Speaker: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the hosts and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker: Freshman year I came in undecided.

Speaker: I'm finance, entrepreneurship, anthropology.

Speaker: I'm a senior architecture student.

Speaker: I'm involved in the blockchain club here.

Speaker: I'm very passionate about studying abroad.

Speaker: Classes are going great.

Speaker: And then obviously very involved with my sorority.

Speaker: I'm thriving.

Meredith Aliff 

Hi, I'm Meredith Aliff. And this is major insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus.

Marguerite Smith always wanted to be, and to do, more than just one thing in college. And now as an Electrical Engineering and Engineering Management double major with a focus on Pre-Law, she is poised to make all of her dreams and goals come true.

As the President of the Society of Women Engineers, she’s not only excelling as a leader in a traditionally male dominate field, Marguerite is also helping to inspire a new generation of female engineers to pursue the profession.

We’ll also talk about some stereotypes around engineering students, and about college in general -- and about overcoming imposter syndrome, about finding the support to succeed, and about learning how to take a break, while still accomplishing everything you want to accomplish.

Meredith Aliff 

My first question for you is, who are you?

Marguerite Smith 

I am Marguerite Smith. I'm a senior. I'm about to graduate. And I've done a lot of cool things in college.

Meredith Aliff 

Well, I cannot wait to dive in. But before we get to the college part, let's go back to before college and what brought you to Miami.

Marguerite Smith 

Miami was not my first choice, but it was the best choice. And it ended up being a financial decision. I realized that student debt sucks. And I really don't want that. And Miami gave me a really nice scholarship to attend. And it had my major. And the more I attended sessions and in person tours, the more I realized that I had the opportunity here in particular, to be more than one thing. I felt like at other schools that I was considering, they wanted me to just be an engineer, or just be a business student, or just be a student athlete. I couldn't do it all at once. But here, they said, why not do it all?

Meredith Aliff 

That's great. And that's ... I mean, every college has kind of they're like, this is how we're gonna hook you type thing. But seeing Miami and the work that they put in, like you see hundreds of students walking around on tours, and like, you go on major specific tours, and like all this stuff, they really get you, they get you good,

Marguerite Smith 

I received a handwritten note from a female engineering student to my home address. And it was like we really want you to come. We love that we've been able to accept you and, you know, reach out if you have any questions, we'd love to talk to you. And that was really nice, because it just felt so personal.

Meredith Aliff 

You can't beat that, literally can't beat that. Well, we've touched a little bit just now in your response about your majors. But it sounds like you came in knowing that those were the things you wanted to do. So what are your majors? And when did you decide that you wanted those to be your majors?

Marguerite Smith 

I am Electrical Engineering and Engineering Management double major. And then I'm also pre law. So I came in just as electrical engineering. My dad's an engineer, so I kind of always knew I'd be an engineer. But the plan was always law school going in. So I was wondering, you know, how do you make that transition from engineering to law school? How do you make that better? And then I ended up coming in with a lot of credits. And they said, I graduate early, which doesn't really work for the law school timeline, you need time to take the LSAT and prepare and apply to schools. So that wasn't working with me. And so they said, I could add to minors or major, and I really wanted to do like a business minor. But they said, you're better off just doing the double major in business. And I said, Okay, if you think I can, then I can. And it's been really great.

Meredith Aliff 

Love that. I've never heard of anybody with those majors. So can you talk to me a little bit about what that entails? What kind of jobs those people go after? Like, what does that kind of lead to?

Marguerite Smith 

Electrical Engineering is super broad. People always ask, like, what does an engineer really do? And that's like, honestly, a great question. Because you can do so many things. Yeah. Okay. My dad's a coffee scientist with an engineering background. Yeah, so you can do so many things you just don't even know of. But I entered as electrical, which is super broad, very relevant right now since Tech's just growing and growing. But with engineering management, you're gonna see more project managers, leadership, operations, supply chain, things like that. So I kind of wanted the best of both. And it's been really nice to have that business core, plus the hard technical sciences of engineering, because I feel like I can really get out of my comfort zone. I don't know if I ... it always came naturally for either of them. So I had to learn really what was best and how I could be the best at both. It's just been really great to be able to do everything all at once.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah. So going with the plan to go to law school, is there kind of a way to combine both of those?

Marguerite Smith 

Yeah. law is super broad, but I'd say if you're an engineer, your most likely path is going to be patent law. So you're going to be the one protecting inventions of engineers working with the lawyers, and you're kind of that middleman who makes sure the government protects the work of inventors. But you have to be able to understand the invention yourself on a deep level like an engineer would. So it does require that hard stem engineering background to pursue. So I am uniquely qualified to pursue that. But you know, if I go to law school and say, Oh, my God, tax law is so interesting. There's nothing stopping me from doing that. Law is great. You can major in anything and be a lawyer in so many things.

Meredith Aliff 

That's so cool. Are there any teachers or classes that you would like to kind of shout out today while you're talking?

Marguerite Smith 

I would like to shout out Dr. Hartup and Dr. Scott of the electrical and computer engineering department. They both are phenomenal professors, but they also do really great outreach work with the local high school to kind of get them excited about engineering. So I really personally love that. And then Miss Tina is my boss in the ECE department, and she's letting me miss work for this. So I wanted to shout her out too.

Meredith Aliff 

Queen. Love that. I feel like it just even just a little bit we've been talking, the engineering department is like really personal and cares a lot like, you got that handwritten letter from a student. And they're reaching out to kids that aren't even in college yet to teach them about engineering, like, how cool.

Marguerite Smith 

The College of Engineering really goes the extra mile. And that was not something I really recognized early on. I've just seen it as I've gotten older. And I've appreciated it because I see my friends at Ohio State or Illinois, phenomenal engineering programs. But there's 200 kids in the classroom, they've never talked to their professors in person. They don't know them. How do you get a rec letter? How do you ask them a question? When there's 20 kids waiting in office hours? I just feel like I've had the chance to become that really personal connection to my professors and my peers.

Meredith Aliff 

Give me a little bit of a rundown of your day, because obviously you do more than just class. So on any given day of the week, what does your day look like?

Marguerite Smith 

I always say I just never live at home, I just sleep at home. So I'm always up early, I usually ... I have a lift in the morning for my training, and I'll go with one of my teammates or a friend. And I'll probably be in the gym by seven. And then I'm out of there by probably 8:30, then I have to go home shower, make breakfast, and I'm on my way to class, I always have class at 10 promptly, like every day. And once I'm in class, I'm probably in class or lab until maybe, I don't know, 2pm 4pm depending on the day, and in breaks in between I work in ECE office and put in some hours, and then after that I go home, either make a quick dinner or do some studying. And then I'm back in the engineering building probably for some student organization meeting, and I'm probably in the building till eight, go home, make maybe second dinner? And or maybe have a little treat. And then, yeah, I'm doing homework and studying probably till midnight, and then it's time for bed. I do it all over again.

Meredith Aliff 

Crazy. So I heard a lot about training with my teammates, and then clubs and organizations, what kind of things are you involved on are involved in?

Marguerite Smith 

Yeah. I'm involved in a lot. And it's all stuff that I love. So it's hard to part with, which makes my life so busy, but I love it. So I'm the president of the Society of Women Engineers, we do all these activities and fun things for women and engineering, or there's guys who come. They are called Swallies. Our girls are called Sweesters. And nice. That's been a really good thing. And then I'm the president of the IEEE ADA kappa new Honors Society for electrical and computer engineers. And what we do is we do volunteer tutoring hours every day of the week for anyone, any students, business students can come in if they need help with that. I think business students have to take calc one. So we've had a lot of students come in for that, we have college of engineering students from 100 to 400. level classes come in for help. We have freshmen to grad students who volunteer, it's amazing. It's really cool. And then I'm on the Miami Beach Volleyball team. And I'm also on the women's indoor club volleyball team. And we practice twice a week for that. So always had some practice or some lift or club. I'm just spending time with people.

Meredith Aliff 

Do you feel overwhelmed ever? Or, are you the type of person that's like, if I'm not moving, something's wrong.

Marguerite Smith 

That's exactly it, if ... I don't know how to sit still, and everyone tells me that. I don't let grass grow under my feet is what my grandpa says. But I really like being out with people. And spending time doing things I really enjoy with them.

Meredith Aliff 

Well, that's so cool. Well, you mentioned just like very nonchalantly when we weren't recording this that you're nationally ranked in beach volleyball. How does one become nationally ranked and beach volleyball.

Marguerite Smith 

Beach volleyball is cool, because you can be an individual. And you can rank highly, you don't need an entire team. So you travel and start playing in tournaments around the country. And the better you get, the more high profile the tournaments are, you get points to your ranking. And then you start to win money. Sometimes. If you do well enough, and then you just start to kind of become someone who chases these high profile tournaments around the east and west coasts, they're all over. So for me that was chasing them up and down the east coast was the biggest tournaments in the country. And if I have the chance to win some money while doing it, great, but I really just do it because it's fun. And I get to meet with people. It's an Olympic style doubles. So it's only two people and you touch the ball every time it's served. So I just love that it's so ... it's just such a intense game, but it's also really fun.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, and it's .... I mean, beach volleyball. I did it one time, just for fun, because they have the little areas outside of the dorms here that have the beach volleyball, and I did it with my family. My whole family was visiting. We were practicing, and they were like, do we want to just like start up a game? Oh my gosh, there's something about that sand. That makes it like 10 times harder than regular volleyball.

Marguerite Smith 

It's hard to move, you can't really jump, you're ... you get dirty and you get sand in your eye. So it's much more difficult. Yeah. But I think it's more fun to throw your body across the ground and it doesn't hurt.

Meredith Aliff 

Absolutely, for sure. Well, that is so cool. So talk to me about ... has there been any internships, jobs, study abroad, anything like that, that's kind of more enhanced your college experience?

Marguerite Smith 

All of the above, I've been very lucky. I've had three internships, one of them being engineering, two of them being more legal related. I worked for Air Products and Chemicals as a patent intern with their legal team. And then I worked for Textron systems in Baltimore as a contracts intern on their weapons team. I studied abroad in South Korea and Japan this past winter, which was really cool. That was awesome. That was my first time leaving the country. So that was a lot of fun. I did that through the business school. That's how I finished my business credits. But it was cool that I got to do that.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah. And I think for electrical engineering, isn't Tokyo like one of the main technical like places of the world?

Marguerite Smith 

Yeah, we went with the supply chain group. So that's who ... we were there studying supply chain. And that has a lot of really close ties to engineering, which was really cool for me, because I got to see Kia Motors, and we went to see their assembly line and their processes that build their electric vehicles. And we got to go to Tokyo and see how they manufacture like Japanese beauty products that like we use every day in skincare and shampoos and conditioners. So it was really cool to get to see all these companies up close that are just really revolutionising the way that we manufacture and recover from supply chain issues.

Meredith Aliff 

Absolutely. And then going back to the internships just for a second. So obviously, you hear a lot in college about the benefit of internships and things like that. Did you feel that benefit? And what would you maybe say to somebody who was thinking about doing an internship but not really sure where to start? Or where to even find one? What kind of things would you tell them,

Marguerite Smith 

I would say, totally do an internship, I would say do multiple, I'd say make them different. I found all mine at random corners of the internet. I know people go to Career Fair and have a really good experience. But I would say like search on LinkedIn for internships, even if you're a freshman, I found one as a freshman, and it was a total Hail Mary, I didn't think I would get one. But it was awesome. I got to meet so many cool people. I have great connections, I got to live out on my own in a new part of the country, by myself for the first time. And that was a huge learning experience. And I just highly recommend doing it. I love it so much. I would love to just do it again. If I could. I don't have time. But I'd love to.

Meredith Aliff 

One thing that kind of stuck out to me as you were saying that is taking advantage of your resources. Like there are ways to do it. You just have to do it.

Marguerite Smith 

Yeah, I just google search internships and in whatever I want to do. I apply to random ones I'm not qualified for. "We want to senior." Well, I'm a freshman. Tough. I'm going to apply anyway. So, yeah, you have to apply to like 200, just to your back for five. And that's the way it goes. So, yeah, just don't be discouraged by that.

Meredith Aliff 

Obviously, you've had a lot of success in college, but with success does come challenges and hurdles and obstacles. So what are some of the biggest challenges that you've had to overcome?

Marguerite Smith 

I think some of the biggest challenges I've had are internal. It's that imposter syndrome. It's being that only girl in your engineering class and wondering, why am I here? Am I good enough to be here? You know, everyone seems so much smarter than me. Like, they know what they're doing. And they, they build these amazing robots in their free time. And I don't do that. So it's really easy to wonder, you know, am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? And do I belong here. But I've had a really great support system with my family, my friends, and even my peers who I got to know better once the pandemic kind of came to a close, that they've reminded me that I do belong here. And it's not just that I can exist, but I can be a leader too. So I've just been really lucky. But there are days where, you know, it's hard and you're not always respected. And, you know, they tell you, you got your internship because you're a girl. And those things happen. And there are people like that, but you have to learn how to move on past that and be true and who you know that you are.

Marguerite Smith 

One thing that's kind of been overarching, and our whole conversation is, being a woman in this field, is this something that has run through for your entire four years here, that it's just not a very female populated field?

Marguerite Smith 

My department in particular is not, for whatever reason, electrical and computer and robotics majors just ... we lose girls all the time. A lot of people just don't make it. And that's the way it is at freshman-sophomore year. But the girls who make it through are some of the most phenomenal engineers I've ever met. So I really love to see where they're going and how they're doing. Because I hope that when there's a new freshman or sophomore girl who's not really sure if she should be in the room, that I can kind of show her that she does belong here.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, and taking those leadership positions in the organizations that you're a part of is kind of helping you even more to be that for other people, whether you're actually interacting with them personally or not, they see you and they see a successful woman in engineering, and it will push them forward. So I think you're doing a really great thing. Okay, so did you have any preconceived stereotypes about college? And have they held up? Or have you been able to debunk them?

Marguerite Smith 

I think entering college knowing I was going to engineering, you know, you think like, oh, my gosh, they're nerds, and they don't like to do fun things or, you know, be social, and they don't know how to talk to each other and stuff. And, yeah, sometimes that does ring true, like sometimes, you know, we will be in the lab at, you know, 11pm on a Saturday. And there's no way around that, you know, it's ... we're hanging out, but not by choice. But I'd say other notions of college I had were like, it's gonna be one big party, and I'm worried I'm gonna get distracted. And, oh, when I could go to, you know, this party, what am I going to do? I have homework due. I feel like there's a balance, and it's really easy to be a part of that if you want to be a part of, you know, having a social life, being in Greek life is a great option to meet a ton of people. But for me, my social was sports. So I didn't feel the need to reach out for other things. But if I didn't have sports, I probably would have joined a sorority, I would have liked to have just an automatic network of friends and people I could hang out with and be social with, kind of away from the classroom. Because with the engineers, we are mostly friends in the classroom.

Meredith Aliff 

Is that girl that lets your use her meal swipes on the team, or do you know her through ... ?

Marguerite Smith 

She's not. She's actually an engineer. I took her under my wing. I saw her when she was a freshman robotics major, I think one of the only girls, and she seemed like she kind of wanted to be involved. Was a little shy. So I made her my vice president of the Society of Women Engineers, I said, "You should be leadership." And I kind of just threw her in there. And she's done so well. So she's lined up to do really great things when I leave. So I really just have been able to kind of integrate her to a place where I want it to be. And I had a senior who did that for me when I was a freshman. So I think it's really just passing on that love that the College of Engineering has showed me. So she does buy my dining hall lunches sometimes because, you know, I'm just a hungry senior, but I appreciate her for everything she's done to look after what I've built here.

Meredith Aliff 

And what a great way to kind of pay forward what somebody did for you to also be that for somebody else. That's super cool.

Marguerite Smith 

Yeah, I was encouraged to do all the things I do by a now-alum three years ago, and she said, You shouldn't run For exec. you should join this club, you should do this. That would be fun if you did that. I said, Okay, you know, she's really smart. She's successful. She has a job. She thinks I should do this. Maybe I should?

Meredith Aliff 

You should probably listen to her.

Marguerite Smith 

Yeah, it was right to listen to her. So yep. Just trying to pay that forward.

Meredith Aliff 

Awesome. So I have one more question for you. If you could go back and talk to yourself coming into college, having no idea what's about to happen in these next four years? What would you say to yourself?

Marguerite Smith 

I say this to myself. And I would even say this to myself now, but have more fun. I was so nervous about my GPA and getting an A minus versus an A, and you do need a good GPA to go to law school. Like that's very true. But I could still do that and cut myself some slack. Because when you cut yourself some slack, it's not, you know, giving up on yourself. You everyone deserves that break. And that's something I didn't give myself for the longest time. I've only just now getting better at giving myself that time, that rest, that break when I need it. Because I'm always so go, go go and I want to "what's next? What's the next thing? What do I have to do? What can I get ahead on? What can I accomplish in his free time? I have an hour to sit? Oh, I should do something with it." You don't always have to, sometimes you can just sit and exist. I love Pinterest. So it's okay to scroll on Pinterest, and just be kind of a vegetable for a minute. It's okay.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah. Turn on some Friends, turn on some Modern Family, like a little comfort show.

Marguerite Smith 

Yep. Just let it play and just lay down. Sometimes you just want to lay down, and I just don't. So I would tell myself to have more fun and give more time back to yourself.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah. And I love that. You said I still have to tell that to myself today. Because it's a hard thing to be like, hey, just chill out for a second.

Marguerite Smith 

I'm still figuring it out. Very much so.

Meredith Aliff 

That's so funny. Well, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to talk with you and getting to know you. Is there anything else that you want to share before we leave today?

Marguerite Smith 

If there's any, you know, future college students or high school students listening to this, no matter where you go to college, I just think you should do what's best for you, and not worry about what other people might say or might think. Because whatever you want to do and what you think is best is the right choice. And I think that's been very true for me throughout my experience. So, do what you feel you need to do.

Meredith Aliff 

Amazing way to go out.

Marguerite Smith 

Thank you. I try.

Meredith Aliff 

Marguerite Smith is Electrical Engineering and Engineering Management double major with a focus on Pre-Law. After graduation she plans to take a job in the engineering field before transitioning to law school.

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