Meet Mallory, a Biomedical Engineering Student!
My name is Mallory Gullett. I am currently a Senior in Biomedical Engineering. I am from a small town in Tennessee where many people do not attend college, much less study engineering. Throw in being a Hispanic woman on top of that! I knew I wanted to go to college, I just did not know what I enjoyed other than math.
When I began to research college majors that included my main interests the results were disappointing. I discovered that only 2% of Hispanics have STEM jobs. Instead of letting this upset me, this is where my passion began. I wanted to make this percentage larger so I could inspire other Hispanic women. I enrolled in a Biomedical Engineering Program in the Fall of 2017. When I got to my Intro to Engineering Problem Solving class, I quickly saw that many students and teachers felt that women did not belong in the program. For me this was hard – I wanted to be accepted and I knew I would eventually need help with the course material. Who was I going to ask for help? The teacher who was not nice to women in the class? Or would I ask the boys that grouped together to solve problems before anyone else got to try? This is when I discovered different clubs.
The first two I joined were The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and Society of Women Engineers (SWE). While I am not a black engineer, I decided to join NSBE because they understood the lack of diversity within the engineering programs. I also decided to join SWE because I got to meet other women engineering students, and we would sit together in class and study together for tests. This was so helpful because they could relate to the same issues I had been experiencing. By meeting people like me, I became more confident.
I decided to ask a professor for a job in his research lab. I wasn’t sure that they would accept me, but to my amazement, he said yes! I spent my entire first year of undergrad working in his Tissue Template Engineering research lab. In Fall 2018, I was able to present my research at the Biomedical Engineering Society’s 50th Annual Meeting. This boosted my confidence even more.
“I have done all of these things, not in spite of my race, but rather in celebration of it.”- Mallory Gullet
In the Spring of 2019, I got my first internship with a medical outsourcing company where I worked through the summer. Here I set quality standards for medical kits. My team of interns made a program to detect the medical parts for each surgical kit that would leave the warehouse. The program we made is still being used at the company.
At the beginning of my Junior year, I applied for a job with one of the biggest diesel engine companies in the world. Then, I got an email from the university with a call for applications from one of the largest medical device companies in the world. Two days after this, I, a Hispanic woman, received an offer from TWO of the biggest companies in the game. This was so encouraging! I accepted the offer from the medical device company in Research and Development I never would have dreamed I would have these opportunities, and I hope to carry over my success into my life in the workforce.
I have faced many challenges as a Hispanic woman, but I am proud to be able to say today that I have accomplished everything I have. I have done all of these things, not in spite of my race, but rather in celebration of it. I hope that my accomplishments can inspire other young Hispanic women to do the same.
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