This past month, SuccessBaseMass had the pleasure of hearing from Danielle Fakler, who is the Vice President of Boston University's Society of Women Engineers (SWE) chapter. SWE is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting women in the STEM fields. As such, SWE has established chapters in several colleges/universities, and has created a club for high school students, which promotes young women in engineering design. In this article, Fakler delves into her high school experience, her blossoming interest for STEM, and roadblocks she's had along the way.
Q: How was your high school experience?
"I would like to think that my high school experience was pretty standard in terms of
attending a public high school, not quite what you see in the movies or on TV but the basic gist
of it was there. My parents always drove home the idea of being the “all around” student,
wanting me to participate in every facet of academics to boost my chances of getting into my
dream schools. I placed into the AP classes, I constantly studied to stay in the top 10% of my
grade, I was on the varsity dance team, I was on the varsity track and field team, I competed with
extracurricular dance groups, I was in the National Honor Society and National Spanish Honor
Society, I was on the school Science Olympiad team, I was a chair of the recycling committee
for the Student Environmental Action Society, and I had part time jobs as a cashier and an office
assistant over the summer’s to help save up for college. I was pretty much my parent’s poster
child for what my siblings should do once they got to high school.
While I did find the workload being placed on me as a young teen difficult, I wanted to
make my parents happy. Neither of my parents went to college, my dad is an electrician and my
mom is an office secretary. From a young age there was pressure on me as the oldest child to be
the first one to go to college, a good college with a good major that would make me good money
to ensure I’d have a good life, and the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint my parents. That
pressure really started to hit me when both of my parents lost their jobs and their business had to
be shut down during the recession of ‘08. They were both out of work for years and money ran
tight but they tried to play it cool for as long as they could, I distinctly remember that first
Christmas where my mom was explaining to me and my brother that we would not really be
getting presents and at the time I did not understand why she started crying. Seeing how my
parents struggled to the best of their abilities to keep me and my brother happy despite the hand
they had been dealt, I wanted to strive to be the best version of myself that I could be in high
school—at least in an academic sense—to ensure that I would be able to give back to them and
show them how much I appreciated what they had done for me."
Q: What were you interested in, and how did your experiences lead you to BU?
"This may seem like a bit of an odd response considering what I am studying now, but for
years I wanted to go to college to get a Bachelor of Arts in dance! I was a part of my high
school’s varsity kickline for four years, was a part of a studio competition team for another eight
years, even had the opportunity to join a professional company that performed at colleges on
Long Island and festivals in NYC for three years. For a while, my life was mostly eat, study,
dance, sleep, repeat, it was exhausting but I adored it. I would say around sophomore year of
high school was when my parents really started drilling into me that dance was not a viable
career choice and that they would not support me if I were to pursue it at a higher level. With
that option off the table I started looking to my other areas of strength- math and the sciences.
I had always had such a fascination for math and the sciences growing up, there was just
something about the subjects being so concrete that drew me in. My favorite subjects that I took
in high school were biology, calculus, computer science, and CAD/CAM. It makes sense why I
ended up in engineering, huh? My CAD/CAM teacher Mr. Kruse was beyond supportive of me
and my endeavors. He always came to talk to me during class about how the college application
process was going and about the biomedical areas that I was interested in, even promising to
make one of our projects tailored to prosthetic modeling just for me. He even personally asked
me to be one of the leading members of the newly created robotics team my senior year because
he felt that I had the ambition and skill to help bring a rookie team to states, but I had to decline
because of prior commitments (although it would have been so cool to join). He helped to
alleviate some of the imposter syndrome that I was feeling since there were about 30 boys in the
class and only two girls, including me. I was incredibly lucky to be raised in an environment
where my loved ones and teachers were completely supportive of what I wanted to do. I know
that many other women are not treated with the same kindness and respect when they say that
they want to be engineers because “it’s a man's job” as the field is still 88% men.
When I started looking at schools, my parents wanted me to really shoot for the stars and
apply to schools like MIT and Caltech, and I much as I appreciated their perception of me and
my intelligence, there was no way those schools were happening. When it came down to it, my
top choices were Cornell, BU, and WPI. What really made BU stand out to me was the vast
amount of research opportunities that the school offered. In biomedical engineering alone, BU
has research labs in biomechanics, tissue engineering, systems engineering, neural engineering,
biomaterials, nanotech and more. Two labs that I was particularly interested in were the Ranzani
and Russo labs that specialized in morphable biorobotics. I wasn’t planning on attending a
school with required co-op programs because I wanted to graduate in four years, so a university
with a great research program was the best alternative to get hands- on experience during the
semester. It also helped that the biomedical engineering program at BU was ranked 10th overall
in the nation when I was applying. The other aspect of BU that made me fall in love with it was
that it was in a city. As someone who grew up in the suburbs, I absolutely did not want to attend
a small school in the middle of nowhere. I’ve always felt drawn into cities, something about the
more hectic nature of the people and the feeling that everything is always bustling made me feel
at home. BU’s campus is pretty integrated into the city which helped me feel comfortable from
the start, plus there are dozens of biotech companies with a 30 minutes walking radius that give
me ample opportunity to network with professionals to help me land a job after graduation."
Q: How were you introduced to SWE, and what spurred your passion for STEM?
"My freshmen year was particularly rough because of a culmination of unfortunate events
that seemed to be spurring from every part of my life at around the same time. I became more
reclusive than normal, I did not allow anybody into my inner circle, my anxiety started to
become unmanageable again as it was in my younger years, and I fell into a depressive episode
which caused my grades to take quite a hit. The imposter syndrome because of everything that
was happening was so real. I had genuinely considered dropping out of engineering after my
freshman year because I believed that if my grade were that low in my intro level classes, there
was no way I was going to pass the upper level classes. But nevertheless I gave sophomore year
a try knowing that my mental health had improved over the months between the end of the
spring semester and the start of the fall semester.
I was introduced to SWE my sophomore year at BU by one of my best friends on campus
Tu Uyen, who just so happens to be our chapter president this year! She was working the SWE
table at our annual Fall ENG Block Party when she dragged me and our friend Maia over to sign
up for the group so they could up the recruitment numbers for the year . I did not think much of it
at the time, but looking back it is one of the best decisions that I’ve made in college. Joining
SWE my sophomore year helped me create a sense of community within the College of
Engineering that I was desperately needing. While the group at BU is small, the girls within it
are so incredibly supportive and want nothing but for their members to succeed in life. The
opportunities that this organization has given me are incredible, and helped me break that habit
of constantly questioning my worth in the field. For example, last year I was able to attend the
WE19 National Conference at a delegate from the BU SWE chapter and had the opportunity to
connect and interview with recruiters at two of my dream companies that I otherwise would not
have access to in Boston. Being the Vice President for this upcoming year, my main goal is to
provide as many resources and opportunities to flourish to as many women in engineering as
possible at BU, as they deserve to realize their full potentials instead of being consumed by
imposter syndrome like I was my freshman year.
During my sophomore year of high school, one of the girls that I danced with at my local
studio approached me and asked if I would be interested in joining a non-profit organization that
she was starting. I was a bit skeptical at first because we were only 16 at the time and it seemed
like a large task for a teenager to take on, but she was a hard-working and reliable girl, so I
trusted her. The organization ended up being a group of about 15 or so girls, all freshmen and
sophomores in high school, who had a love for dance. Our group primarily served two purposes:
(1) choreographing a series of short routines to perform in retirement homes for the elderly as a
way to brighten their days with a little surprise, and (2) to perform at benefit-style events as a
means of raising donations that would be given to a friend of the founder who had unfortunately
lost one of her legs from the knee down to cancer.
At these benefit-style events, the girl that we were raising money for—who will remain
anonymous for her privacy—was always seen wearing long skirts or dresses that came down her
ankles and was on crutches, despite the founder telling me that her friend had a prosthetic leg. I
didn’t want to go up to the girl and ask her about it directly because I didn’t know her that well
and didn’t want to come off as intrusive or make her feel uncomfortable, so I asked the founder
what happened to her friend’s prosthetic. She told me that her parents had bought her one, but
that it did not fit quite properly which made it uncomfortable for her to wear for extended
periods of time, and that her parents could not afford to buy her a new one. This devastated me
as this girl was as smart, sweet, and considerate as they come, and she should’ve without a doubt
been dealt a hand in life that would make her situation more comfortable to bear.
At that point I had already had the idea in mind that I was interested in engineering, but
had no idea which field of engineering to pursue. From this interaction onwards, I wanted to
dedicate my studies to the field of prosthetics, working on techniques to reduce costs, improve
quality, and develop new materials or systems that would help to broader benefit those who were
most in need of them. This passion was so strong that I have not deterred from it since, as I am
now a rising senior studying biomedical engineering with a minor in mechanical engineering and
a concentration in manufacturing. My hope is to become a manufacturing/automation engineer
within implantable medical devices, specifically orthopedic prosthetics. With luck and hard
work, I might be able to open my own company producing prosthetics for families at more
affordable prices to make this crucial service more widely available, as every person in this
world deserves to regain a sense of normalcy in their lives without it potentially bankrupting
them."
Q: Difficulties that you have faced?
"My mental health was something that took me years to come to grips with. From the time
that I was about ten years old, I began developing a moderate case of generalized anxiety
disorder (GAD) that completely altered my personality. Before my mom was aware of what was
going on, she made countless comments about how “I was no longer that social butterfly that she
used to love.” She was right, but to me that is a very “sunshine and rainbows” type of
explanation for what was actually going on.
I cannot pinpoint exactly what triggered it, but it could have been a series of many events
pre-high school where I was routinely the victim of verbal and emotional harassment. I guess
that I was an easy target because I never fought back, I desperately wanted to feel like I was a
part of a group and wanted to believe that these kids had the best intentions, not realizing how it
was affecting me. The first breaking point was an especially heinous rumor that was being spread
about me in fourth grade that somehow managed to make its way to four different classes, to the
point where I had people that I had never had a single conversation with coming up to me and
harassing me about it. I decided to finally stand my ground after being routinely bullied and got
school staff involved who were able to dissolve the particular rumor in question, but after that
not a single kid bothered to speak to me. They accused me of being soft, weak, not being able to
accept a joke, you know the usual list of gaslighting excuses people throw out there. Considering
how young and impressionable I was, I developed severe trust issues that I am still actively
trying to fight with to this day. Middle school only made matters worse when I joined the
cheerleading team because of my mom’s wishes. Again, I would like to believe that my
teammates acted the way that they did because we were all kids who did not understand the
gravity of their actions, but being on the team made my life a living hell. I was the outsider and
not a day went by where they did not make sure I knew it. Multiple times I was ousted as being
the quiet “freak” and was the target of cruel pranks. My anxiety skyrocketed during this time and
took years to get under control, I became more isolated than before, reluctant to even enter into
conversations with others when they spoke to me because I assumed they were only doing so to
hurt me.
Moving on to high school, I had six friends that I had let into my inner circle which was
no easy feat to accomplish. Trusting someone meant taking months to get past the initial small
talk stage, I would not speak unless spoken to and would not share any personal information with
anyone. I hesitate to say this because I never went to a psychologist or a therapist to be
diagnosed as I was scared of sharing information with them, but between the ages of 13 to 15 I
genuinely believe that I was suffering from some form of depression. Without getting into too
much detail as I have never shared them with anybody, this was easily the lowest point of my life
mentally and every day I woke up terrified about what would happen to me and if it could get
worse. I concealed this from my friends and family as I did not want any of them to start treating
me differently. I already felt like enough of an outsider as it was. By the time that I graduated
high school, I had managed to find ways to cope with my mental health in relatively healthy
ways and can proudly say I went the entirety of my senior year without having a panic attack.
As I mentioned earlier, freshman year of college was rough on me mentally, and
subsequently academically. I started having panic attacks again, usually once a week or so, and I
had not really developed the ability to let people in quickly yet which made it difficult for me to
tell anybody what was going on with me. The slump that I had fallen into was arguably on par
with what I experienced with myself in high school which was terrifying for me. One day while I
was facetiming my parents I just broke down and explained what I had been feeling to them for
the first time in my life. The weight that was lifted off my shoulders from repressing those
feelings for years was incredible, though not enough to improve the situation I was in. As the
year progressed I found two people that I could genuinely trust to talk with about what I was
harboring which alleviated some mental strain, though the academic burden was still rough.
Knowing that I had support behind me helped me finish out my freshman year, and I am grateful
that I stuck it out because I am in a much better place now, and biomedical engineering is the
field that I belong in despite what I tried to convince myself to believe. If freshman year me
could see the present day me, she would be proud."
Q: Advice to current high school students?
"My best piece of advice for current high school students is to just be yourself. Do not let anybody
try to steer you away from your ambitions, regardless of whether or not others deem it “fiscally
responsible.” The truth of the matter is that if you are not pursuing something that you find genuine
enjoyment in, you will not be happy with your job later in life. It’s more important to take care of your
mental health than it is to be making six figures each year. And for those who aren’t quite sure what they
want to be in life yet, there is absolutely no shame in going into college undeclared or going into a trade
instead.
For my girls who are interested in pursuing engineering, do not give up. You may be
outnumbered, you may be made to feel like you aren’t intelligent or creative enough to be in the field, you
may feel isolated, but if engineering is what brings you joy in life do not let go of it. I guarantee you there
will be a group of others who have felt exactly how you may be feeling now and will want to help you.
Do not be afraid to reach out because those who do help will only want what’s best for you to pursue your interests."
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