Women are still underrepresented in the field of engineering in 2019 but are nonetheless striving and succeeding in breaking the boundaries of science and engineering. They have a diverse set of passions, struggles, failures, accomplishments, and role models that comprises who they are and what they do. With this portrait series, we highlight that diversity through the thoughts, feelings, and stories of just a few of our Michigan Engineering graduate students.









![“There's only a few families that I know that have a complete family [in Suriname]. So a lot of the people I knew, grew up without a father figure. The mom does all the housework and the cooking and then also brings in the money, you know, making sure the family stays together, whereas the dad is the more unreliable figure in the family. In Suriname, it's more like women have to study science or else they will be stuck in the financial situation that they are in. We have a lot of women in sciences and doing their medical degree. So I think that's part of why I feel confident in sciences. We were expected to do it.” -Angela Wu, third year Mechanical Engineering PhD Student](https://cm-web-news-files.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/03/somyaportraitseries011.jpg)