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August 29, 2025 12 mins
Meet our next guest, Lauryn Jennings!

Meet Lauryn, a rising star in mechanical engineering, as she shares her inspiring journey to building a successful STEM career.

 In this video, Lauryn opens up about what motivated her to pursue engineering, the challenges she faced, and the lessons she learned along the way. If you’re interested in a career in STEM, engineering, or mechanical engineering, this video is full of practical advice and motivation.

 Lauryn also shares her best tips for success in engineering—from balancing tough coursework to developing strong time management skills and practicing self-care while navigating demanding schedules.

Whether you’re a student, early professional, or someone considering a switch into the engineering field, her story provides valuable insight into how to thrive in STEM.

This video is perfect for anyone searching for:

How to become a mechanical engineer STEM career advice for women

Success tips for engineers

Self-care and time management in engineering

If you’re passionate about science, technology, engineering, and math, don’t miss this inspiring interview with Lauryn. Subscribe to All Things STEM With Ashley for more career journeys, STEM inspiration, and success strategies.

Lauryn Jennings is from Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated from Auburn University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in December 2021.

She then started her career in the aerospace industry as a Manufacturing Engineer, working on several major projects that helped save time and costs while improving production efficiency. After two and a half years,

Lauryn joined her company’s Engineering Leadership Development Program, which includes three one-year rotations. She’s currently in her first rotation as a Flight Test Control Engineer.
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello everyone, and welcome to all. Thanks Sin with Ashley.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm your host, Ashley, and I'm here today with our
guest Lauren Jennings. Okay, So, Lauren Jennings is from Birmingham,
Alabama and graduated from Auburn University with a BS and
mechanical Engineering in December twenty twenty one. She then started
her career in the aerospace industry as a manufacturing engineer,
working on several major projects that help save time and

(00:35):
cost while improving production efficiency. After two and a half years,
Lauren joined her company's Engineering Leadership Development program, which includes
three one year rotations. She is currently in her first
rotation as a flight test control engineer. So we welcome
Lauren today. Hello, Hey Ashley, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
So I want to start off today learning a little
bit about you and your journey and how you got introduced.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
SIN to SIM. I'm Pasty.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
So, Yes, my name is Lauren Jennings. Like she said,
I'm from Birmingham, Alabama. I went to Arburn War Eagle.
I studied mechanical engineering. I studied mechanical engineering. While I
was in school, I was involved with NASTY. I was
involved with biomedical engineering, society. I was involved with a
lot of organizations only because I really did not know

(01:23):
what I wanted to do. But other than that, I
am now a flight test engineer.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Before that, I was a manufacturer engineer. Excellent. I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
So can you tell us a little bit about your
STEM journey and how you got introduced in the STEM
and what inspired you to actually study mechanical engineering.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So growing up, I was always good in MAUTH and
I used to tell my mom all the time, I
love MAUTH, you.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Know, just the simple equations.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I was really good at school. I noticed that I
was better than some in school.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
But.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I basically told her and she got me involved with
a lot of STAM projects and a lot of STAM camps.
So starting from middle school, that's when I started doing it.
Every summer going to a STAM camp, and it was
usually engineering base, but of course they had the middle cool,
the medical I guess information, but other than that it

(02:20):
was more STAM, more engineering. I used to go to
Hustsfield every summer, just go to a space shuttle over
there and learn more about engineering over there.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
That's good. What do you know what that program was called?
And are they still doing it unsure, but it was
part of my local community college.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
So it's from Loston State and Burningham, Alabama. And they
just usually did like a stam camp for engineers and
they used to tell us everything about engineering and.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
We just went to different field trips and learned everything. Good.
Thanks you learned.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
My next question is can you share any role models
or mentors who have influenced your journey in stay?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, so I have a few.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Like I said, during the camps, I had engineers that
was counselors and they used to.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Tell us everything about it.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Right now, I have a mentor and he's providing a
lot of information. As a young professional, it's hard to
realize what you want to.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Do in life, so I have him. So make sure
you get a mentor.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
But also I do have family family that motivates you.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Just to make sure you're staying on the right path.
That's good.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
When you spoke about your current mentor, can you explain
maybe how you find mentors. It's more of communication, looking
up a lot of people backgrounds and seeing if it's
similar to yours and if that's what you want to pursue.
So of course I emailed them and he said of
course I never have people to reach out so not
as well. So y'all ask the questions and definitely beat

(03:53):
out and you never know, soone just might say yes, yep,
well great, Lauren. Next I want to ask ask about
doing your STEM journey. Did you have any challenges that
you face growing up that made pursuing STEM difficult? I
know you spoke about the middle school camps you got
to go to in the summer, will starting in middle school,
but there any obstacles that you maybe had to face,
So yeah, learning more about engineering, I learned about the

(04:17):
courses I will be able to take, and of course
just the name of the courses is very intimidating.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
So some things like that was kind of.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Like, oh am, I sure, I want to do engineering
landing your algebra?

Speaker 1 (04:29):
What is that? You know?

Speaker 2 (04:31):
So it was just kind of intimidating more so other
than that, of course, I am a female, so they
do try to downplay us, but we are smart, and.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Look, you just have to do what you have to
do and you made it. You made it, Thank you, right, Lauren.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
So now I want to ask what's one project or
accomplishment that you are particularly proud of in your STEM career. Okay,
So one accomplishment I have is getting to this rotational
program within my company.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
It's very prestigious.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
A lot of people apply and only twenty five get in,
so it is a big accomplishment. And within that program
you get to rotate throughout the company, figure out what
you want to do and liked and also you build
your leadership skills.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
So one of my ad goals is to be in leadership,
so the program is perfect for me. That's good.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Also, also actually was in the program as well, yes.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Sometimes, and I enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I learned a lot, got to network a lot, and
it was very impactful on my journey so far.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Thank you. That's an excellent accomplishment.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
So I went to ask, have you been involved in
any initiatives or programs that encourage young women or underrepresented
groups to pursue STEM. Of course, so I was the
vice president of nasty at my company, so within that
I always reached out to different communities around my company, from.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Middle school, elementary to high school. We reached out to
them and we volunteered in any way they needed.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
They had STEM days and of course they invited the
engineers for STAM day and it was just good to
be that representation for different people.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, that's really good.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Next, I want to ask how do you manage work
life balance with the demanding still career y'all?

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I am all about self care.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
I love self care, and I make sure that it's
not number one but number two priority. So on the weekends,
of course, as I feeling down in the dumps or
I had a hard week, I usually just you know,
get my nails in, hair done, something to make me
feel better about myself. So definitely do self care. Watch
a good movie, yes.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Get your hair done, get your toes.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Do you know massages, spot as? I love my spot as.
Just take care of yourself. I mean, you're in a
hard field where they're paying you a lot of money,
so use that money wisely.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Okay, Lauren, what's the best piece of career advice you've
received so far and how has.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
It shaped your path?

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Okay, So, coming from a mentor, he always said to
be open to anything, So of course I had different
feels that I didn't want to be in, but I
end up being in that field and I end up
liking it. So you just have to be open and
just see if you like it. If you never try it,
you will never know.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah. I love that. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
So Lauren, looking back, is there anything you would have
done differently in your stem career? Thinking about college, I
wish I had more mentors during college, also an internship.
I unfortunately I didn't get an internship in college.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
But I believe having an internship gives.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
You the overview of engineering and what engineering is.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
And so I believe if I had that mentorship or
that internship, I would.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Be in a better I guess transition from college to
the real world.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
I got you.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
So how did you navigate finding a job in your
career now with no internships?

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Like? How is that process for you?

Speaker 2 (08:21):
It's all about communication all, Oh my gosh. When I
say connections is key. The company that I'm with now
is all because I've known somebody and somebody was able
to help me and put my name out there. So
it was all about that connection.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
That's so good. Networking, honey, That networking work great.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
So what is next for you in your career and
what do you hope to achieve in the future as
a young professional. I really don't know what's next for me,
but I mean I'm in my program and it's going
to help me guide me to the places that I
want to be. I know for sure I want to
do leadership as of right now, I want to get
as technical as possible, and then once I'm like in

(09:05):
my thirties, I'm gonna slow down and start.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Being in management or leadership. Good.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Now, with mechanical engineering, what made you pick exactly mechanical
out of everything else? Like, there's so many different types
of engineering, So why mechanical engineering? As you guys can
tell that, I'm a very indecisive person.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
I don't know how.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
To, you know, navigate my path and know what I
really want to do. So mechanical, I found out, is
the most diverse engineering. So with mechanical you could do aerospace,
what mechanical you could do Electrical You get those small
type of courses within that curriculum at your school with mechanical.
So it just helped me find out like, oh, I

(09:45):
could do anything with that degree.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
So I love it.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
So, Lauren, what are three tips for success you would
get to someone navigating the STEM industry? Okay, So the
first tip is to have time management. Engineering STEM based
fields is just very fast paced, so make sure you
have a calendar. You can have something on your iPhone
or anything. It's just to keep up with your time.

(10:13):
The other one is also to be open to anything.
If STEM is a very wide based field, you can
be in a medical.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Field, you can be in engineering or technology. So just
be open. If opportunity presents itself, you should take it.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
And the third one is to just build your connections.
Oh my gosh, connections get you everywhere. Make sure you
build up your LinkedIn, make sure you connect with people,
especially if you want to be in a certain company,
look up that person or that company and start messaging people.
When I say connecting with people could get you so.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Far, it gets you really far. I love that. Thank
you for sharing those tips, Lauren.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
What is there anything else you would like to share
with us before we close out today?

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Just anything about your whole journey? Yeah, I do.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
I feel like this is advice for people that's in
high school. This is just from personal experiences. Doing dual
enrollment classes helped me so much. Support your local community
college because that's exactly where I did MINDS and it
helped me stremendously, especially when it came down to college.
So when I first joined Arburn or went to Auburn.

(11:28):
I went directly to my engineering classes.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
It was good.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Of course, it's kind of intimidating to first join your
engineering classes, but it helps you at the end. You
can actually graduate within four years. I know it's a
common mill that with engineering it'll take you at least five.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Years, but I mean, those dual enrollment.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Classes were so easy in high school, and if you
got the time in high school.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
You should do it. Yeah. Well, thank you, Lauren, and
thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Ever to make sure you like subscribing comment and I
hope you enjoyed today's episode with Lauren Fie
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