By Kayla Oyler, Marketing Intern

Cait Cramer, Assistant Program Chair of Mechanical Engineering Technology, always knew she belonged in the engineering industry. As the daughter of an engineer and a science teacher, she grew up with a passion for math and science. While in graduate school, Cait found herself drawn to teaching instead of research, so she made the natural shift to teaching technical education.

It wasn’t easy. She was sometimes intimidated as a woman in the male-dominated engineering field, but Cait was determined to succeed.

“Technology—and engineering especially—is such a difficult field, it can be easy to get discouraged,” says Cait. “When you look around a workplace or a classroom and don’t see anyone else that looks like you, it’s even easier to decide that maybe you don’t belong and should do something else. We need more diversity in positions of leadership—like education—to convince students that ‘yes, it’s hard, but keep up the effort and you can do it.’”

In the future, Cait plans to continue in the education field, where she can enlighten students and be a role model for women in the technological and engineering fields. Her goal is to help students make real-world connections to the content being taught in the classroom.