Meet MacKenzie G.
MacKenzie is in the 9th grade in Columbia, South Carolina and loves robotics, cats, and playing soccer and basketball.
In the third grade, MacKenzie and her mom learned more about 4-H robotics, leading to her long standing love of robotics.
“At first, I was a bit skeptical because I saw that there would be older kids in there, but I gave it a chance and went to the first meeting. I ended up really enjoying it and stayed in that program for five years.”
After that program, MacKenzie participated in LEGO Robotics and Tetris Robotics, where she started working with the metal robots. MacKenzie is now on her high school robotics team and participates twice a week after soccer practice.
MacKenzie shares more about what afterschool robotics has taught her.
“It's definitely helped me with teamwork and working with different types of people. It's also helped my problem solving skills because I've learned to look at things from an engineering mindset. That's definitely helped with school and just different problems overall.”
MacKenzie tells us how she realized she had developed an engineering mindset.
“We were introduced to it, but I didn't really know what it was called. I did research and was like, ‘Oh, wait, maybe I have that!’ I started looking at things from an engineering mindset - basically just looking at different ways to solve problems and keeping an open mind, while also looking at it from a logical perspective.”
MacKenzie gives thanks to the family members and mentors that have helped her cultivate her love of engineering.
“My uncle is an engineer, so as I was growing up, I learned from him and watched him do his job. It inspired me to become an engineer and I also wanted to become the first female engineer in our family. He's our first male engineer.”
MacKenzie also remembers how instrumental her 4-H mentors were in her pursuit of STEM.
“In the 4-H program, my leader, Ms. Kemi, was also a very good mentor to me. Mr. Duane got me into 4-H, which really opened up my love, so he's also been a really big help. My teachers and the leader of the STEM program/robotics team.”
