Julie Zettl - Groundwater Professional

Apr 18
6 min read

Updated: May 4

Julie’s path into engineering began with a strong interest in math and science, but her path was also shaped by her rural upbringing, family background, and growing love for water and environmental work. What started as a practical choice became a career built around curiosity, resilience, motherhood, and a deep commitment to the natural world.

From Rural Fields to Aquifer Maps

Julie grew up in rural Saskatchewan, where the outdoors and nature shaped her early years. Engineering was initially a practical choice as she had always excelled in math and science. When she entered university at 17, the path was anything but easy. Coming from a rural school, she felt the gap between her academic background and that of city students immediately. The first year was overwhelming, all-consuming, and made her question her life decisions.

Fortunately, something shifted when she chose civil engineering. Now, the work felt more personal. Water, soil, and environmental systems were the classes that engaged her and piqued her interest. She chose to specialize in civil engineering as it gave her a way to work practically while staying connected to the land she knew from childhood. Her rural roots were not a weakness; they made her quick with practical tasks and comfortable in the field.

City Shock and Quiet Strengths

Moving to Saskatoon brought a different kind of challenge. The noise, traffic, concrete, and constant motion felt suffocating compared to the quiet of the countryside. Julie avoided busy streets, opting for footpaths and footbridges over the river. Other students seemed more tolerant of the chaos, but she learned to navigate it.

While no school fully prepares you for engineering’s hands-on demands, Julie felt that years spent outdoors and working practically - combined with a stubbornness shaped by Saskatchewan's harsh landscape and climate - worked in her favour.

Advice for Rural Kids with Big Dreams

Julie knows the rural school-to-engineering gap is real. The academic ceiling may be lower in smaller communities, and even if you excel there, there are often not as many resources such as AP or IB classes available. Her advice is to prepare early: try to seek AP classes through urban schools, if possible, take summer university courses in physics or chemistry to build a strong foundation if you can, ask professors for reading materials and textbooks ahead of time, and find study partners, as the challenges are more attainable when taken on as a community.

Rural Canadian students face higher postsecondary non-continuation rates than urban peers, driven by demographics, social economic status gaps, and resource shortages (1). Non-graduating rural students show 34% non-enrollment one year later vs. 25% urban students (1). Another study found that approximately 29% percent of small urban college students leave post-secondary education in their first or second year; while, only 22% percent of rural and 16% percent of large urban college students leave post-secondary education in their first or second year (2).

Motherhood and Resilience

Graduate school came next, but that path was anything but a straight line. Julie worked summers with a professor she later did her master’s with, consulted on the side, and balanced it all with family. Her master’s stretched out because she was also raising children, working full time for part of it, and completing her thesis while also being pregnant.

Motherhood did not derail her. It made her better.

“Being a mom made me a better engineer and researcher”

She sees parenting as one of her greatest accomplishments, alongside her engineering work. Her daughter is determined and independent, and Julie has made it a point to bring her to events and opportunities that align with her interests, supporting her growth without pushing her own agenda. Her son, too, has joined her at watershed gatherings, where ecology talks about semi-aquatic mammal habitats sparked his excitement.

Julie never used daycare, instead, finding flexible work in the evenings and on weekends, though she says daycare is a great option if it fits your life. Her advice for parents in school is that the timing of kids should be a family decision, not dictated by school milestones. Get your undergrad first if you can, but do not feel forced to wait. Above all, try to make sure you have a supportive environment.

Julie acknowledges the pressure many feel to abandon education for family, but she sees it as a choice to push through with the right people. “I had to get extensions, and it took forever, but I was determined.” There is almost always a way if you ask for what you need and rearrange as required.

Another important point that she stressed for those with children or planning on having children during their graduate studies is when looking for academic supervisors is to try and have those conversations upfront. Before committing to a program, talk to multiple supervisors across different institutions. Ask the hard questions about family flexibility and values that matter to you. Interview them as well because working with an academic supervisor is a close relationship that lasts years. Honest communication styles must align for grad school to work.

Seeking parent groups is also something that can be beneficial as academia rarely acknowledges the chaos of sleepless nights and midnight messes, but other parents get it, whether they’re students or not..

Why Women Leave

When examining the retention rates of women in the sciences and engineering the following cannot be ignored.

There can be little to no flexibility in work schedule and requirements while pregnant and rearing small children. One study found that 15% of women engineers and geoscientists cite maternity/parental leave issues as attrition drivers (3).
In the same study, it was noted that "the top barrier for women engineers and geoscientists in Alberta was the traditionally masculine work environment, characterized as an “old boys’ club” or “toxic bro culture” with misogynistic and sexist attitudes, bias and microaggressions toward women being commonplace" (3). Julie had mentioned that this can lead misogyny, competition and women undercutting each other, which creates an environment that women may want to avoid.
Additionally, another unfortunate statistic is that 1 in 3 women reported having experienced inappropriate sexual behaviors while on the job (4). Furthermore, higher rates of gender and sexual harassment has been found in studies amongst Indigenous women, 2SLGBTQ+ individuals, women with disabilities, and young women (4).

This is something that needs to change. One of the ways that we can start, is by having conversations around these topics.

Deeper Into the Ground

After her master’s, Julie wanted more. The undergrad and master’s levels gave her a foundation, but she felt drawn to go deeper into water and environmental work. That led her to groundwater, a field she saw as both huge and under-researched as she learnt more about it.

Her PhD work focuses on aquifers in Canada, including compiling data, analyzing mapped coverage, and connecting that work to treaty lands and watersheds. For Julie, this is not just technical work, it is a question of responsibility, visibility, and care

The Vulnerability That Changed Everything

One of the most memorable parts of Julie’s story is her refusal to leave her humanity at the door. She believes engineering culture often rewards emotional distance, but she has learned that she cannot work that way anymore.

“I guess what encourages me on the vulnerability front is, look at how vulnerable the aquifers are, surely I can get over myself to bring my emotional self. If I need to cry during a meeting because something is upsetting, that’s okay. And if I laugh more than others, that’s okay. To just be myself without apology. It was a really difficult but good shift, and honestly one that I wish I had done sooner.”

That change let her lead with heart. Listening deeply, staying transparent, giving space for growth, and seeing people as whole humans. Just trust and clear intentions.

What She Tells the Next Generation

For junior high, high school, and early university students, Julie recommends job shadowing and learning what engineering actually looks like before committing to it, or in any discipline for that matter. She thinks many people have an idea of what a career may entail that is very different from the reality, so exposure can help students make better decisions.

She also encourages students to speak up if something feels wrong and to use university reporting and support systems if needed. Above all, she wants young people to know that the world needs many kinds of minds and personalities in engineering, as well as different types of careers.

Julie’s hope comes from seeing others who care about water and aquifers, even without enough resources. Indigenous-led water policies and data sovereignty inspire her. Change is slow, but with the right people, it speeds up.

Julie’s path was not linear. Rural girl to civil engineer to PhD researcher and mother, it was messy, human, and real, and that is exactly why stories like hers matter.