Women Engineers: Many Paths to a Rewarding Life

Kerry Foley ‘91
Lawyer and mother

“Just because you majored in engineering doesn’t mean you have to be an engineer. It doesn’t limit you, it actually opens up other opportunities that other majors don’t. It helps in many fields. They teach you a way to think. The problem solving skills that you learn can be applied to any field.”

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering '91

Currently a lawyer and mother.

I had looked at a number of different schools -- some geared just at engineering – but I liked BU, the campus, and all the things available in Boston. It’s a strong school located in a fun place.

I was nervous when I arrived because it was such a big place. But the College of Engineering was not. I felt like I knew a lot of people right away. It seemed smaller, more comfortable -- a lot more collegial environment than I thought it would be, and it made the larger university feel much less overwhelming.

Women weren’t treated any differently. I wouldn’t have wanted to be treated differently. We were treated as equals and we were all students. People were judged on their merits and how well they did.

After undergrad, I stayed at the College of Engineering for grad school. With the path I was on, I thought I’d do research for a living, but it turned out I didn’t enjoy it that much. I remembered while in undergrad, I’d had a summer job at a law firm. It was something new every day, and there was always some problem that needed to be solved, which was very similar to engineering but using more words and with no electronics involved! I found it very intellectually stimulating.

 I think the professor and class that had the most impact on my becoming a lawyer had to have been Professor [Kenneth] Lutchen’s senior project class. We were doing a project and making an oral presentation and having to explain our projects to people who were not experts in the field. As a lawyer, I’ve had to do that many times, explain complex concepts to a judge and jury. That initial experience of standing in front of a crowd taught me I really liked doing that. It was a great experience and helped quite a bit in law school and later.

Just because you majored in engineering doesn’t mean you have to be an engineer. It doesn’t limit you; it actually opens up other opportunities that other majors don’t. They teach you a way to think. The problem solving skills that you learn can be applied to any field.

I am a commercial litigator, though very part time now [with two children, Jack and Maggie], doing product liability work. Because of my science degree, I’d talk to expert witnesses. They gave me anything that involved scientific witnesses because I wasn’t afraid to read a journal article.