INWED 2020 – Ashanti Storr

Celebrating our female engineers

International Women in Engineering Day 2020 (INWED20) launches on the 23rd of June with the theme ‘Shape the World’. INWED, now in its seventh year, is a campaign that brings together engineers and their supporters from across the world, joining to raise awareness of the opportunities and achievements of women engineers.

At the AqualisBraemar group, which includes OWC, we wanted to take this opportunity to praise the excellent work our women engineers do across the globe and celebrate their efforts to shape our world into a better, safer, more innovative and exciting place to be.

Ashanti Storr

Ashanti Storr is an Assistant Surveyor in our New York office, and her duties include assisting with vessel inspections – both locally and internationally, writing reports for the surveyed vessels and studying casualty data.

Why did you choose engineering? Were you inspired by someone?

Being the top Physics performer in my last three years of high school and receiving the top award for my Maritime Cadets extracurricular activity influenced me to pursue engineering. My father studied engineering in college and went on to become an Architectural Engineer as well as an IT Engineer. My mother’s exceptional analytical skills have been her superpower in the Sales & Marketing industry. The combination of those two influences inspired me.

What sparked your interest in engineering? Can you describe the moment you realized this was a field you’d like to pursue?

Having been the top Physics performer in my last three years of high school and receiving the top award for Maritime Cadets, I had a light bulb moment and thought “I would make a great engineer!”

At my Bahamas Maritime Cadet Corps (BMCC) Engineering class I was one of two females. One day the teachers had a competition for who could label the two/four-stroke cycle of an engine and describe each process. I came first out of about 50 students. The realisation that regardless of my gender I was capable of being a top performer was the confidence I needed to pursue engineering.

Are there any side projects regarding empowering women and inviting them to consider a career in engineering that you are passionate about?

Yes! When I have the opportunity, I speak to high school and college students about maritime opportunities and my experiences within the industry so far. Being from the Bahamas and learning about a maritime career path through the Bahamas Maritime Cadet Corps, I believe exposure is the best form of enlightenment. As a black female, I’m blessed to come from a place I have always felt at home and equal in opportunity to my counterpart of any race, gender, religion or creed. However, I’m aware that the time in history is not far behind me when there were those who fought for the opportunities that can so easily be taken for granted today. In honour of those who have given me the foundation I stand on today, I use my platform as a Maritime Female Alumni Ambassador and a Bahamian female to be a leader to those who look like me, think like me, want to follow a similar path, or need to be made aware of the many options within the maritime field they didn’t know they have!

How has AqualisBraemar helped you grow?

The first day I came to work, I immediately went to my first career development/training opportunity, which was a Marine Insurance educational course. I met people there that I’m still in contact with today and gained exposure to the many aspects of the maritime industry that coexist symbiotically with marine surveying. Being an assistant surveyor, I grow each time I’m on a new survey since there’s always something new to learn. I have the opportunity to attend surveys with different AqualisBraemar colleagues depending on which state the survey is in, which is a blessing not many surveyors have! Performing a quantitative and objective job such as marine surveying requires a nuanced precision of language to communicate one thing in different ways. The questions asked and responses given vary among clients, shipboard crew and fellow surveyors. I get to see firsthand the nuance in the arts of conversation as well as deductive reasoning in regard to causes of casualties, which are essential to my growth as a surveyor.