Name: Kristie Knapp
Hometown: Rockwall, Texas
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Class of 2005

Kristie Knapp says she came to the Lyle School at SMU for a number of reasons - it was close to home, the classes were small, and the engineering school had a co-op program. "The opportunity that SMU seemed to be able to offer me far outweighed any other school I was looking at," she says. Kristie has made the most of these opportunities.

She has gotten involved in a wide variety of extracurricular activities, ranging from religious to educational to social. She is a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, is president of the Society of Women Engineers, serves as a leader of a youth group for middle school kids, and is on the SMU Student Foundation's Campus Events Committee.

She also has gotten involved with the Lyle School of Engineering's Gender Parity Initiative, making calls to prospective female students and speaking on panels at dinners for incoming first-year female students.

"Betsy Willis (Director of the Gender Parity Initiative) has been an awesome role model for me," Kristie says. "She is a prime example of women in engineering, and I am so lucky to have the chance to work with her and hear all of the wonderful ideas she has to offer the Lyle School of Engineering. It is women like Betsy who prove that ordinary women can make extraordinary impacts on the lives of so many."

Kristie began working with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth as a co-op student in May 2003 and hopes to continue working with them after graduation.