When Linda Parker Hudson graduated from UF in 1972, she was one of the two women in her class.
For Hudson, being one of the first women to start a career in engineering meant she often had to figure things out on her own. A lack of mentors didn’t stop Hudson from becoming the first female CEO in the defense industry, where she served time as both CEO and president of BAE Systems, an aerospace and defense company.
However, she said mentors play an important role in the development and growth of students, a role so important that she donated $1 million to the UF College of Engineering so students can have the opportunity she didn’t have.
“I don’t think I ever had a mentor,” Hudson said. “There were no women in higher level roles to mentor me, and men weren’t so inclined to mentor me.”
Mentorship, however, is just one of the components of the new Linda Parker Hudson Leader in Residence Program in Engineering. The program, which is expected to start at UF this Fall, offers engineering students an opportunity to have direct and in-depth interaction with professionals in their fields, according to a press release.
Hudson said the program will provide a chance for students to learn fundamental skills needed to succeed in the workforce.
“It’s about helping bring real-world experiences to the academic environment so that graduates are better prepared to enter their chosen professional fields,” Hudson said.
Daniel Clifford, a 22-year-old civil engineering student who’s been fortunate enough to have mentors throughout his life, said he believes a program like this is really needed and could highly benefit students.
“I don’t think I’d ever be able to be at that point of being a leader without having someone be a leader,” Clifford said.
Like Hudson, Clifford said he believes communication is an essential skill for engineers. Employers have told him they’d rather hire a student with a 3.5 GPA who knows how to communicate effectively rather than someone who has a 4.0 GPA and doesn’t know how to communicate.
Juan Céspedes, a 20-year-old computer science student, acknowledges that the competition out there is fierce and only the fittest thrive. Although he believes mentors are helpful, he said he doesn’t think they can just be extended to students.
“I think a mentor is not just something you can assign to people,” Céspedes said. “It is something that just kind of comes naturally.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 7/16/15]
