Jenny Marshall

Girls are engineers too, but Wichita State University senior Jenny Marshall isn't out to prove that; she's just doing what she's good at.

Marshall became interested in engineering in high school through involvement with WSU-sponsored Kansas BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology), which encourages students to consider careers in these fields.

Marshall competed in BEST's annual contests that challenge students to build robots designed to accomplish a predetermined task.

"Through BEST there's a ton of writing and presenting. You're doing what engineers are doing," Marshall said. "Every year there is a new theme and a new challenge, and I like a challenge."

After completing high school as a home-school student, Marshall continued her education at Wichita State. She plans to graduate this May with a degree in industrial engineering.

With encouragement from her father, Mark, an electrical engineer, and WSU adjunct faculty member Joan Wagner, Marshall has chosen to pursue a career in the field.

She has already accepted a job offer from Hawker Beechcraft for a position in leadership development. Marshall interned with the company the past two summers through WSU's cooperative education department.

She will be the first student from WSU to enter the leadership development program, which allows employees to rotate departments every six months for two years to become familiar with the company and find their niche.

But in the meantime, she has big plans for summer.

First, she's flying to Canada for an engineering competition, then to Europe for a vacation with her brother and three friends, and finally to Australia for World Youth Day, the largest youth event in the world.

This will be Marshall's second time attending the event, which was organized by Pope John Paul II to gather Catholic youth for service projects and fellowship.

Her traveling begins immediately after commencement on May 17.

No more than four hours after becoming a WSU alum, Marshall will catch a plane to Vancouver, Canada, for the 2008 Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Annual Conference where she will present the award-winning paper she co-authored in class at WSU.

With help from classmates Fabio Tobin and Gladys Collins, Marshall worked with the American Red Cross Distribution Center in Wichita to devise a plan that provided operation and facility improvements.

She earned the chance to compete in Vancouver after receiving first place for her presentation of the paper in early March at the 49th Annual IIE Region V Technical Paper Conference at Texas A&M University.

As much as she has excelled in engineering, Marshall admits she's not a big fan of math and squeezes in time to read whenever she can.

"I love reading and English," she said. "I read my Jane Austen on the side."

As one chapter in her life comes to a close with graduation quickly approaching, Marshall is looking forward to beginning the next when she returns from her summer abroad.

She starts her job at Hawker Beechcraft in the fall.