Brandi Weaver
Ask Brandi Weaver for a favorite memory from her student days at NC State and you will get more than one thing. A lot more.
Weaver, a 2003 graduate of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was involved in the College’s Minority Engineering Programs (MEP) and student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.
She was part of the MEP mentoring program for minority engineering freshmen and was a teaching assistant for an Introduction to Engineering class. MEP helped her take a study abroad trip to Vienna and Budapest. She even played violin in a hip-hop band.
Weaver, who is a College of Engineering Dean’s Circle donor, went to work as an electrical design engineer at Duke Energy’s McGuire Nuclear Station in Huntersville, NC, and is now part of a multidisciplinary team in the company’s corporate offices in Charlotte, NC doing Probabilistic Risk Analysis for nuclear reactors.
After studying at the North Carolina School of Science and Math, Weaver knew she wanted to be an engineer. Exposure to STEM education in high school and having an older brother who is an engineer guided her decision.
“I knew early on in life that it was an option,” she explained. “A lot of people didn’t even know it was an option.”
Now, through mentoring and tutoring, she is teaching younger students that engineering is an option for them as well and that, thanks to Dean’s Circle donors, financial concerns don’t have to hold them back.
“That’s a lot of the reason I want to give,” Weaver said. “I had so many opportunities while I was there. I’m very adamant about giving back.”
Source: Fall/Winter 2015 NC State College of Engineering magazine.