EECO Asks Why Podcast

197. Women of Industry - Women in STEM

March 14, 2022 Electrical Equipment Company
EECO Asks Why Podcast
197. Women of Industry - Women in STEM
Show Notes Transcript

The world of STEM makes a huge impact on industry and there are many women out there leading the way!  In this action packed panel discussion Allie Donnelly and Mary Burgoon unpack the roads that led them to STEM and how it impacted them forever.

The great part of this panel discussion is the different perspectives that come to life from work experiences, to backgrounds and even countries!  You heard that right - prepare to get a behind the scenes look at how STEM is supported in neighboring Canada and listen to these heroes explore ideas such as:

✅ Biggest opportunities to showcase the world of STEM to the next generation!
✅ Best moves forward that has helped STEM in recent years!
✅  Specific approaches to being proactive to spread awareness!
✅ Programs, projects, advocates and much more!

Whether you took a path down the STEM journey or not this conversation will bring value.  It can help prepare you directly for a STEM career or give you ideas on how to support the next generation (maybe under your own roof) if the pursuit of their next steps.

Grab a pen, paper and get ready for powerful ideas on how women in STEM have made and will continue to make a huge impact on the future of industry for years to come! 

Guests:
Allie Donnelly - Apprentice Electrician @ Silva Electric
Mary Burgoon - Global Portfolio Manger @ Rockwell Automation

Guest Mentions:
Stem Forward – Rockwell STEM Programs
Lego Leagues
First Robotics Competition 

Host - Chris Grainger
Executive Producer - Adam Sheets
Podcast Editor - Andi Thrower

Industry War Story Submission: Send us a DM!
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00:00 Chris: 

Welcome to EECO Asks Why. Today. We're going to be walking through another women in industry series, and we're going to be talking about women in STEM and I am so excited for this conversation and to join me what brought back two of the EECO Asks Why heroes. We brought that Mary Burgoon from Rockwell Automation. Allie Donnelly from DCA controls. I'm excited. So welcome, Mary. Welcome Allie, how are you all doing? 

00:28 Mary: 

Great. 

00:30 Allie:

I am thankful to be here. I'm sorry. I think I jumped on you there. 

00:34 Chris:

It's all great. It's all great. I'm so excited myself. I've been looking forward to this panel. They're all been fun. I know you two have so much energy, so passionate about what you do and Mary, maybe you can get a start at when you saw this topic, Women in STEM. What got you excited about it? 

00:50 Mary: 

So thanks Chris. And thanks again for the invite to be here. This is one of my passions is to really identify and promote the opportunity for not just women, but maybe people of color as well. That may not think that a STEM career is for them. It is an exciting place to be. It enables you to use all those skills that you have, you're detail oriented, your problem solving skills and to be able to make an impact on the world. So make an impact in sustainability, make an impact in safety, make an impact in security, right? In different ways that maybe people hadn't thought about, but you know, all the modern conveniences that we have in society is because of STEM. And so I was excited to be able to talk a bit about it, how I got here, learn from Allie and to be able to continue that message and that excitement and that passion around particularly women in STEM. 

01:45 Chris: 

Love it. I love it. How about you, Allie?

01:47 Allie: 

What gets me excited about women in STEM is learning about the world around you. Like being able to go out, work on the tools, build something with your hands and being able to show other women that passing along what you learned down from other women to more women, like, I think there's just a massive road being paved right now for women in STEM. Thankfully like people like Mary people, like you, Chris, males who are even helping out with. Alicia. Like there's a lot of women who are really helping people my age get out there. And I'm so thankful for it because if I didn't have LinkedIn and I didn't have you guys, I don't think I know as much as I do about STEM.

02:25 Chris: 

No doubt. And look, you are doing a phenomenal job. 

02:28 Allie: 

Just trying to keep up.

02:31 Chris: 

Well, you know, you set a higher bar there. I mean, cause you're crushing it. You're crushing it and you're fun to watch. You're so passionate about it. I knew that we were going to have some fun with you and Mary, when we got on here talking about this. And you know, as you think through this Allie, maybe I'll come to you on for this particular question. You're in it right now. What's the biggest opportunity to showcase to the world, the wonderful things that come along with STEM? 

02:56 Allie: 

That you could run a whole factory. That it doesn't matter if you're, I said this in my last podcast and you could be purple or green or male or female, you can do it.

And there's people here who are willing to teach you. There's journeyman, who were taught by journeyman, who were taught by journeymen, who were taught by their moms or their dads. Like I know that it can be discouraging and sometimes it can be frustrating if you can't figure it out. But if there's a will there’s a way. 

And it's nice to be able to step back and be like, okay, I just built this entire panel for this factory. It's going to run this entire factory. I think that a lot of people, my age are just losing touch with the fact that you can work with your hands and it's okay to work hard. And I don't think that they really understand that.

I noticed a lot of people out in the country where I live. They don't have as many opportunities as the people in the city are given. Whereas the people in the city, they have a lot of opportunities. Like they have buses, they have trades campuses. They have all of these things here whereas the country there's Mennonites and they have to build their own Barnes.

They have to do their own farming. They have to do everything with their hands. And it was really seeing a group of twenty-five men go on to a field and build a barn. And I thought that was so cool. I thought it was amazing. And my mom being in trade, she just put in a woodstove two weeks ago. She also did that probably about 10 years ago at our old house. I think other women in trades sharing their stories, being able to put their voice out there and being like, look it's fun. Come join me. My hands right here. 

04:31 Chris: 

I love it. I love it. How about you, Mary? What do you think?

04:34 Mary: 

So one of the things that really excites me in addition to what Allie said, you know, it is, science, technology, engineering, math, it's a meritocracy, right? Anybody can do it. It doesn't matter if you're a male or female, what color you are. If you have the desire to do it, you can do it. But one of the things that really excites me is the opportunity. This world is evolving so fast and the future and the technology that's being adapted. There isn't any industry sector, whether it's banking or finance or insurance or education, let alone technology that isn't touched by technology, right? Even at home, everything is becoming more, more challenging or not more challenging becoming smarter. So we have to have a fluency in technology without having to learn it. We can pick it up. We can figure it out. That's really what STEM is. Picking something up and figuring it out, how to make it better.

And at the same time you make it better. How do you make the world better? How do you make your community better? How do you help make people better? That's what excites me about it. And the fact that. When I first started, when I was, where Allie was at. There weren't other women that, that I could see that did what I did. So it's really important to me to be there to model, Hey, okay. I'm not, you know, I'm not in the same age group as Allie, but you could see the progression that there are people that look like me that have been there so they can model themselves. They can see that's why women don't go into STEM. There's nobody that looks like that. Why would I want to do this? There's nobody at the table. There's nobody at my workstation. There's nobody there that looks like me. So it's really important to be there and share the message and talk about how fun it is. 

06:13 Chris: 

Well, you both said the key word there, fun and sharing the message and given that opportunity, it sounds like, you know, that's just a big key to making this all grow forward. You know, you talked about Mary, how things have really changed a lot. And you've seen that progression. What are some of the biggest changes that you've seen? Because I know there are a lot of good programs out there to have a lot of good ways that we're trying to engage the next generation. Curious where do you see as some of the ones that are really moving the needle?

06:40 Mary: 

So I work at Rockwell Automation and I'm also on the board of an organization called STEM Forward, which we really work with schools. And by the time they get to high school, it's almost too late by the time you're in high school. So you really have to get students. When they're little, when they're in grade school, one of the things that Rockwell does that is fantastic, but it really builds that excitement is I think a little bit to what Allie was talking about is first starting with the Lego Leagues, you know, making it fun, making it a game, making it a competition with but also making a real world application. So not just teaching biology or chemistry showing how you would use it showing how it, how you can take chemistry and build a battery. And that battery enables electric vehicles and that electric vehicle helps improve the climate sort of making those real world connections that you have to start really early. Kids grasp so early. They pick up tablets as toddlers. So they already have that sort of, that mindset of digital fluency before they even start learning before they get to formal learning. So they're curious and young and how do we instill that ongoing curiosity and excitement to learn new things around science technology, you know, STEM.

07:56 Chris: Now that STEM Forward that you were mentioning Mary, what is, where is that? 

08:01 Mary: 

That is an organization that's based here in Milwaukee. Our motto is to inspire a future ready workforce. We serve as a connector between schools and corporations and employers. Like how do we help work with schools to build a workforce that the employers need? And so then we work with schools identifying programs you know, so how do we help augment that? And then we also, you know, help advise governments on like the state of Wisconsin on, you know, what is needed, like robotics, a grant for robotics or something to that effect. 

08:36 Chris: 

Very cool. And for the listeners out there, we'll make sure there's links to STEM forward so they can check that out. Learn more about as well as the Lego leagues. There are definitely a lot of fun. I love the Lego leagues and just that curiosity part, as you mentioned, but Allie, what's your take on this? What's been the biggest moves forward that you've seen because you've kind of walked the path, you know, here recently to get to where you're at. 

08:57 Allie: 

Yeah. And it's, it touches a lot on what Mary said. I definitely think that there's been a huge opening for women in this trade, but I do also think that we still have a long way to go because I'm the only one that walks into the classroom. And I'm the only girl in that classroom out of 35 other guys, or I walk into a factory like I'm working at today and I'm the only female there. And sometimes it's difficult. When I have people like Mary or people like Alicia or other girls that I can reach out to you that I know are there to support me and be there for me. It makes it so much easier because she's been there too. She knows exactly how I feel. She knows the feeling of anxiety and, oh my gosh, can I do this? Yes, I can. Yes, I can do this. But I think the biggest thing is there needs to be more trade shows and it needs to be something that's compulsory for grade schools and high schools.

I don't think it should be optional because kids are gonna wake up in the morning and be like, well, I don't want to go to that. And you know what, it's my mom, didn't get me out of bed and take me to a trade show. And had me change tires, had me solder, had me weld. I probably would've never gotten into trades. And I'm really thankful that there are little things like that or podcasts like this, like where we're able to speak about how it is in the industry, what needs to be better.

Like, I think it's pretty cool that everything is kind of turning into, I'd say maybe AI. Things or being dependent on phones. A lot of things are being dependent on robots and my generation, thankfully, and a lot of your kids are growing up alongside this. So I think that there's still a long way to go, but it's also been a lot of fun.

10:38 Chris: 

Now, you both mentioned the importance of the grade school, you know, cause when I was thinking about it, about this topic a while back and that's really, my mind went to high school. I don't know why I did that. I just naturally went to, you know, sophomore, juniors, and seniors and trying to get them to figure out maybe cause I was trying to associate it with trade schools, but curious, you know, the grade school concept and that effort, what can we be doing to double down on that? Because that sounds like that's really important to both of you. 

11:11 Allie: 

Yeah. That's kind of touches on what I said. I guess a little bit before, like the school that I went to in the country, I graduated with 110 kids. The students here, they graduate with maybe 2000. They don't know the kids are graduating with, so I was someone in school who thought that I was going to take law. I had no interest in trades because we didn't have anybody coming to speak to us. We had a welding shop and this and that, but I was like, oh, that's a guys, why would I want to do that? And if I just had someone who was like, girls can do this too, and you can actually do an even better job sometimes. So come on over here. Like, I just wish that there was more women who want women in trades in high schools. A lot of the high school teachers are men, which makes it sometimes hard for girls to approach. I find because not to knock anybody, but the older age group, I find still has some of the mindset that women don't deserve to be in this trade.

And I think that everybody deserves a spot here, especially women. And like you said, if you get it out there in public school, you have a woman who's like hey I'm an engineer. I work in the oil rigs. This is kind of what I do. This is what you could do one day. Like, I think it's just so fascinating. It's just, we need people out there to speak and to speak to students that aren't necessarily men.

12:29 Chris: 

What's your take on the importance of that grade school? 

12:33 Mary: 

I agree with Allie, with everything she says. And I also think that by the time they get to high school, they haven't had the foundation. If they're just thinking about in high school, you haven't laid that foundation, you know, they don't see, they don't see the possibility. There are courses that you need to take. Clubs that you can join or activities, whether it's Lego league, first robotics, you know, the science club, coding camps. All those things are things that by the time you get to high school, it's too late. I don't wanna say it's too late. It's harder. It's much harder. But if you start building that excitement, then it just makes it that much easier as they progress all the way through. And they see the possibility. You know, by the time you get to high school, maybe the possibilities are a lot more narrow. But for example, I have a nephew I guess he's a sophomore in high school now, but he's decided that he wants to be an electrician.

And so in high school, so he's done a lot of math and science all the way through, but he goes to half the time he goes into a regular classroom and then the other half is through a trade school. So by the time he completes it and starts his apprenticeship, he'll have no college debt. Because they'll pay for him. Most places will pay for him to continue his education. But he'll be in a work towards getting that journeymen license, which an employer will pay for. There's a lot of value, but to start early like that, to understand, and to have somebody that mentors you and coaches you to start as early as possible and to make it fun so that they see how fun it really is as opposed to, oh, I'm taking math. What's a point fo taking math?

14:04 Allie: 

I love that. 

14:06 Chris: 

And I think we need to also celebrate like that story needs to be celebrated at the high school just as much as someone getting a scholarship to a four year anniversary, you know, you know what I'm saying? It needs to be that big a deal. And I think we've got to change the narrative on some of that.

And you both have said fun a couple of times. And I think that because as you know, I have a 11, nine and the three month old. So you know how you engage those that, that age range is a lot different. But you know, when I think about like my eleven and my nine year old and, you know, Mary, you probably remember Jay Flores when he was working with Rockwell and the things he did with, it's not magic, it's science. Those types of things are just really fun, you know? And there's so many cool companies out there now that are making these STEM centered type toys and little kits. So let your kids be curious and embrace that curiosity as something that I think we could do as parents in particularly for, you know of little girls to let them play with these types of things and figure it out on their own. And Allie, I say you're about to you're so excited on this one. So what are your thoughts?

15:19 Allie: 

I just, I love that. I love that you want to get your little girls out. And I love that. Like, you're someone who is speaking to women and supporting women in this trade. So if they come to you one day, Hey dad, I want to be a heavy machine operator, but well, I know this person, and this person let's get it started.

Like, I think that. Amazing. And I think that there's still a huge spotlight on the fact that if you're in trades, you're less than, but we are the people that are running this world. We're the people that have this world functioning. Like if a factory goes out, you're calling an electrician. If something goes wrong in the machine, you're calling in a mechanical engineer, like as much as people want to knock trades people, we work extremely hard.

And I think that more programs need to be offered in the country. Like there's a lot of kids out there, like I said, Who worked so, so hard. And I didn't even know Mary, that there was a program like that for your nephew. Like things like that. I'm 24 and I still need my 9,000 hours. So I'm not going to be licensed until I'm almost 27.

I had to go through the schooling. But if I had someone who would open me up to this a little bit sooner, because my mum tried, I wasn't interested in. But if I had someone to open it up to me a little bit sooner, I think that it would have been amazing. Like he's getting his traits hours. He's going to be a journeymen and seal by the time he's my age.

Like he is just amazing. And I think that he needs to share a story. Like Chris said, like there's so many kids out there who think that. The thing is just nonchalant and not a big deal. He's awesome. He needs to get a whole group of friends doing that because there's a huge gap of people that are retiring.

16:56 Chris: 

I am curious, Allie. So that was a program that Mary has, you know, very passionate about it's in, I think you said Wisconsin, right? Mary's where that's based out of. Yeah. Yeah. And Canada, where you're at Allie what are some of the programs is w what are the options you mentioned a trade shows is that traditionally where it's.

17:14 Allie: 

Absolutely. I would say our trade shows. So my mom, she worked for Ontario power generation. So thankfully it's a pretty big corporation. We did a lot of parades. We did a lot of like just handing out candy and pamphlets. And then the older I got, she started taking me to skills, Ontario. Which do Walt and Milwaukee and every single college and university you could think of comes and they set up little kiosks and they hand you all the information.

And I think it shows like that because my mom she took me to speak for women in trades. So I was speaking to try and get young girls into trades. Meanwhile, Actually convincing myself. So the fact that I get to go back there five years later and tell all these girls like, Hey, I used to sit where you were and think nothing of it.

And now I'm an apprentice electrician, and I have the world in my hands and it is such a good feeling like I've met the most incredible people. I get to go on the tools. I get to wire up a whole panel. That's going to help someone. For the rest of their life and you know, what, if it doesn't, I get to come back and fix it and that's okay.

So I just think that there's a lot of opportunities out there. And with COVID, it's really hard because you can't even attend campus as a student. If you aren't vaccinating. 

18:25 Mary: 

Yeah, it's true. It's true. But there are, but I think Allie, you know, I think what you said is like, you need to go where the people are.

So where are, you know, where are the kids, right? Are they on Twitch? Are they on tic-tac are they on YouTube? You know, how as a parent or how as, how do we direct them? Like, how are, how is stuff made, you know, all these cooking companies. It's really all about science. It's all about measuring it's about math.

That's about heating. It's about cooling that's science, right? I mean, like making everything about like, helping people see like, oh, that couldn't have happened if this didn't happen. But you know, I think about how does the military recruit people? They go to where people are. They do ads. They make movies are on, you know, they're on the right social media.

We should be doing the same thing, making it fun, making it exciting, going out on social media, where are the kids now? You know? But Kobe, we couldn't go to schools. But I think I just saw recently that some of the schools are now able to take tours to some of the junior highs are able to take some field trips where they're taking women.

Sure. Our power plant here, right there talking to other women or there, or they're going to the water treatment plant, or they're going to one of the other manufacturing facilities like Harley and, you know, and seeing that kind of fun stuff. But it is, it has to also be really focused because sometimes the dynamic, when you have, you know, a girl girls and boys together, the dynamic might shift and girls might not be as confident, I would hope that's not the case, but sometimes it is the reality of it. 

20:05 Allie: 

Yeah. That's so true. And I think the biggest thing, two social media platforms that I know that kids are huge on our Facebook in tech talk, like if we could just put 30 minutes snippets, like just point form.

Quickly, like wiring up a terminal. Oh, a race between a push and terminal and a screw in terminal. Like make it fun, make it like educational, but also quick because I'm someone who all lose. I have the attention span of a squirrel. So I'll lose focus after probably two minutes of a video. But no, I think that's a great idea. Projecting it more on kids. And since like you said, we can't be in person doing these things, walking them through as much as we can at least reach out to them online because yeah, 

20:49 Chris: 

I think the factories, like you mentioned Harley, you know, they need to do more stuff. You know, the fun stuff, not all manufacturing is cool, but you know, if you got a motorcycle coming out on the back end, that's going to grab some attention.

And then I talked to a lady and she took her boys to like the Louisville Slugger. Factory to see baseball, basketball, things like that. And I mean, I just think being really intentional about that kind of stuff. Now I am curious on something you both are technical and you're very smart, you know, you've come a long way.

There may be some moms out there that get this and listen, and we hope we get this in front of them and they're. You know, STEM was a weak point for him, give him some encouragement. How can what can they do even though STEM was maybe not their strong suit to really support that in their kids in the next generation.

So any thoughts there and Mary, you want to lead off? 

21:39 Mary: 

I'm happy to do it. I came from a family and Mike, my, my father was a homicide detective. And so he didn't have, you know, he has no technical background, so to speak like in STEM you had a cool job, but he wasn't you know, and so my background wasn't, but when I was in school, I had some mentors, so my dad encouraged me.

He supported me. He allowed me to explore it and he didn't try to drive me. She also recognized that he could do it. And so I found some way, I found some mentors that, that I could go to and that supported that I could ask questions with that I could. So having, you know, so parents, whether it's a mother or father, you know, your parent, the parents, if you don't have, you don't have to have a STEM background, but support your support, the curiosity in your kids, and then know where to go to ask for help.

22:30 Chris: 

Sure. I love it. I love it. Allie. Any thoughts on. 

22:35 Allie: 

Absolutely. Because even if your parents aren't someone in STEM, they have a friend who's a plumber. They have a friend who knows someone who knows someone like everyone is in trades. And it's pretty easy to find once you look for it, honestly, and I was the same way.

Like my dad wasn't so much the technical side of things, but I was lucky in the sense that my mom was a power engineer. There are operators. So even then when she was gone on her 12 hour shifts, like out at the coal plant and stuff, my brother was at home and he's a welder fitter and mechanic millwright.

He could take out rebuilding MoMA, stock car, let's do this, let's weld this, let's get it together. And if we weren't building a stock car, we were building motorcycles. So I think that there's always someone out there who wants to fix their own car, who wants to do their own thing. And you know what, they're going to get YouTube and Google to fix it.

And those are the people that you really want to talk to because. They'll take you under your wing and be like, Hey, I just fixed by a car. You want to fix yours?

23:33 Mary: 

Yeah, there's a neighbor. There's an uncle. There's a cousin. There's somebody at school. There's somebody from church, wherever, the role is, and the world is full of people that want to help. 

23:43 Chris: 

And I think to give yourself some grace. So if you're at your parents and you're not very strong at STEM.

It's okay. You don't have to have it all figured out we're in a connected world. I think the biggest mess, my biggest message that I hope to get across to parents out there who not, who don't have that proficiency is you just want your kids to be curious and you want it to have an environment. It's okay for that curiosity to shine, you know, and to make some mistakes.

And when all else fails, I always say, GDG you go to Google, right? You mean, we can figure it out a lot, you know, just with like when I was doing some of Jay's experiments, I didn't exactly understand them. So on a couple of things, I just, you know, Google on the side then like, oh yeah, this is what he's trying to do.

She can really, you can come off as a genius. Maybe I quit church at a restaurant with a. 

24:33 Mary: 

Yeah, exactly. It's a university of life. And I think also the thing that the curiosity as a parent, and then to help them see the possibility that can be don't limit yourself. You know, if I followed in my parents' footprint, I might not have.

My role would have been different. It would have been smaller. I wouldn't have in my roles, I've had the opportunity. I've got to travel globally. I've got to meet people and work with people all over the world and collaborate with teammates from all over the world. So I think about, you know, the possibility you know, who would have, I would've ever thought when I started my, when I started going to school that I would have had these experiences, but because I did and because of.

You know, my world is fuller and broader. And it's not just because it's dumb. It's because of the, I kept myself open to the possibility of what could be, and I didn't, you know, and that's where it, and I think that's a larger thing around, you know, the opportunities that STEM presents with careers. You know, with innovation, with being curious with relationships you build because of your interests.

25:39 Chris: 

I love it. I love it. I am curious. You're both so active and so much advocates for Sims, for STEM I'm excuse me. What are you doing to be proactive? Like how are you staying on the front lines of really moving the ball down the field from a STEM standpoint and Allie, you want to lead us off here?

25:57 Allie: 

Sure. The biggest thing in trades is to support others and they'll support you. Like you just, you have to get your name out there, but you have to do it. Polite lady because there's a lot of people who market on LinkedIn and not the best way. And then there's other people like, well, and Jake who post these amazing videos who like you can go and watch.

And like you, Chris, like you post so many amazing videos. So I think it's just knowing someone like, and yet. You're going to make mistakes in STEM and that's where you're really going to learn. And it's people like Chris and Mary that you can go to for insightfulness and Hey, I kind of messed up, what can I do better next time?

And you're always going to have advice and you're always going to have help. And I think the biggest thing is it's okay to ask for help. STEM is extremely difficult. Like it's not easy. Sometimes it's not easy, but it's fun and it's worth it. And it's powerful and it runs the world. So I think. The best thing to do is market for the companies that you support the most and support the companies that are local to you, support the companies that you really have good relationships with and stuff like that, because it comes back.

All of these things come back to you and if you're not helping them out, they're helping you out, which I think is pretty neat. No, 

27:09 Chris: 

no doubt. How about you, Mary? Any thoughts on that proactive approach? So 

27:13 Mary: 

For me, two things like I, you know, I, like I said, I make sure that when people ask me to tell my story or to speak, I said, yes.

I always say, yes, that's my, I always say yes, but then the other thing I want to do is be proactive is to stay to keep learning, like what new technology is Rockwell developing or what new technology or trends that are impacting. The world that we could develop technology that can make an th that could help address it.

So energy efficiency, a workforce skills gap, you know, w you know, how do we help people, you know, interface with robots? You know, what do, how do we deploy AI as part of our technology to help plants run better or more safely or more securely? So how do I keep learning? So that I can keep also keep communicating to others about, don't be afraid of all this it's a brave new future.

So part of it is, you know, being able to meet and have, I have a chance to talk to you and meet with you, but then also keep learning so that I can come back and still keep sharing the message as well. That's 

28:17 Chris: 

That's right. I love it. I love it. Well, we'll some great topics we covered there now.

Let's ask some fun. You both are used to the lightning round on eco asks. Why I'm a custom tailored this lightning round to be on this topic. So Mary, you can kick us off. What's your favorite stand program? 

28:32 Mary: 

My favorite STEM program, I think first robotics. I love that. It's a game.

Yeah. First robotics. I love that. It's a game. I love that everybody, I think already so creative, they have costumes, they have names or their teams and it is really diverse. I love it. 

28:48 Chris: 

Nice. Love it. Love it. And we'll make sure that link is in the show notes for our listeners too, to check that first robotics out. How about you, Allie? 

28:56 Allie: 

I someone who's just coming into STEM. I'm actually completely open to any resources that you both have. Cause that's something that I'm still working on. Being six months in the field is just kind of trying to see what's out there. And what is for me and what is for others.

So I'm open to anything, honestly. I'm sorry that I didn't have anything picked out. I definitely say that kick-ass careers and skills. Ontario are two major companies in Ontario. I want people in trades and they show every single university in college that there is to offer for these trades programs.

So I think that those are two really big companies that are helping STEM. 

29:32 Chris: 

Sweet, sweet. We'll make sure we put those in the show notes too. Now, Allie, you got a lot of STEM experience. What's the coolest projects you got 

29:41 Allie:

The coolest project that I have, honestly, that's, there's so many, that's such a hard choice.

I would have to say the next set of panels is what I'm most excited about. So it's going to be a set of panels that are running a sugar factory, a sugar refinery processing system. So it takes the sugar into one and then I'm pretty sure it like. Breaks it all down. And then basically the sugar starts out white and ends up black into liquid, and I get to build the panel and then I get to send it to California.

So it's not just going to Ontario or somewhere else. Like I get to actually see it out in the field in California and a lot of the time because of things like LinkedIn I'll post my work or people from California reach out and be like, Hey, are you the one that. Panel, because this is it in the field and they'll send me a picture of my work and be like, it worked great.

So I think that's a really amazing feeling in trades is that everyone wants to support you. 

30:39 Chris: 

I love it. I love it. How about you, Mary? 

30:42 Mary: 

Gosh, there's so many you know, there's, you know, there's always the next, what is the next one? Know what are some of the cool things I used to work for a company and we used to build Like 5,000 horsepower motors, 10,000 horsepower motors.

That was cool because those, you know, ran big compressors. They ran big mills that went into mining equipment. So all of the heavy industries, I think that is really cool. You know, Rockwell does a lot with, in the space program. So I think that is really cool. The people in space. So I think, you know, all of that is really cool.

31:14 Chris: 

I didn't know. We had that red thread there. I used to, we used to at eco work on those big 5,000 horsepower motors. So yeah, big synchronous machines and I mean, that's really. Yeah, small world. Very cool. It is. It is. It is. And I have actually married the last lightning round question, most inspirational STEM advocate, like who, who jumps out in your mind when you think about that?

31:37 Mary: 

Oh my gosh, STEM advocate, you know, I think this is going to sound really silly and it won't, but it's personal to me. So when I went to high school I went to an all-girl high school and it was it was. It was a Catholic school and it was a sistering lane in lane was my science teacher.

And she, she helped inspire me and really ignite that excitement that inspired me to continue on. So for me personally, there are so many people at a larger like globally, right? There's Steve jobs. There's so many people, but for me personally, this woman. You know, who just inspired me to go on and to be where I am today and to talk to you?

32:19 Chris:

I see those are the answers that I love, because I mean that, that's the connection we're looking for. Wonderful. Thank you for that. How about Allie? Who do you have? 

32:29 Allie: 

Honestly, I would have to, I have to give hats off to my mom and Alicia Gilpin. She has just completely been amazing to me.

And I think it's even cooler that she just started her own company and she's helped reach me out to people like Tim Wilburn. Like I have one of his process meters at home now, and that's something that I can go and work with. And I just think that there's such a beautiful connection and it's just getting bigger and bigger with opportunities like these and these podcasts and these shows.

So definitely hats off to my mom. They are incredible. And if you haven't met them yet, you should. 

33:03 Chris: 

For sure. For sure. Absolutely. This has been a lot of fun. We've talked about women in STEM, two heroes here helping me walk through this conversation and you know what eco S while we wrap up with the why you know, what would be your why around this topic?

33:17 Mary: 

I'll jump in Allie. Why? Because I want to see more women at the table making a disk, making decisions, making an impact, continuing to make impact, but making decisions on projects on technology evolution on, we already know that women change people's lives every day, but at a bigger scale, because we are, you know, women are capable.

They're smart. There's no reason they should be at the table. And so I want to be here to represent and to encourage other women to step up. And help me and help Allie. 

33:46 Chris: 

I love it. I love it. 

33:49 Allie: 

Yeah, I would just say that it's not always going to be easy that every day isn't going to be perfect, but there's people like Mary who are willing to help there is the it's okay to take a step back. I feel like a lot of the times I go into a job thinking this needs to get done on my God. This needs to get done now, but it's okay to take a step back and it's okay to do what you need to do to get the job done. Honestly, I think the biggest, why for me is Y it's still not equal. And what can we do to fix that? 

34:19 Mary: 

Yeah, and I would like to say that I want to thank, you know, I want to thank EECO. I want to thank Chris for being an ally. You know, this isn't a women's problem, right? This is not a women's problem. This is our problems is everybody's problem. This is everybody's issue.

You're making a difference on your children. You're going to change. You're already changing the world by with your kids and inspiring that curiosity. This is not only a women issue. World issue. So I want to thank you for the opportunity and for being an ally and a champion for this as well.