{"id":4809,"date":"2017-11-16T14:30:52","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T14:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=4809"},"modified":"2017-11-16T21:23:54","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T21:23:54","slug":"renaissance-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=4809","title":{"rendered":"Renaissance Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It never bothered Melissa\u00a0Herkt\u00a0\u2013 then or now \u2013 that she was one of three women to graduate in civil engineering in 1977.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0transferred into Auburn from a\u00a0community college as a rising junior, and always found the Auburn campus friendly and open,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI was so focused on working and studying hard, and so set on finding a good job. It\u2019s where most of my energy went.\u201d<\/p>\n

She does recall, with a laugh, that one of her civil professors told her that he would look out of his Ramsay Hall window after class, and watch her cross the street to McDonald\u2019s with some male students in tow as they went for coffee and conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to do it all over again, I would have started at Auburn,\u201d\u00a0Herkt\u00a0reveals.\u00a0\u201cThen, as now, I love the Auburn campus, the look and the feel, and the opportunities. I didn\u2019t\u00a0know then how to apply for scholarships,\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0I went\u00a0to\u00a0a community college because that\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0all I thought we\u00a0could afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herkt\u00a0says that something else she missed out on were extracurricular activities, mostly because of her work schedule, but probably as well, because the range and scope of activities that are now available on the Auburn campus \u2013 dozens of student\u00a0groups in engineering alone \u2013 weren\u2019t that readily available in the early \u201970s.<\/p>\n