With The Chantilly Academy’s Girls Exploring Engineering (GE2) program well underway, four of the students recently explained why they enrolled in it and what they think of it so far.

"MY DAD’S an engineer, so I started on the Robotics team, my sophomore year," said Bethany Kroese. "Since then, I branched out into different projects. I did Engineering Physics last year and Engineering Systems this year." Noting that all the girls in the GE2 program are taking AP science classes, she said the new program is "a good way to see the real-life applications of what we’re learning."

Rahmath Mohamed began with Design Technology as a freshman. Then, she said, "I started Engineering Systems I in my sophomore year so I could see how I could implement design into engineering. In my junior year, I took Engineering Systems II and started working more in aerospace engineering. So I thought doing an independent-research project would help me understand how engineering and design are used in the real world."

Miki Bentz joined the academy’s Robotics team as a sophomore and it propelled her interest in engineering. She took Engineering Systems as a junior and now, in her senior year, she’s studying Engineering Physics.

Regarding the new class, she said, "So far, it’s really fun to learn about engineering, and it builds a solid background. I want to major in engineering in college so it’ll be really helpful."

As for Anisha Gorur, her dad’s an engineer, as well, and she’s always been interested in following in his path. "I like math, science and building things," she explained. Last year, she took Engineering Systems I and was a member of the Robotics team. And in the spring, she did an internship in bioengineering at GMU.

"That’s what I’m interested in," she said. "And this year, I’m taking Engineering Physics II. The class is fun because you do a lot of real-world applications, instead of just theoretical."