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Fionnghuala O’Reilly

Our STEPS Ambassarod, Fionnghuala O'Reilly, Miss Universe Ireland and NASA Datanaut, believes that engineering and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers are secretly some of the most creative and artistic jobs in the world. 

Read all about how Fionnghuala got into engineering below:

How did you first become interested in engineering?

I was a curious kid and always liked math and science. 

I first learned about what it really meant to be an engineer at a summer program at the University of California, Berkeley where I studied STEM subjects during summers as a teenager. 

I always loved the idea of creating things for the future, and now that's what I do!

Why did you choose to study engineering?

I wanted to study something that would give me some technical skills. I thought it would be cool to learn how to code and create things that are useful for society. I am so glad I did. 

It wasn't easy, that's for sure, but it made me confident that I could overcome any obstacle. 

Being an engineer is all about being a problem solver and you can apply that to a lot of different kind of jobs and even to your life.

How did you get to where you are now?

It wasn't a linear path. Sometimes I had no idea where my journey would take me. 

I'm a millennial and we inherited a tricky world where it's hard to pick a direction for your life, but I pursued the things that interested me and got good at a wide variety of things. 

Often we are told that we have to sacrifice our passions to pursue more practical things--that's not true at all. 

I have so many passions and have found ways to bring them together. 

What do you enjoy about engineering?

I love that engineering and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers are secretly some of the most creative and artistic jobs in the world. 

As an engineer, I get to bring my imagination to life.

You get to build and create for a future that you want to see and to me, that is powerful.

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