Although a buff when it comes to concepts about bridge structuring, erosion control and waste water treatment, Christie Bryz-Gornia is not a typical engineer.

When the senior civil engineering major hears her 6 a.m. alarm ring, she knows it’s time to hit the books. After preparing in the morning, she jumps right into her schoolwork – work that occupies the majority of her time awake. Fully awake three hours later, Bryz-Gornia sets out on her 15 to 17-minute walk to campus, a walk that allows her to relax and reflect on her daily plans.

‘It’s pretty much like a work day, 60 hours a week,’ Bryz-Gornia said. ‘I get up around 6 or 7 before my 9:30 morning classes (and), on average, I’m on campus until 9:30 (p.m.)’

Bryz-Gornia, the youngest of her siblings, spends a great deal of her time determined to succeed in the predominately male field of engineering. After spending a part of her life in the shadow of her older sister – who first introduced her to engineering – Bryz-Gornia came to Syracuse University and decided to make a change.

‘When I came here I was a rather shy person,’ she said. ‘I wanted to be more independent. My sister never joined a sorority, so I thought, ‘I’ll be in one.”

Bryz-Gornia is now the oldest active member of Alpha Omega Epsilon, a professional engineering sorority geared toward connecting female engineering students in support of one another in the traditionally male-dominated field. Men make up 81.5 percent of undergraduate enrollment in engineering programs nationally, according to a report from the National Science Foundation in 2002 called ‘Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering.’

As a high school senior, Bryz-Gornia stayed overnight with SU students in a new program for prospective female engineering majors. This gave her the opportunity to see the possible relationships she could form among female students who wanted to succeed together. After spending a weekend with AOE students, Bryz-Gornia knew she belonged at SU, where some of the students she stayed with have remained her close friends.

‘I took advantage and stayed with a group of girls in AOE,’ she said. ‘I hit it off so easily with them. I had been to other schools too, and the girls were so boring. I saw (AOE) was close-knit and fun, too.’

After entering the university, Bryz-Gornia faced unexpected challenges in her classes. She was one of a handful of female students in the program.

‘It really shocked me, it shocked some of the guys, too,’ she said. ‘When I was in high school it was a 50-50 percent mix, not quite a huge difference.’

Although organizations like AOE are improving gender equality, Dr. Marjory Baruch, an adjunct professor in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, said students are not fully encouraged to explore beyond typically gender-specific fields.

Out of 39 students in Baruch’s introduction to computer science course, three are females. Baruch said she noticed a deeper gender problem may exist after asking her students why they are interested in engineering, and each male said he wanted to design video games. Females interested in design, Baruch said, are usually geared toward art rather than engineering. Some girls interested in digital photography, she used as an example, are pushed toward the art of photography instead of exploring the technical, computer-based side.

‘If they don’t know about science, math and engineering, they don’t think it’s a place where they can make a difference,’ said Baruch, who organizes the yearly Sonia Kovalevsky Festival, where female students from area high schools interested in math and science participate in workshops at SU. ‘I want to make sure we don’t lose an important resource, which are females.’

Bryz-Gornia, who has been both AOE president and vice president, is working hard to become a female making a difference in engineering, but has dealt with issues concerning sexism and gender inequality among her male peers. In her first year at the university, Bryz-Gornia remembered her surprise after a male classmate treated her as an object while surrounded by mutual friends.

‘When I was a freshman, you would have guys hit on you,’ she said. ‘I remember a guy in my class came up to me and smacked my butt. I yelled at him and he stopped, (but) stuff like that was a shock.

‘Now it’s different,’ Bryz-Gornia said. ‘I’m treated as one of the guys.’

Now older, she said she feels accepted among her male friends. Bryz-Gornia has confronted them more comfortably than before.

‘I can say, ‘How can you speak like that?’ but before it was different,’ she said.

Her sorority, though, has given Bryz-Gornia an outlet to feel comfortable, giving her encouragement to strive for her career goals knowing there are people with the same mindset surrounding her.

‘AOE has such a large presence and a strong community,’ she said. ‘Earlier today I was in the AOE office just chatting, just wandering around and catching up … I ran into one sister, and we haven’t talked for a month because of our (conflicting) schedules. We were talking for a half hour and we made a dinner date.’

Kathleen Joyce, the AOE chapter adviser and recruiting specialist for the ECS, has watched Bryz-Gornia illustrate how female students can be successful in a challenging educational area.

‘I just came in right by her on a Monday morning, and she’s studying,’ said Joyce, the founding adviser for the SU chapter.

Bryz-Gornia, though, believes the influence of AOE has helped further her drive in the engineering world.

‘I would attribute AOE in helping me mature a lot,’ she said. ‘I became president and vice president, and having those roles thinking that people could trust in me let me know I can do it.’

As one of the few engineering female faculty members, Julie Hasenwinkel said more women are capable of doing well in math and science, but many are not made aware of this.

‘I see a lot of very bright female students,’ said Hasenwinkel, a professor in biomedical and chemical engineering, ‘but they’re not encouraged to go into the field.’

Although she is an involved student leader on campus, Bryz-Gornia has taken her work in engineering a step further. Always involved in school, spending her summers taking classes since she was 5 years old, Bryz-Gornia has dedicated two of her college summers researching erosion control with civil and environmental professor Shobha Bhatia.

In the research, Bryz-Gornia helped put together a published report on the erosion control research, where Bhatia saw the talent within Bryz-Gornia.

‘She produced an outstanding report,’ Bhatia said. ‘She’s an extraordinary student. These kinds of experiences make an idea of what engineering is about.’

Published on November 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm