Meet Lyra Fletcher
Lyra is currently a student at the University of British Columbia in Mechatronics-Mechanical Engineering. She was recognized as a Schulich Leader by UBC in 2022 and has since taken an active part in the UBC community by joining many clubs and a design team.
Lyra enjoys taking part in outdoor activities such as hiking, swimming, and camping. Outside of school, Lyra is very involved in her university's clubs and her design team. She dances ballroom competitively through the UBC Dance Club, where she is the external vice president. Her design team, UBC Thunderbikes, designs and races electric motorcycles. Lyra spends a lot of time in the drafting and machine shops designing and manufacturing components for the bike's cooling system.
After graduation, Lyra aspires to launch her own biotech company, focusing on applying robotics to externally interface with the human body to help improve the quality of life for people with various illnesses and disabilities.
Mechatronics- Mechanical Engineering Student at the University of British Columbia
What makes you feel confident?
I feel confident when stepping out of my comfort zone. By its nature, stepping out of your comfort zone is bound to be a little uncomfortable and maybe unpleasant, but doing so allows you to grow as a person and makes previously scary things a little less scary. I feel confident knowing I can succeed in new situations and have tried my best to increase my personal growth.
What is your earliest memory of being intrigued by STEM?
Growing up, I was always curious about how things worked, particularly anything electronic. When I was around 5 or 6, one of our computers broke, and my parents helped me take it apart to see how it worked, which was incredible to me at the time. This began many years of dismantling old electronics to recycle the parts and learn how they worked.
What advice would you give to future young women in STEM?
Learn to feel empowered when someone tells you you can't do it, and then do it anyway. It is easy to feel dismissed when you are pursuing STEM. It is hard to be taken seriously or even listened to sometimes, and more than likely, you will be told that you cannot do it. But just remember that you are the only person who can decide whether or not you can do something, and if someone tells you that you cannot, try your best to do it anyway.
“This was me at my 7th grade regional science fair. I built a mini power generation station modelled after our local hydroelectric plant.”
-Lyra
