Middle and high school students learn about the possibilities of engineering during the Go ENG Girl event at Conestoga College on Saturday.

Conestoga College and its Cambridge School of Engineering and Technology invited girls and non-binary students in grades seven to ten to learn and interact with different engineering activities. The event is sponsored by the Ontario Network for Women in Engineering (ONWIE). Its goal is part of a provincial initiative to encourage more women and non-binary individuals to pursue careers in engineering.

The students went through different practical stations and learned about the different sectors of engineering. They also connect with female professionals, graduates and engineering students.

Attendees also had the opportunity to listen and ask questions to a panel.

Zoe Talbot, a fourth-year engineering student, was one of the panelists and had also come to Go ENG Girl as a teenager.

“In high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. So my dad said to me, ‘Hey, Zoe, there’s this Go ENG Girl event at Conestoga College,'” Talbot said.

Talbot attended in 2018 and said she found it interesting and decided to pursue a degree in mechanical systems engineering at Conestoga College.

“In high school, there are so many things you can do, so going to events like this, it’s really nice to be able to think about it in a broader perspective,” Talbot said.