In recognition of National Engineers Week (EWeek) February 20-28, CMA will be highlighting some of our women engineers throughout the week!
Thy Duong, E.I. is an electrical engineer in our Jacksonville office. Thy has been with the CMA family for nearly three years. We asked Thy to share some information about why she became an engineer.
Why I chose civil engineering: I am from Vietnam and have been in America for over six years. I earned my first bachelor’s degree of business administration in marketing in Vietnam, then I moved to the U.S and graduated summa cum laude from UNF with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a minor degree in mathematics in 2020.
When I was in high school, I exceled in science and math classes. I think I inherited these traits from my dad who was a physics and math teacher. After finishing high school, I had to decide what career to pursue. My dad and others advised me not to choose any major relating to engineering because it is a male-related field, which means it would be impossible for me to find a job as a female engineer. There is a fact that in Vietnam they usually require only men for engineering positions, so I gave up and chose a different major. I chose business, which was supposed to be more suitable for a girl. However, when I had a chance to move to America and attend school again, I decided to pursue what I gave up before because I believe that in America, women have the same opportunities as men to obtain jobs or be promoted. I believe it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life because I am doing what I like and what I am good at – engineering.
Fun facts: The first picture was taken when I graduated from UNF. Due to the pandemic, I had a virtual graduation ceremony instead of an in-person ceremony, but nothing was able to prevent me from celebrating my four-year effort. In my cap and gown, I went to school with a mask on and took pictures so that I would never forget what had been going on that year. The printed circuit board was supposed to be installed in our senior design project but we have not gotten a chance to come back to the lab to place it
The second picture was taken when I attended the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) Energy Connections Conference & Trade Show in Orlando with my CMA staff members in November 2021. https://www.nspe.org/
