Paris Weber, junior, UW Tacoma mechanical engineering, with building blueprints in background

Paris Weber: A Tight-Knit Community

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In UW Tacoma's mechanical engineering program, Paris Weber found the intimate class size and connection to faculty she was seeking.

June 2023 update since this story was originally published:

Editor's note: We asked Paris to tell us what's next for her. We also asked her to talk about her experience at UW Tacoma and how she feels about graduating. We decided to use her responses in full.

I just recently passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam and am waiting to receive my Engineer in Training (EIT) certificate. I am currently applying for jobs and am hoping to get a job around here before the end of the summer. I intend to work for four years and get my Professional Engineering (PE) license, but I would like to go to grad school after that. I still would like to explore the idea of working in academia. Maybe I will come back to UW Tacoma when they start a master’s program for mechanical engineering. 😊

UW Tacoma has been such a wonderful experience for me. My small cohort of ME colleagues and faculty have really made my experience so great. I worked on three research projects throughout my time here. I had the opportunity to present one of these projects at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) conference last June in Minneapolis and published a paper for the same research (thank you Dr. Dillon). I became a teaching assistant this past year and led a junior level mechanical engineering seminar. It was so great to connect with the second cohort of ME students. I had the opportunity to be a student speaker at the Board of Regents meeting in Nov. 2022 and the legislative holiday party in Dec. 2022. I have grown so much as an individual during my time here and feel very prepared to tackle whatever life throws at me. This education has been priceless to me. I have made friends who became family. I have had INCREDIBLE faculty. All their knowledge, support, and dedication have prepared all of us to take on complex challenges. They provided all of us with so many opportunities and experiences that helped us grow as individuals and engineers. This education is one of a kind.

It is kind of surreal to be graduating. My time here has absolutely flown by; I can’t believe it has been two years. I am so grateful for this place and the people I have met and am so excited for what is to come for all of us. From every ending comes a new beginning.

The third-grade version of Paris Weber wanted to be a teacher. Later, she changed her mind and decided to become a doctor. “I stuck with that one for a while then in high school I remember someone talking about biomedical engineering and I thought making things for the medical field would be cool,” said Weber.

Weber graduated from Curtis Senior High School in June of 2018 and started at UW Seattle a few months later. Life seemed pretty clear cut for the then 18-year-old. She would get a degree in biomedical engineering then head out into the world.

Paris Weber, UW Tacoma mechanical engineering student
Paris Weber says that her experiences as a woman in UW Tacoma's new mechanical engineering program have on the whole been supportive. She attributes that to the climate established by program chair Heather Dillon and to the care and concern of the program's faculty.

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Except, it didn’t happen that way. “UW Seattle was just too big,” said Weber. “It wasn’t my cup of tea.” Weber left the university and moved back home to attend Tacoma Community College (TCC). Here she took a class from a faculty member named Keith King. “For the first time I felt seen,” said Weber. “Sometimes he would be teaching and I felt like he was teaching it just to me.”

The class Weber took from King dealt with energy systems. “We talked about car engines and about steam cycles,” she said. “It was so interesting.” Weber’s curiosity led her to mechanical engineering and UW Tacoma’s Program Chair for Mechanical Engineering Heather Dillon.

The two met during an open house at TCC for students interested in pursuing an engineering degree. Weber and Dillon got to talking and quickly established a connection. “We spent a lot of time talking about her experience in the field,” said Weber. “She was just really easy to talk to.”

Weber decided to apply to the mechanical engineering program at UW Tacoma. Not long after receiving her acceptance letter, Weber received an email from Dillon. “She reached out last summer and asked if I wanted to do research with her,” said Weber. “I’ve been working with her ever since.”

The eight-year-old version of Paris Weber decided teaching wasn’t for her. Yet, it seems in her nature to help others. The second of four siblings, the then 15-year-old Weber took on a caregiving role to her younger brothers when her parents divorced. Later, at UW in Seattle, Weber helped other students in her calculus class who were struggling. Even now, Weber works as a physics tutor at TCC. “I always find myself helping the people around me with school,” she said. “It’s gratifying.”

The narrative arc of Weber’s story is coming back on itself. She has returned to the idea of teaching. “I want to be a professor,” she said. “I think one of the reasons I chose mechanical engineering is that the discipline is so broad and there’s a lot I can do with it.”

A Ph.D. is still a few years away. For now, Weber is busy helping Dillon with her research. She is also working with a group of others to start a club on campus called The Society for Women Engineers. “I love it here,” she said. “The faculty have been amazing and this is such a tight-knit community that I feel like I’ve become friends with everyone.”

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Written by Eric Wilson-Edge
Photos by Ryan Moriarty
Photo illustration by Alex Volkman
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