Stressing environmental aspects of engineering also is important to Ng, who said she thinks it is good for the environment and good for business to go beyond compliance. Upon arriving at Berkeley, her father s alma mater, Ng immediately joined the campus section of the Society of Women Engineers and is now its president. She is undaunted by the fact that approximately 80 percent of the students in the College of Engineering are male, and that about 70 percent of those in civil engineering are male. Men and women are different, but that s actually an asset, Ng said. Ng, whose father is in banking and whose mother is a paralegal, had planned to be an architect until a high school biology teacher nudged her to enter an engineering design contest, and she found her niche.
Civil engineering touches all parts of society all over the globe.
I really like the idea of going into a field where anywhere I go, I would be needed, she said. Choosing Berkeley was easy after visiting each of her nine prospective choices, Ng said. I just liked the energy the campus had, and it s a unified community, not just a campus. Ng immersed herself in campus and community life and culture from the outset. She lived all four years in the Foothill residence hall, became a member of the Faculty Committee for Undergraduate Studies, a group that explores new courses proposed each semester for the College of Engineering.