Chardee Allee '15: Advocating for STEM

• Regents High Honors Endorsement Tuition Scholarship
• Wildcat Excellence Tuition Award
• B.S. Optical Sciences and Engineering

Chardee Allee enjoys a career at the juncture of engineering and business. She takes full advantage of her STEM education, which included an active student life at the University of Arizona. 

Allee carried a full load of classes as an optical sciences and engineering major. But she always found time to volunteer as a STEM advocate. She rounded out her educational experience as an Engineering Ambassador and NASA Space Grant intern. 

“STEM outreach is and has always been very important to me,” she says, “which is what made my time as an Engineering Ambassador even more incredible.”

“We would give presentations and guided tours and hold STEM outreach events within the local community — all with the goal of sharing our passion for engineering and helping students transition into the engineering program,” Allee says.

Allee attributes much of her post-graduate success to graduating without significant student loan debt. After completing her UA degree, she earned a master’s degree in engineering, science and technology entrepreneurship at Notre Dame University. 

Now, she has made her way to data analysis as an analytics engagement manager for New York tech startup DemystData.

“My scholarship was a huge deal,” Allee says. “I didn’t realize until after I graduated how incredibly fortunate I was to be nearly debt-free. I was looking around and seeing a lot of my peers who were struggling with student loan debt. That was an added weight I didn’t have to deal with.”