A Montana State University graduate hopes a youthful, in-charge, purple civil engineer with large, pointy ears will pique the interests of children about her own chosen profession.
Lisa Schleuter (previously Woerlein), graduated from MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering in 2014 with a degree in civil engineering and minors in aerospace and Spanish. It was after her first child was born that Schleuter decided to write and publish Ollie the Civil Engineer, a book targeting children ages up to 6 years old, according to the book’s page on Amazon.com.
“I noticed that there was a lack of technically accurate engineering books for kids that young,” Schleuter said. “I know that sounds funny because, of course, the book is kept very simple. There are a lot of construction books about cool trucks and heavy equipment, but not really about the design and the testing side of the projects. I thought, maybe that doesn’t really exist yet. I also thought it was a great way to support STEM outreach.”
STEM refers to the academic subjects and career fields in science, technology, education and mathematics.
“If kids can know that engineering is a thing, especially at a younger age, then I think that can be really valuable as they explore their interests and strengths,” she said. “I hope this book can be used as a meaningful and engaging resource for engineers to share what they do with the kids in their lives, and for non-engineering parents to share a variety of professions with their kids. As a next step, I would like to develop curriculum to go along with the book so that schools can easily incorporate this into classrooms as a unit.”
Although she has always been adept working with numbers, Schleuter hadn’t considered engineering major when she first started college. She initially attended a college in another state as a volleyball player as a mathematics major but soon transferred to MSU. The applied aspects of engineering combined with the foundation of math and science appealed to her as a career path, she said.
“I knew about the great engineering program at Montana State, so I chose this as a major when I transferred,” said Schleuter. “I’m so glad I did. With the culture on campus and the close-knit community, I had a great experience at MSU.”
Schleuter served as president of the MSU chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers during her two of her last three years at MSU. She also worked in the lab of Mike Berry, professor of civil engineering, whose specialty is structural engineering and mechanics, including concrete.
“It was a great way to connect with what I was learning in the classroom,” she said. “It was fun being in the concrete lab and doing experiments.”
Today, Schleuter works at Boeing as a production engineering manager. She joined the aerospace company after graduating from MSU and after she worked there for eight years, the company sponsored her to attend graduate school full-time at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the Leaders of Global Operations Program, where she earned two degrees: one a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and the other an MBA
Her husband, Markus Schleuter, also works at the Boeing Everett Factory in the Seattle area. The couple met at MSU and have a 2-year-old son and another child on the way.
Schleuter also serves on MSU’s Civil Engineering Advisory Board representing her employer, Boeing. She has attended the annual Women in Engineering dinner multiple times, first as a student and later representing Boeing as a sponsor of the event.