During my education I faced some difficulties such as underestimation of women engineers. This motivated me to attend a women engineering associations in the US and Turkey as well as Turkish Women International Network (TurkishWIN) which is a leadership program for Turkish women globally. My experiences from these associations helped me to realize that women in general need encouragement and support in their career. The people that I met in these associations stated that there should be more encouragement for not only women, but also other minorities such as first generation college students because these minority students are not usually aware of what they can achieve with fair opportunity and guidance. This made me realize that the reason for the current student distribution in my department might not only be student choices, but the fact that some people did not even get the chance.

In the following years, I became involved in a number of activities to reach out to minority students and introduce them to structural/civil engineering. Organizations such as Women with White Hardhead and TurkishWIN helped me to reach out many young women who are seeking for better education and needs some guidance to achieve their goals. I became a mentor and help new college students, transition to college life and engineering. Through these activities, my main goal was to raise awareness of different education opportunities and to show people that these opportunities are attainable.