MUSCATINE, Iowa–Thinking back to her school years, HNI Director of Colors, Materials, and Finishes Kandice Tjebkes remembers how seeing women in engineering inspired her to have a career she never would have dreamed of otherwise. “I became interested in a career in engineering when female engineering students from Iowa State came and spoke in my eighth grade math class,” she remembers.

Now, as an engineer herself, Tjebkes has started paying it forward by working with the HNI Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) program to open the eyes of younger generations to everything engineering careers can offer them. This spring, Tjebkes and others in the program have worked with sixth grade students at Franklin and Madison Elementary Schools to introduce them to the joys of engineering through robots.

Started in 2019, the HNI Women in STEM program seeks to get more kids in general, and girls specifically, interested in careers that involve STEM. With over 200 members across all of HNI’s locations, program participants work together to offer outreach opportunities in their communities and attract young people to engineering careers at HNI.

This spring, HNI Women in STEM in Muscatine has visited students over the course of four weeks, leading them through a variety of activities. The volunteers introduced students to the robots they would use, getting them familiar with how they worked. They then encouraged students to use their problem-solving skills to complete a variety of challenges, such as making an attachment for the robot to enable it to move a box more easily, playing robot “soccer” where the bots had to retrieve balls and bring them to their home bases, and running an obstacle course. To tie this robotic fun to the real world, volunteers also talked with kids about how HNI uses robotic applications to safely and quickly assemble certain parts of the office furniture they produce.

An exciting way for students to experience STEM for themselves, Tjebkes found the kids had a blast with, “the hands-on STEM with the robots and learning more about HNI, since we share the same community.” Many of the kids felt amazed to learn that people they know who work at HNI get to utilize STEM concepts as part of their jobs every day.

Rachel Scholze, a teacher librarian with experience in STEM at both Franklin and Madison, also welcomed the opportunity for students to work together and practice their problem solving and design skills with others: “I loved seeing the kids’ excitement when they got to move the items, and how they worked together to get through the obstacle course. I also just liked how they problem solved with how to attach the arms,” she said. “Overall, it was a great experience as their teacher.”

Next year, Tjebkes has plans to continue HNI Women in STEM’s outreach to local Muscatine elementary schools so that students in more buildings can benefit from the program. By working with young students, she hopes to inspire more girls to take an interest in STEM just as the women engineering students who visited her class inspired her so many years ago. “As a female engineer, I am very passionate about bringing up the next generation of STEM professionals,” she stressed. “It is very rewarding when we can spark interest and enthusiasm to pursue STEM careers, as currently only 20% of engineers are female.”