Sahana Cadersa wants to work in the automotive industry … Deal with it!
The 19-year-old mechanical engineering student, who starts her second year at Concordia this fall, often finds herself justifying her love of engines and cars to the outside world simply because she’s a woman.
That’s why Cadersa decided to add her voice to this week’s runaway #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag with a poignant tweet:
An Iron Ring is worn by many Canadian engineers after graduation — it’s an almost century-old symbol of the obligations and ethics of the profession.
“There’s no other kind of ring that shows what I’ve chosen to do by myself, for myself,” Cadersa says.
Her goal for September is to start work on one of the Concordia SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) racing projects. The program dovetails nicely with her interests in drag racing and building cars from kits. Additionally, Cadersa is keen to “kick it up a notch” in her faculty’s Women in Engineering association.
The #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag launched by Isis Wenger, a 22-year-old platform engineer in San Francisco, initially caught Cadersa’s eye on Instagram. She was excited by the momentum it generated in the press and, in particular, on social media: an initial 32,000 tweets and counting.
“It was a great opportunity to say ‘I’m here’ in a place where you’re often not heard,” says Cadersa, who studied at Toronto's Etobicoke School of the Arts before applying to Concordia.
She went into mechanical engineering for the challenge — and to help blaze a trail for other women.
Cadersa’s advice to her fellow female engineers? “Be strong. Just because there isn’t anyone who looks like you in the industry doesn’t mean you don’t belong. Pave the way.”
Find out more about the Concordia Society of Automotive Engineers.
