person of Jessamyn Smith (Computer ’02) tells us
influence By Jessamyn Smith (as told to Mari Sasano)
how she was inspired to pursue a career in engineering—through her own initiative, chance and the influence of those who’d gone before her.
A
s a kid, I was home-schooled, so I kind of got to do what I wanted. We lived out in the bush, so we didn’t have electricity. We didn’t have TVs or computers or anything like that. And you know, it’s funny—I was in second or third year of engineering, and my mom decided that it was time for me to go through my stuff from when I was a kid. The first year I’d gone to public school was
26 U OF A ENGINEER FALL 2014
Jennifer Roberts
Grade 6, and they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. I do remember that I was quite entranced by the computers, in particular Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? which was a popular game with many of us. And I had written that I wanted to be a computer mechanic. I was actually enrolled to go into education with the thought of being a high school math and science teacher, and then I
started to feel a lot of doubt about that, so I actually withdrew from the program and all I did was English. So I did my English class and worked for several years as a shortorder cook. Once I got really miserable about being a cook, I started doing informal interviews with everyone I met. I’d ask them what they did for work, if they liked it, what was the job like. I was sitting at the legion and I