Gifty Kessie
Gifty strives to break barriers wherever she goes. Being a female person of color in the engineering field, while also being a first-gen student, can be daunting. Gifty has taken on these challenges and has used it as motivation to rise above.
During middle and high school, Gifty participated in a program called Eureka! This is a five-year STEM intensive program that engages females to develop confidence and leadership skills in the STEM field. Through this program, she landed two summer internships at Dell EMC where she was exposed to different types of engineering. Because of her experience, she decided to pursue higher education in Mechanical Engineering. “It helped me because it was the total opposite of what I did in class. It made me realize that in college, I shouldn’t just focus on my pathway. I should do other things as well to make myself well rounded.” In addition to Eureka!, Gifty also participated in UMass Lowell’s R.A.M.P program. This program provides support to incoming female engineers. What she learned during this six-week program helped her adjust to the rigorous course load of an engineering student quicker. |
By being a first-generation student, Gifty was very grateful to the different opportunities she had.
“I feel like being a first-generation college student helps me realize what different resources are out there and to take advantage of them.”
Gifty’s parents’ immigrants from Ghana and instilled the Ghanaian culture on her from a young age. In many cultures, women are thought of as homemakers however, Gifty’s talent and perseverance in the engineering field shows just how capable women are.
Representation means a lot to Gifty. When she was in high school, she went to conferences in different cities and would notice that most of the other students did not look like her. This observation also applies to her time in her engineering courses but instead of feeling frustrated by it, she is more motivated than ever to provide younger students with the representation that she wishes she had.
“During the first semester, I walked into my mechanical engineering lecture and there were only three black women there. I told myself that I was here for my education and it motivated me to stay.”
Gifty is very involved on and off campus. She currently works for Girls Inc. and is a part of Bottom Line and Let’s Get Ready. All of these organizations provide support to students like her.
You can catch Gifty at engineering events as she is an ambassador to the Francis College of Engineering!
“I feel like being a first-generation college student helps me realize what different resources are out there and to take advantage of them.”
Gifty’s parents’ immigrants from Ghana and instilled the Ghanaian culture on her from a young age. In many cultures, women are thought of as homemakers however, Gifty’s talent and perseverance in the engineering field shows just how capable women are.
Representation means a lot to Gifty. When she was in high school, she went to conferences in different cities and would notice that most of the other students did not look like her. This observation also applies to her time in her engineering courses but instead of feeling frustrated by it, she is more motivated than ever to provide younger students with the representation that she wishes she had.
“During the first semester, I walked into my mechanical engineering lecture and there were only three black women there. I told myself that I was here for my education and it motivated me to stay.”
Gifty is very involved on and off campus. She currently works for Girls Inc. and is a part of Bottom Line and Let’s Get Ready. All of these organizations provide support to students like her.
You can catch Gifty at engineering events as she is an ambassador to the Francis College of Engineering!