Alexis 0:00

Hello. Hello everybody and welcome to the Smoko Podcast. My name is Alexis Armstrong, your host. Nice to meet you. The Smoko Podcast is the place to celebrate and highlight women, trans women, and non-binary folk working within STEM trade occupations. So please tune in, take a break, join us. We are on Smoko. And today we are extremely lucky to be joined by the lovely Deanna ceta, who is a mechanical engineer. She currently works as a manufacturing engineer in automation design. So we're gonna talk about that today. We're also gonna talk about her work as an advocate for women in stem, and that's what I'm most excited about to talk about because she has done. So much, and she has been a voice and a leader in increasing diversity in STEM and increasing the diversity and empowerment of Latinas within engineering. And with that, she has created Latina engineer. She's also created the Danna, Iris Shutta Foundation, n f. P and the International Latina Engineer Week conference, or I L E W, which we're gonna talk about a little bit later because that's happening very, very soon. So just her organization, her mission of women empowerment within stem and the increased representation of Latinas in engineering is just an amazing thing. And thank you Deanna, so much for coming onto the show. I just appreciate it immensely.

Diana 1:24

Yeah. Thank you for having me. Really excited.

Alexis 1:27

It's an honor to have you on the show. And I've been a fan for a very long time, so it's just really nice to meet you. And I was wondering maybe Deanna, if you could start at the very beginning and if. Could you describe how you discovered the fields of mechanical engineering and what drew you to this specialty?

Diana 1:43

So we're immigrants. We got here when I was 12 years old. Both my parents are in STEM or STEM related careers, so it was always there, but I never understood what it was. Okay. It wasn't until I started exploring on my own and going into math classes and physics was really the one that opened my eyes. I was like, oh, I really like this. I could do something with numbers and with math. But it was definitely, a challenge trying to figure out what you can do, what the opportunities are within stem. And so it wasn't until I bumped into physics, I'm like, the numbers make sense now. It tells me when the. Ball's gonna drop, how fast the car is gonna go and things like that. And then I started college still trying to figure out, I was like, I'm gonna be a physics major and this is what I'm gonna do. And then within the first semester it was like, oh, this is hard. But it was definitely challenging in a good way and that's what kept dragging me into it. And it was because I was able to out there and ask and be part of like groups that talked about STEM and careers and. Having a mentor, that was a woman minority Immigrant as well in stem that I was like, okay, we have a spot and these are what I can do. I eventually I was like, oh, mechanical engineering, the design, creativity, but also stem. And that's when I went for that. And it's something that I truly enjoy. I can sit in front of the computer looking at the signs and coming up all day long. So definitely something where I'm still. Building my confidence, but it has something that I'm also enjoying a lot as I

Alexis 3:04

learn more. But I love kind of that. Drive and that love of physics that brought you to mechanical engineering. I just think that's amazing that it was like all numbers based of being like, this clicks, I really like it. This is what I'm going to do. But then I love the kind of switch or reality of going to university, cuz I think a lot of people can resonate with that, that you're interested in something and then you go to a university course and you're like, oh my goodness, this is so difficult. This is next level. But I love that you've met and had so many organizations that you could work with there that kind of guide you and help you and mentor you, and having a woman, minority women as a mentor, and to see her early on within your career, I'm sure that was super, super impactful and powering and powerful.

Diana 3:50

It's usually the classes that all the students are like, I don't like math and I don't like this type of classes. But to me I like it and it's something sort of an obstacle because you're going against what everybody thinks. But that's what I enjoyed. And then like I said, even just being the first one in the US I so challenges because we were learning how you, when you applied to schools and how to pay for it, something that we didn't have savings for. And so it's a lot of different things that add up. But yeah, like you said, it. A lot of opportunities

Alexis 4:19

as well. It's right that like you did choose the path I think of something that's a little bit less traveled because I think even in stem, I think there's a hierarchy of hard or what we think of as hard, and I think a lot of people are scared of chemistry, scared of math, and scared of physics and it's different that those were the things that just clicked for you, that was just automatic. I'm. Would love to know if that has always been there or if that was like a learned thing or something that your parents helped you with. If it was always that they had a STEM focus growing up and they taught you physics and math as a kid, and that really sunk in. Was it learned or was it just something natural that you were like, yeah, I love this.

Diana 4:59

I think it was more natural. My dad was an engineer or still is in the engineering field, but I never really understood why he did. So I knew engineering was a career, but I didn't know how to get there or what he really did. And yeah, so it was more of that just. That's what numbers were easy to me. There was a right answer and it was just a matter of connecting it to the real world. But you then see how it starts dropping drastically when you're enrolling to stem. When you go from 50% woman or 50% man, and then it just drops. Every semester is less and less until you're the only one.

Alexis 5:34

It's a sad thing, but it definitely does happen. By the time that you get your fourth year, I feel like it's maybe down to 20%, 25. And then if you look at the workforce, I think in general stem, we're at 15. It. Does drop dramatically. I like that. It was a natural thing for you with numbers and that's funny. Kind of not knowing what an engineer does, because that leads us to the next, one of, maybe other people who are listening right now, doesn't really know what an engineer does. And I know that you're working as a manufacturing engineer and I was wondering if you could describe what you do, what's a typical day and then what are the rules of responsibilities, that you do in your job?

Diana 6:11

Every single type of engineering is so much different. But with mine specifically, I do mechanical and manufacturing together, which is something that I've pursued since I finished my degree. Cause I studied in mechanical engineering and I never wanted to leave that, the design part. So it was always trying to find that combination. And so in my day-to-day, I do the design work where I'm either improving something or creating something like a new fixture, a new product, things like that we can use in the manufacturing shop. But then it also includes training, writing processes. And so it's a combination. Installing the things that you do. Making sure they're making them correctly. And the one thing that has been recently within the last year is being also a leader. So I have a team that's amazing, and they're the ones that deal with all the automation and all the things that I create that then go into the assembly lines, or the manufacturing lines. And so I get to work with them and then ask like what improvements we need or have them test some of the stuff and then get that feedback and take it back to my computer and continue editing some of those assigns. But the thing that I love the most is, Having a problem and then coming up with a solution. Start thinking about it. So I'm really like visual and so I started thinking of how it's gonna look and then transitioning into the computer, then eventually sending it up so somebody can make it, communicating with someone else what you want to make. And then eventually seeing it in front and applying it to where it needs to go.

Alexis 7:34

Oh my goodness. That is a complete whole list. Take so many moving parts, like right from design to completion and to creation of parts and of probably an entire car. Do you work on only one part of component or one type of component? Are you building the entire thing? What's the scale of parts or components?

Diana 7:53

With us, it is automotive, so we do one part that goes in the entire car assembly. But with my specific role, I focus on the equipment that helps us make that part. Okay so anything that goes into like the robots, like the fingers that they used to handle the parts. Any actuators that move the part. That's what I work on. What can we improve that will let us handle those products faster, easier, or in a different way.

Alexis 8:18

That's really, really cool. Yeah, cuz that gets very complicated on automation and onca drawings as you know. I didn't realize that you're in charge of the actual processing of creating those components, which I feel like is far more complicated. And very intricated. How has been the transition from. Working as part of a team to all of a sudden a leader. How has that been? And congratulations on becoming a leader. That's absolutely amazing.

Diana 8:47

Thank you. It was something that I was always looking for, besides from all the volunteering where I already was doing some leadership, I wanted to apply it into engineering. And so when the opportunity came up, I was like, I was volunteering. I was like, I'm gonna do this. This is right for me. And so I. I kinda didn't ask for it. I went more of I'm going to do it. Yeah. So I kinda forced my way in there, but since then I, I really liked it. And the communication and working with people. I'm still part of a team, of course. Of the engineering team. But then I have that, also that team that directs to me, but it's more of a collaboratively and then I get to. Have that decision making and like scheduling of the things that we have to do. It's also a lot of learning. I'm still like, the youngest kind of like leader around So I'm always learning, new things and sometimes, that adds to not only are you doing your job as a designer or as an engineer, but now people also depend on you. And so you have to be available. And that also adds to What times I'm at work or if I shift my schedule to be able to be more flexible to address the needs of others, not just

Alexis 9:49

my job. Yes, completely. And it's also a job that's constant. It's a job that probably when things happen, it stalls all of production. It has a big consequence. Like it is also a dynamic environment. So that adds a whole nother aspect on leadership and complexity. I love that you just went for it, that you were like, Nope, this is for me. I'm gonna do it. I think that's amazing and, power to you. Because this entire interview of talking about kind of communication and working with a team and collaboration and maybe that's the answer for this next one, but I wanted to ask maybe a lofty question, but what's something that you love about your profession and then maybe what's something that you find challenging? And of the challenging parts, what's something that helps you overcome that challenge?

Diana 10:33

Well, I am a big nerd or a geek. I don't know what to call it, either, but I

Alexis 10:37

get really, I love either.

Diana 10:38

I get really excited when it comes to figuring out how things work or like hardware and I'm fascinated, like I can look at it. I could be in like a store and I'll start looking at how they put together this I don't know, like the checkout thing, that's cancer phone. And so that it's something that I really enjoy. You know, I, I can, I can look at it, I can learn about it. I love going to the expos that tell you like the newest automation or the newest robot and things like that. Something that I found challenging is, there's not a lot Latinas, there's not a lot of women in the field. And so also, I'm still early in my career, so a little of it. It's new or I'm learning. And so getting that confidence, feeling comfortable, which I've seen has grown a lot and I've seen it for when I go to events like this where I'm more confident to ask questions, I'm more confident to push those boundaries and, make getting comments and not being afraid of speaking up. Like for example with like my steel toes, they're like heels and I'm like, are those steel toes? Like yes, they are. Of course. Just getting to that point where it's always going to be, you're always gonna be learning something new, but you have to get the confidence in order to be finding more information.

Alexis 11:44

And one question I'd have on that is, what has helped you build that confidence? Has it been just with more experience, speaking to more people? Has it been community? What's really helped you gain that confidence? And then maybe if you're not feeling confident, how do you fake it? If you're still starting and you're like, I don't really have the years of experience or that community yet, what would be your advice to build that confidence?

Diana 12:08

So to build the confidence, it's a combination of the experience, every year without wanting to something happens that makes me realize, so oh, like I know this now that I didn't. Or like, I got this far. But also relying on the community that I've been able to develop with Latin engineer and knowing that I'm not alone and that there's other women and other Latinas like me, and that we're all going through the process of learning. And that has really helped me because it was something that it was not present when I was in school. And that's when I had the most imposter syndrome, I don't belong here. Things like that. And then once that started, I had a team or a group I could rely. Too. And I could chat with and I could have friends. and so that's more of what I go to when I don't feel as confident. And it also has helped me learn that it's not just my job, but I have another purpose. And so my, it makes me think I have like a, a bigger purpose or

Alexis 13:00

value impact. Yes. Completely. Exactly. Yeah. You see the strength. I think that like your telling your story has, and you can see the impact and like it probably feels fantastic when maybe you're having a rough day and someone messages you to be like, thank you very much for just being you and being an engineer and like it's. Made me wanna be an engineer. And I think there's definitely something to be said about building your own community, especially a virtual community, because when we go into these spaces at work and at school, we don't have it in person. It's usually very rare. There might be maybe one or two women, they usually become your like best friends and you're like attached to the hip. At least that's been my experience throughout work and school. But, It's really nice to have that virtual experience as well and have that virtual community cuz sometimes it's not shown in your every day. And that kind of brings us that aspect of community that brings us to Latina engineer. And this is what I'm really, really excited to talk about because I just think that your organization is incredible. The mission of it, in my understanding, is to increase the representation of Latinas in STEM professions because you said there's not many women, but there's also not many Latinas in stem. And it's an absolute amazing mission and amazing organization. And since the start, the organization has grown up to 10,000

Diana 14:19

We're about 15,000 followers now. But it's definitely a mixture of not just Latinas in engineering, but yeah,

Alexis 14:27

still though, like that's absolutely incredible to grow something or organically to that point. And I was wondering if you could walk through maybe from the very beginning or like, When you first started it, how did you be like, yep, this is what I'm gonna do. and then if people are unaware of the organization, if you could give a description of who you are and where you are now.

Diana 14:48

Latina engineer and the foundation have an interesting approach because we're not so much teaching the technical. We're creating that community and those resources to feel like, okay, I have a spot here, and then they can take over the more technical things. But it started, I was firstly out of college. I was maybe six months or less, that I was done with school, and that's when I started working and I started feeling like, oh, I, I belong here. There's a lot of men around me, but they all have given me a spot here. And they're teaching me. And so I felt like I could do it, like I have made it this far. And I wanted to share that with someone else. I wanted to see if there were other Latinas around that were interested in hearing my story. Yes. And so surprisingly, it's been something that has been. Shifting as I learn more and as I reach more people. And so I started as a blog, sharing more of like the journey that I had, trying to share any tips that I had, just going through school. And that's when the community started. Growing, like right away, I was able to meet with other Latinas in STEM fields or any other woman in stem. And it was all through social media. Through digitally. Yeah. Which is amazing because around, like you said, in school or at work, it's usually you don't see them where you're Yeah. Depending where you're based. Yeah. Yeah. And so then it just has grown into. This network where we have events such as branches and like we have met in Dallas, in Long Beach, in Chicago, and just met the people that are around the area that are Latinas in STEM and engineering and building those connections. But other than that is. The content on Instagram trying to share, this is the journey I'm going through. Like I'm learning just as much as everybody is. And trying to make that content that's relatable to understand that it's not just everything is success. There's ups and downs. And then more recently the conference, which is. Is gonna be your fourth year this year hosting. And that has grown a lot. It has evolved into a mentoring program. We have scholarships. We have career fair, and then we have the actual conference with, role models and speakers.

Alexis 16:47

One of the things that I love the most about it, I love the mission, but I also just love how relatable it is. And I love that it doesn't sugarcoat kind of an experience or maybe how hard it is or difficulties or challenges. It lays everything out. Exactly how you're experiencing it and goes through your journey. And I think that's far more powerful than I think you realize,? Because it's so nice to see someone else go through something that you've gone through again when maybe you don't have that community in person, right? That's really cool that it just turned into something kind of organic, and I love that you had the mentorship of men early on in your career and those people from your first job that really gave you that space and that confidence to be like, yeah, you have arrived and like you. You de deserve to be here. And if I could speak to maybe the idea of representation because. I was wondering if you could speak to that is how important it has been to increase representation of Latinas in STEM and how big that impact has been of other people hearing your story and you sharing your story, and I'm sure there's probably a couple instances that come to mind of being like, yes. Oh my goodness, this had an impact and someone reached out to me. If you could speak to that.

Diana 18:03

So I always try to focus on, I'm not the, what a Latina engineer should be, you know,

Alexis 18:10

I'm just one that's, there's no such thing. It's, yeah, it's not like a mold. Yeah. And

Diana 18:14

so what I usually share is like any one of you that's pursuing, path that is not traditional, it's a role model. And that's what's gonna make the change. I know I'm making change in my own life and my own job, I'm still. I think one of two, maybe Latinos in the office, so they're still like, I bring something that they don't know and they're like, what is that? What are you eating? Yeah, like hot Cheetos. I'm like, this is normal for me. But also introducing some of the things you don't even realize. So in my first job, and I usually share this story, I was the only woman in the engineering team and there were more Hispanics in the office. I was in the engineering team. It was like the only woman, the only Latina. I was just focused on doing my job and doing the best cuz that's what I wanted to do. I was passionate about my role. It wasn't until I was leaving that role, cause I was relocating, that I realized the impact that I had done because my manager at that time, as he was trying to fulfill the role, was telling me how he wanted someone like me. I pretty much had shown that a Latina Had what it took to do that. And even more, also with the Spanish, I spoke a lot of Spanish at work. A lot of the people in the production force spoke Spanish and that gave me an advantage. Because they trusted me more with information, with improvements, with things that they could, that maybe weren't working for them. And so I always seemed to have a little bit like a leg up cause I had more information. And so that became really valuable and they weren't aware of impact it could make before, because before they didn't have a Spanish speaking engineer. They didn't know. And that made me realize that I had made an impact in that company specifically. Because now they were expecting, had better expectations of another Latina to fulfill their role. They were more likely to hire someone else like that. And so just little by little anyone doing their own role and doing good and focusing on that, they're already making a change on the way that people expect from us or they perceive us as minorities, as women, as Latinas. You're slowly changing that, and I think that's when I was like, oh yeah, I'm an advocate and like I'm actually making an impact wherever you go.

Alexis 20:09

Was that a crazy thing to be like, oh my goodness, I'm an advocate? How did you feel about that when you realized that label?

Diana 20:16

It was, it has given a different meaning to what you're doing. Like you're not just doing your career, you're also an advocate, whether you are doing public events and speaking or doing like content on Instagram or you're just doing your job. Like you're already doing something. That kind of started making me see the impact that just being you does.

Alexis 20:34

It's maybe something that doesn't come natural, I think, to a lot of people of being like, yes, to view themselves as an advocate of just by being who they are, that they've already created so much impact. I love that you could tell instantly that was the change that you created at that company. I think what makes it so cool is that it's combating like bias. But it's changing bias. I was wondering if you could speak to this, because I know that one goal, a Latina engineer, is to combat misconceptions, and I was wondering if you could speak to misconceptions and the misconceptions that are being placed upon women in stem. And again, any advice for young women who are going through this and are like, I have so much bias put on me. What am I gonna do about it?

Diana 21:17

You know, being in, I'm still in a team where I'm the only woman, but there's other women in engineering roles, just not in the same department. Luckily I've been in places where I've been welcome and I've been given my space. I still got in comments, which is you're just a diversity hire from other Latinos. And I'm just like, wait, come on. Yeah. Yeah. And so that puts you thinking do I actually have skills? And so you have to navigate that and knowing your true value and Actually what you're bringing to the table. But there's definitely a lot of things that slowly you work on changing. Like at my company we launch a woman in technical roles group, amazing. That's something that they didn't have before. They usually didn't have as many women in engineering, so they never sent anyone to conferences, like for women in engineering or Hispanics in engineering. And so we just got together, put our presentation up and started this is why we want to go. And they sent us amazing little things like that, that start changing things. And then within the team, you still, sometimes you get someone new or someone from a different company that you know, sees your name and automatically starts hearing you differently. And I used to see it before I had a colleague, we had about the same role. Whenever someone, like a customer or a vendor would email him would be one tone. And then when they would be talking to me, we had different, yeah, completely different tone. Not willing to negotiate, things like that. And he was a big advocate trying to help me or if I could share something with them, we'd be like, on my end it doesn't happen that way. And so we were able to see if there were difference just based on, or gender. Cause all they knew was her email address, they

Alexis 22:50

just had a name. That's it. Yes.

Diana 22:52

Would you just change those misconceptions and bias on the people that you meet? And now it's like you have that confidence within your team that you have that backup and you know they're gonna support you. And like even at the company, you won't believe, like usually, with maintenance guys or people that are older or in these really manly Jobs, they don't expect like a woman to be like, don't gimme that. I'll do it for you. Yeah. But we have developed that environment where, They're, they believe in you and they explain things to you and they make, they treat you like, you can do anything. Which is something that we also try to advocate. Like it doesn't always suck. If you're somewhere where your manager or your coworkers or anyone else doesn't treat you right, make you feel less, you don't have a voice, then maybe you're at the wrong place. Yeah. You're at the wrong company. There has to be somewhere else where you will have that opportunity to

Alexis 23:40

grow. I love when people bring up that idea that you don't have to stay within a toxic environment. Cuz sometimes I do think that you feel a little bit stuck to be like, oh my goodness is this, the entire industry is this one experience and these people that don't support me and make me feel small and have this bias, is this representative of the industry because you hear horror stories and you think that you're stuck with it. I think the advice of maybe moving to a culture that supports you to speak up and also maybe to the importance of mentorship, both men and women, but the importance of people that champion you and have your back, I think does really help change that bias. But again, you are changing bias no matter what. Just be in there and telling your story. You're changing bias. On the topic of mentors and mentorship, because this has been a constant in your career. One thing that I love about your organization is this mentorship program. I was wondering if you could describe the mentor mentee program and then if people are interested in joining, how do they do so? And what has been something that's been the most surprising or, shocking thing that you've discovered that you just didn't expect, that you didn't expect to come out of this program? What's come out of it?

Diana 24:49

This is only the second time that we run the program. So we usually do one set or one group per year. So last year, it was part of the conference and we opened applications to everyone. Amazing. we were only accepting Latina. Engineers in their early career, like students or really early professionals and as mentees. And then we were trying to find mentors that were Latinas in STEM or engineering. Because getting to that more experience and finding those people is a little bit harder. Hard. Yeah. Yeah. Usually it's students and early professionals, especially within our network and our community. And so we got about, I think 20 mentees and 10 mentors. and we launched it and obviously we were learning throughout the process. This year we had over a hundred applicants for mentees. Wow. Amazing. The challenge was how many mentees can we accept? So we accepted about 48 to 50. So which more than double what we took last year. And then mentors weed about 25, I want to say. So we're about to start. They were just selected, they were just contacted, and we're gonna launch it and it's gonna run out until, like the end of the year. So it's about six months. But yeah, that was definitely something that, it grew a lot of interest. The post went really big on LinkedIn. Everybody was excited about the Yeah. The opportunity. Amazing. And us being still a small team, we're like, how many people can we take that we can keep up with because I've been in mentoring programs where, Your mentor that sometimes drops you or they, you have to introduce yourself every time you meet with them and what's the point of that? And so we want to make sure that they get value from that. And luckily we have gotten good feedback. There are relationships between mentors and mentees that have continued besides from the program that. And we try to give new opportunities to new people every year. And we hope that it continues growing. But seeing that need of that many mentees trying to get into the program that many applicants, it was way more than we expected. And so there is a need. We need to find more Latinas with experience or we need to make those young Latinas. Get to those levels. Mentor. So that mentor, they can mentor. Mentor

Alexis 26:47

the next mentor, yes. I couldn't agree more that of the final of bringing people up and bringing young mentees up into mentors. And that one-on-one or almost two on one relationship between a mentor and a mentee is very powerful and definitely will get the most value. Cuz I've had the same experience that I've had mentors that don't know my name and I'm like, I don't really know what to do with you. So that's lovely that your organization. Is so intimate that it's an intimate and kinda long lasting, impactful relationship. The relationship there between mentor and mentee, is it a formal one or is it just an open door policy? Does it depend on the mentor? How does that work?

Diana 27:27

We have usually a set schedule for each, meeting. Okay. We usually request that they at least meet once a month, but it's open to them to customize it. They can meet more than once a month. That's our minimum requirement. And the schedule that we have is more of a guideline. Like you can use the first 30 minutes of your session to talk about this, which we think is useful, like career planning and development, or anything like that. And then the other half of the meetings or if they need more times, They're able to bring on any topics so they're able to take it on depending what path they have interested or they need based on their mentors. And so a lot of the things we do through is we filter to try to get them within the same field, the same experience or the same background. There was one, one pair last year that they didn't have. A lot of things in common, except that a lot of their answers for some reason were very similar. And so we were very interested to see what they would come up with. They would put them together, and that was one of our more successful pairs. And it was just very interesting because they both have the same mission and kinda like similar experiences. We try to guide them, but it's very flexible to what the mentee

Alexis 28:33

needs. I think that's how a program should be because it is such an intimate, personal relationship and it's probably gonna change even in those six months that you run it, of what the mentee needs. Like maybe one month or one session, it's gonna be a little bit different than the next one. I just think it's a fantastic program. Are you gonna keep running it? Is this kinda two of infinite or what's the next step of this program?

Diana 28:56

So we plan to host it every year, once a year. And so currently this year is already paired up. The opportunity for 2024. We're probably open in the spring of that year.

Alexis 29:07

So if people are interested, they can apply in spring 2024. And then it's from mentees within Latina engineer, which is fantastic to apply. On that, it's your conference, which is absolutely fantastic. This is, you said the fourth year, that's upcoming. And it's the I L E W, the International Latina Engineer Week conference. Could you describe what it is, how it works? Cuz my understanding is it's both virtual and in person. So even if they're not in the same city, in the same sector, they can still potentially come to it. And then what of the conference are you the most excited about?

Diana 29:46

I call it IU just to make it easier instead of saying all those words. It's just a celebration for Latinas in engineering. That's how it started. There's a day for girls in STEM or Engineers week, but let's use, make one for Latinas specifically, and. We race, like then like people get excited. And then from there it was more of okay, what are we doing? People started getting too excited and I had nothing planned. And so we eventually put together speakers and like giveaways and we launched the first scholarships the first year with a GoFund meet account, and that's how we literally gave back. Now we're more structured into the fourth year working with companies, and that's something that I guess I'll go over the conference first before I get too please, into details. So it's a whole week celebration throughout the year. We prep and we do like graduation, shoutouts, and then just inana, shoutouts where we talk about the community and what they're doing. But it all comes down to October to the fall where we host a conference, and so we have scholarships. That we do during that time. The mentoring program is running during that time. And then the whole week celebration runs from Monday to Saturday. And our goal has always been to keep it accessible and affordable to the Incan community. And so we have virtual Monday through Friday and we have multiple different tickets. A lot of them being free, because we want that to be accessible. Yes. That's amazing. And that's what we work with. And that's possible because we work with different companies that help us that, that promote and support the community. And then on the last day, for those that are able to travel or local, at least for right now in Chicago, we hope to move it around. We have an in-person session, and so throughout the week we have, workshops, we have speakers, we have networking events. Spiritually. And then on the final day we do similar, but everything in person. We bring speakers. And then we have been hosting in Chicago, we'll be hosting in Chicago this year. Again, we have the giveaways. We have a couple companies that come and talk about either like engineering related products or they're hiring. We have the career fair, which is spiritual. And so it's a good way to bring everyone together. And then if you have one, that extra step of being able to connect in person, then you have that opportunity. And then we have companies that help us create more scholarships or be part of the career fair. And that has helped us a lot because again, if we come from low income or first generation. Or we're immigrants, we don't want to make this unaccessible or unattainable or if you can't travel. Yeah. So that's been a big mission for that. And the other part is finding companies that are excited about empowering the Latina engineer community. That they want to hire them and they want to

Alexis 32:18

develop their talent. Oh my goodness. So beautiful, how much it's grown even in just four years. That the fact that the first one was just like, you know what? Let's do it. Let's host our own week conference. Let's go for it. And that it was a scholarship through a GoFundMe and now it's structured and now you have sponsorships and companies that are backing you, which I think is very powerful and wonderful that they're stepping up and that they're offering that and giving funds to scholarship. I also love how it is so accessible and I think that's, That comes across the fact that it can be both virtual and in person, that a lot of it is accessible. A lot of it is free. It's good for low income. it really just opens the door for anyone to come in to be part of it and to join in. I think that's a beautiful thing.

Diana 33:02

Thank you. The one thing that I forgot to mention that I'm real excited for is we do have one surprise for those that are going in person that will help us, promote engineering within the Latina, the young Latina community. We're talking about little girls. And so we'll have something that they'll get to keep and they'll get to find a girl to share it with. Oh, and it sparked that interest. I won't tell you exactly what it is yet. No. It's just the way that we're, just, the way that we're bringing it outside of just the conference, which is aimed for college students and professionals. But also reaching the generation that's coming after us.

Alexis 33:36

I feel like that has so much impact of just changing little girls' perspectives of just seeing somebody that looks like them, be an engineer And just having that change of frame, of being like, yeah, that's what I can be now. To get something special from them and to have something to give back to the community and give out to the community, to young girls. What do you hope to get out of it on a personal thing? What are your goals and your hopes for this conference? Is it just to grow it, to maybe bring it to different cities or like what do you hope is a successful conference? What does that look like for you?

Diana 34:06

We're continuously trying to grow. Every year we, change it up a bit. Our different things. Like last year was the first year with the career fair. Eventually the goal is to grow the in-person session a bit more. So we started at 50 people in person, then 75, and now we're reaching for one 50 this year. And so trying to grow that aspect of it, but also going to different parts of the majority of the people that participate are based in the us. We want to take it out of just one state and also being, bringing it around so that other people that might not be able to travel can also join and experience that. So there's a long journey because we're only in our fourth year. But overall for myself, all of these is volunteering and we have a team. I think we're 13 now. That just volunteered through the entire year. We meet once a week and we put everything together, we divide and each one takes over something. And it's all because we want to spread the world. We wanna share what we're doing. We wanna bring others along, like none of us in the team get really anything out of, or other than making that change and making that

Alexis 35:09

difference. It's probably something that you guys didn't have when you went through school and you started your career. So just like how impactful and that mission of it that you could like, be like, yep, let's do it. Let's do it for community, let's do it for young girls, let's do it for people just coming up and I didn't realize it was all volunteer. I just, went under the assumption that it was a big team because the way that it's organized and the way that it looks, it looks so professional that I thought it was a big team. That's crazy that it's volunteer and so much hours and work have gone into it. I just can't wait to see the results of this year's conference. Congrats on your fourth year. If we could take a little, a step in a different direction and ask a lofty question. And it was really speaking about the future of STEM fields in relation to diversity, but also just in relation to, to stem. And I was wondering if you could give your opinion of maybe where, as an industry we're headed, where would you like us to go? Where something that we still have to work on. And then maybe what's something that gives you hope?

Diana 36:08

There is a lot of new technology popping out left and right all the time recently that there is a lot of new fields to explore. Even within my own field, like going into automation was a jump that was like, this is what's coming up in, this is what everybody's talking about. Let's get on it now. But also the diversity is taking a big, It's taking space in the room. There is a lot of new things created to address different, minority groups and to create a diversity and inclusion, whether it is within like us working within our companies or making things like this. The fact that latina engineer.com was available just to like purchase, just, you know, any trouble was incredible. It was like no one has made anything like this. There has an interest. Yeah.

Alexis 36:53

And so that sad. It's sad, but it's, yeah. It's also shocking at the same time.

Diana 36:58

But luckily we're working towards it and I know I'm not the only one creating things like this, and so I know there is a lot to come, and I know those numbers are also increasing from when I went to school, which was only five years ago. Now there is people that, now the numbers have been changing for Latinas are still small, there. Still too small to count specifically how many percentage is in engineering, but it's changing and you start meeting people and you start meeting students and knowing what they're doing. And a lot of them are being also taking space and talking about their experience. And so it makes it easier to share that. That knowledge and that there's room for us.

Alexis 37:36

I love that it's now taking space because I think that it needed to take space a long time ago. I think STEM has been homogenous and has been predominantly white and predominantly male for a very long time. So I love that the conversation is finally taking center stage because I think as an industry we've been too quiet about it and too comfortable with being quiet about it. It is crazy for you to mention, to be like, yeah, my U R L was still available, is wild. It shouldn't have been. There's no reason that it shouldn't have been. I'm happy it was for you, but, and that you could create this organization in this movement. But you're right, it shouldn't have been available. I do love that younger generation, Is speaking up in five years, hasn't been that much time since you were in school, but the fact that it's already had such a big change is a wonderful thing, and I feel like you can feel it. You can feel that energy that we're about to change, which is a pretty wonderful kind of addictive thing that you're like, this is finally, this is happening and this is gonna move us in the right direction.

Diana 38:35

Definitely. One thing that I've seen change also a lot was going from my first pair of steel toes to like now having like entire brands at Adverse Women and it's just in conversations that we have a lot in the office and we have like codes and we have a cheat sheet of these are the brands that we recommend. That has completely changed from having this one option that was not female friendly to now it's like you have all these options and there's more

Alexis 38:58

coming. Oh, completely. I think that's been a beauty a beautiful change in this industry is all of a sudden that. Everything that has come with increased diversity is all of a sudden part of the conversation. So we have better work wear, we have more accessible brands, we have better things out there. To end us up, I just wanted to ask, and I've been asking about advice throughout this interview just because I think that you're a wealth of knowledge and a wonderful kind of resource. And all of your platform is also really heavily based on, on, on advice. I was wondering if you could speak to someone who's just starting their education or career in engineering, what would be your advice to them? And maybe if they're struggling, if they're going through something hard, what has helped you get through that rough patch?

Diana 39:44

Some advice would be first to focus on the things that. Inspire you that you're passionate about, that would always win and will help you get through things. When I was through my career, it was challenging at times. I would start my classes with the lowest grade and eventually build it up, and it took courage to understand that was just the pattern on my classes. I could have given up on the first exam and leave it there. And so I eventually had to learn that I had to go through all that. Try new things and don't give up on the first time. Sometimes it's just, you're tired and it just, We won't click until you go to sleep and come back in the morning. And so it's just, address your needs. But the second part would be to ask questions and be, curious about it. You always are gonna go through that learning experience and if you don't ask, something's gonna take you longer to find out. And you won't know things. And I think that's something that has helped with confidence. Feeling like you have a space and building also those relationships or a community that you can, rely on or that can support you building that, dream team or like that group of friends that you're all going to the same thing Is gonna bring you up and it's gonna be able to help each other, whether it's homework or with time management or with books that they already use that you could use now. It's just. Make those connections. Don't just sit in the corner and worry about like you have to go out there and talk and meet those people because they'll help you get through the, we're all going through the same

Alexis 41:04

journey. Yes, a hundred percent. And finding your people and finding your friends. And I think too of of just relaying how long lasting some of those friendships will probably be in your life and how impactful they'll be. And even maybe there might be some seasons where they're not at. Part of your life every single day. Just having that experience and having that community and building it in school and then continuing it, it's gonna affect your life. I like your advice of kind of understanding your flow or understanding what. Is your learning curve that maybe it's just gonna take a little bit of time until you grasp the concepts and you might fail the first couple. But it's okay. You'll get there in the end. Wonderful advice. Just fantastic to talk to you and to meet you in person. It was so lovely to speak with you. Thank you for all the work that you do. I can't wait to see the next level of mentor mentees that are just about to start and kind go through it. And I also can't wait to see, and to hear more about the conference that's coming up in October. It's gonna be absolutely amazing and it was just so lovely to learn about Latinas engineers. Thank you for coming onto the show. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. And for everyone watching, and listening, thank you so much for coming onto the show. Thank you for listening to us for tuning in. We appreciate you and we will see you next day. Bye.