive across an intersection, walk by a drain, ride the new metro knowing that I contributed to that project and made an impact on people’s lives in one way or another.”
Alana says, “It’s a privilege for WSP to be able to support Christine through our scholarship and play an important role in her journey. With passionately driven students like her pursuing careers in engineering, our future is looking bright.”
For more information, please contact Daniel Yip.
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