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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; On the one hand, Elizabeth George feels like any another science major at King&#8217;s College &#8212; her gender means little, if anything, in the classroom. Yet when she tells people outside school that she&#8217;s heading to the University of Notre Dame for an engineering degree, their reaction puzzles her.</p><p>The first question, the Connecticut native said, is usually: &#8220;How do you feel about it, being a girl?&#8221;</p><p>Nationwide, the overwhelming majority of engineering majors &#8212; 80 percent &#8212; are men.</p><p>Yet, George said, it makes no sense that being a female engineer still prompts the reactions she gets.</p><p>&#8220;We all should be on the same level playing field, so it&#8217;s weird that that&#8217;s the first thing that comes to their minds.&#8217;</p><p>She is one of three women heading to Notre Dame this year under King&#8217;s &#8220;3-2&#8221; arrangement with Notre Dame. Students study three years at King&#8217;s and two in South Bend. If successful, they get a bachelor&#8217;s degree from King&#8217;s in their major there and one in a related engineering field from Notre Dame.</p><p>George, for example, expects to end up with a degree in chemistry and one in chemical engineering.</p><p>She is in the second set of King&#8217;s students heading to Notre Dame for engineering, and the national gender gap in the field is reflected in the local program. The first set of students were all male &#8212; 13 total. This time, it&#8217;s 10, three of them women: George and twins Brianna and Victoria Zawacki from Old Forge.</p><p>And if you don&#8217;t bring up the gender gap, it doesn&#8217;t come up at all &#8212; from them or their male counterparts.</p><p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter to me,&#8221; said Benjamin Siegel, of Falls. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s great. They come up here and, honestly, show us up a bit.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s tough to be &#8220;shown up&#8221; in this program. Students start their freshman year with courses usually reserved for juniors and seniors: Chemistry, calculus and physics, as well as labs.</p><p>&#8220;Eight students dropped out the first week,&#8221; Brianna Zawacki recalled.</p><p>Even if you make it past the first week, students must maintain at least a 3.3 Grade Point Average (of 4 max). Turned out that was no problem for the Zawackis. &#8220;I was always competitive in academics because of my twin,&#8221; Victoria said.</p><p>And who is doing better at King&#8217;s?</p><p>&#8220;Right now it&#8217;s 3.970 versus 3.969. I&#8217;m losing,&#8221; Victoria smiled. &#8220;I got that A-minus in lab.&#8221;</p><p>And how is Siegel doing?</p><p>&#8220;Um, not 3.97,&#8221; he concedes.</p><p>Sean O&#8217;Brien agreed with Siegel&#8217;s assessment of women in the field.</p><p>&#8220;They are proving you don&#8217;t have to be a man to make it in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. They&#8217;ve proven there&#8217;s no difference between us.&#8221;</p><p>All five students interviewed said they took to science from childhood. Siegel credited an uncle for instilling a desire to get into environmental engineering and conservation. George said her dad&#8217;s work at Yale University inspired her to get into science, and that genetics &#8212; some in her family have traits suggesting some are prone to cancer &#8212; convinced her to take on chemical engineering and help find a cure.</p><p>Brianna Zawacki looks forward to using a civil engineering degree to help underdeveloped countries solve problems and grow, while her sister is after a chemical engineering degree and feels &#8220;torn between water quality and &#8230; nuclear energy.&#8221;</p><p>And O&#8217;Brien?</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t have one specific thing that interests me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Everything interests me. That&#8217;s one reason I chose mechanical engineering. It&#8217;s involved in everything.&#8221;</p><p><ins>For other local news stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/local" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">King&#8217;s College students Ben Siegel and Brianna and Victoria Zawacki talk about their looming move to South Bend, Ind., to study for an engineering degree at the University of Notre Dame. They are among the second group participating in an agreement that lets students spend three years at King&#8217;s and two at Notre Dame. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517kingsengineer20-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>King&#8217;s College students Ben Siegel and Brianna and Victoria Zawacki talk about their looming move to South Bend, Ind., to study for an engineering degree at the University of Notre Dame. They are among the second group participating in an agreement that lets students spend three years at King&#8217;s and two at Notre Dame. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517kingsengineer10-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Students Ben Siegel, Brianna and Victoria Zawacki, Sean O&#8217;Brien and Elizabeth George are going to the University of Notre Dame as part of a &#8216;3-2&#8217; program that lets students study three years at King&#8217;s and two more at Notre Dame. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL042517kingsengineer10-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Students Ben Siegel, Brianna and Victoria Zawacki, Sean O&#8217;Brien and Elizabeth George are going to the University of Notre Dame as part of a &#8216;3-2&#8217; program that lets students study three years at King&#8217;s and two more at Notre Dame. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>First women take partin engineering exchange</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

A first: Three women at King’s heading to Notre Dame engineering program