Did you know women only make up 24% of the STEM workforce? That’s why it is so important to recognize when women are making great strides in STEM careers, so they can inspire other women and girls to join one of the fastest-growing industries.
Krysten Minnici, 21, is one of those women. As the President of Drexel’s chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Krysten has a position of power not only as a woman in a male-dominated career, but as a female leader at a historically engineering-focused institution.
Her time at AIChE began when she the then-president in an elevator in the CAT building during her sophomore year. She attended a general body meeting that fall and was soon elected secretary. That winter term, she was elected president.
AICHE is a globally recognized organization for the chemical engineering profession. “For over 100 years AIChE has been working to distinguish and define chemical engineering as a profession and the student chapters hold the same goal,” Krysten said.
As president Krysten holds a lot of responsibilities. “I plan our events for each upcoming quarter and delegate tasks to my wonderful executive board to help me organize everything,” she said. She also keeps the faculty up to date on what the group is doing and contacts guest speakers to attend events.
On top of these responsibilities, Krysten is a junior in the B.S./M.S. program, studying for her Chemical Engineering Bachelor’s degree, and her Master’s in Materials Science Engineering. Krysten, however, enjoys her busy schedule.
“My responsibilities as President take a decent amount of time each week, but it’s something I’ve very passionate about and enjoy doing. I love learning about opportunities in chemical engineering and exploring different areas of interest. Any time I have spent planning or attending events has been extremely beneficial,” Krysten said.
Her time with AIChE has even influenced Krysten’s career path. During their Chemical Engineering Professional Panel, the organization had four chemical engineers from the Delaware Valley Local Section of AIChE to speak about their careers and answer student questions.
“While speaking with the members of the panel, I learned about working as consultant, such as Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.,” Krysten said. “Prior to this event, I never realized what working as a consultant meant. One of the engineers was a recent Drexel graduate and described her work as similar to our senior design projects.” Although Krysten may not be interested in this field in the future, it is always useful to learn about new opportunities.
Additionally, a licensed Professional Engineer spoke to the group about the important of licensure. From this event, Krysten learned how a license that is not required of chemical engineers may be useful to her in the future, and learned about the steps needed to achieve this.
As a female leader in engineering at Drexel, Krysten is a model STEM student. Drexel is lucky to have her as a mentor and inspiration for younger students.