my job
By Laura French • jobslink@startribune.com
Colleen Raschke demonstrated her potential for engineering when she was just a year old.
Sitting in her high chair, she began playing with a ballpoint pen. Soon, she had it fully disassembled; even more impressive, she also reassembled it.
In school, "I was always interested in math and science," she said. "I could visualize things in 3-D more than most people. My parents encouraged me. I was able to take an intro to engineering class in high school. It was exactly what I liked to do — use creativity, modeling things in the computer."
Having decided to pursue mechanical engineering, and wanting to stay in Minnesota, she chose the University of St. Thomas. "I liked the small class sizes and tight-knit community," she said. "Your professors actually get to know you as a student."
Even at St. Thomas, Raschke's classes included "six or seven" women out of "60 or 70" majors. Raschke said, "People think it's a lot harder than it is. I talked to friends who think you have to be this astrophysicist, but if you put your mind to it, you can do it. Junior year is the hardest — there are a lot of core classes."
In college, Raschke thought she wanted to go into biomedical engineering, but ethical issues with animal testing changed her mind. At a job fair, she met representatives from Burns & McDonnell, an international engineering, architecture and consulting firm with a local office in Minneapolis.
She has now been with the company for just over a year.
