The BSCES Board of Government would like to congratulate Myisha Majumder of Tufts University who has been chosen as an ASCE New Face of Engineering College. This award recognizes and celebrates future leaders for their academic excellence and commitment to serving others. The selection was made by a panel representing several groups within ASCE including the Committee on Student Members, Committee on Younger Members, MOSAIC, and the National Engineers Week/DiscoverE Committee.
Myisha does not have the typical collection of skills and interests you’d probably associate with a civil engineering major.
For instance, she served on the staff of the Tufts Observer, a student magazine, for four years, including a term as editor-in-chief – a rarity for someone with a STEM background.
Meanwhile, a double major in quantitative economics led her to a two-and-a-half-year internship at the Applied Economic Clinic, a nonprofit focused on energy, the environment, and equity.
She hopes to take much of that experience into her post-graduate work in the energy industry. She’s already brought it back to Tufts as a cofounder of the ASCE student chapter’s equity team, a student group that works with faculty to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in the civil and environmental engineering department.
“I am excited about the amount of diversity engineering is attracting now,” Majumder said. “The recent engineering class enrolled at Tufts was over 50% women, showing a marked improvement from the last several decades. We still have a way to go with increasing diversity in race and ethnicity, and also creating an inclusive space for all marginalized identities, but we’re making the right steps. Diversity of thought is crucial for improvement and advancement of the field.
“I am also excited about the interdisciplinary work that is beginning to occur in the engineering world. While it is still important that we have students and industry experts working the classical engineering jobs, this can happen alongside innovative thinking and progressive work.”