Women in STEM: Julia Macon, Aerospace Engineering

Julia Macon is pursuing her aerospace engineering degree at Georgia Tech. Here she shares a little about her career and the inspiration behind it.

What is your specific area of STEM?
Aerospace Engineering

How would you explain your STEM field to young girls? 
We design and build planes and rockets and satellites and everything else that flies or goes into space.

What traits might a child possess that may indicate an interest or aptitude for your STEM field? 
Knack for building/inventing things, interest in astronomy and space, interest in learning how planes and rockets work, good at physics or understands the way things move and interact with each other.

What did you know about your STEM field when you were a child? 
I knew that aerospace engineers sent people to space and rovers to Mars. Also I guess I knew they built planes but I was more into space. My dad had me help him build a bunch of stuff around the house growing up. We built a telescope together and looked at Saturn. My parents always encouraged me and my siblings to follow our interests, and teachers at school (particularly science teachers) fueled my curiosity. It helped that I caught on to basic science principles really easily.
 
Why did you choose your STEM field? Were you inspired by someone?
I like space and want to be an astronaut so it was a pretty easy choice.

What are some really cool things that people in your profession work on? 
Astronauts, all things at NASA. If you watch the movies Apollo 13 or Martian, they will give you a pretty good idea of the cool stuff we can do in our job. A lot of students at my school work on satellite projects that will actually be launched into space so that's also cool. You might get to build things like the next Mars rover.

On the aircraft side of things, we design and build new planes and also fix old ones. This can be the commercial aircraft you fly on when you travel, or fighter jets. Several aerospace engineers also have their pilot’s license – it’s not really part of the job but is still a cool thing to think about!


 
Thank you for contributing, Julia!

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