By Kent State University
Featuring Sydney Bihn, 2019 Brooke Owens Fellow
Since high school, Sydney Bihn’s plan was to become a teacher, specifically in middle childhood education. When it came time to choose a university, she wanted to stay in Ohio to take advantage of in-state tuition.
She visited several Ohio universities, including the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Ohio State University and Miami University. Then, she and her father toured Kent State. While visiting campus, Bihn says, “I got that feeling.
“I felt it was a place where I could just be myself and whoever I wanted to be, without judgment,” she says. “There were all kinds of people here, everybody doing their own thing.”
During her time at Kent State, Bihn realized that education wasn’t her true calling. After talking with career counselors and her mentors, she made the bold switch from education to aerospace engineering three years into her time on campus.
She will be the first woman to graduate from Kent State with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. She is excited to be a trailblazer, but also aware of the lag in women entering STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields nationwide. “There’s a significant issue,” she says. “Diversity in general, not just women, especially women of color. It’s disappointing that we’re still at that point in society that women aren’t encouraged as much as they should be to enter STEM fields.”
Read more at https://www.kent.edu/kent/news/finding-her-fit-kent-state-make-impact