From Soccer Cleats to Circuit Boards: Nadia Stupec’s ECE Journey

She came to NC State with a question mark and graduated with purpose. From cleats to circuits, Nadia Stupec ’25 turned curiosity into confidence — and sparked a path that inspires others to follow.

Nadia Stupec ’25 graduates this spring from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, closing out a journey defined by reinvention, resilience and the strength of the Wolfpack community.

Stupec arrived at NC State determined to become an engineer — even if she wasn’t quite sure what that meant yet. Originally pursuing materials science, she quickly discovered that her interests lay elsewhere. After a pivot away from chemistry, a spontaneous moment of decision-making led her to electrical engineering.

“I picked Electrical Engineering with a game of ‘eeny-meeny-miny-moe’ — I bet you’ve never heard someone say that before,” she said. What began as a joke turned into something much more: a passion that would guide her through one of the most demanding academic programs at NC State.

The transition wasn’t always smooth. Like many students, she faced early academic challenges that reshaped her definition of success. “I had to stop thinking of grades as the only measure of worth,” she shared. “Instead, I started telling myself, ‘I can do this.’ And so I did.”

Balancing classes and collegiate athletics, Stupec spent her first two years as a student-athlete on the NC State Women’s Soccer team before shifting her focus fully to ECE. That decision opened the door to new opportunities — and a powerful sense of purpose.

Through Women in ECE, she found both community and voice. As president of the organization, she led efforts to support and empower women in engineering, championing mentorship, outreach and national engagement. She attended the Society of Women Engineers WE24 Conference in Chicago and the North Carolina Award Ceremony Gala, where she built connections with leaders across the country — including NC State alumna and NASA astronaut Christina Koch.

“WiECE gave me more than networking — it gave me confidence and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a mentor, advocate and leader,” Stupec said.

In her final year, she led a team for her senior design project — an experience that pushed her technical and leadership skills even further. After pitching the idea herself, she served as the team lead and sponsor, guiding the group from concept to completion. The project, which won first place in the Human and Environmental Systems category at Senior Design Day, focused on increasing access to STEM education through a hands-on logic kit for middle and high school students.

“Early exposure to STEM is key to sparking interest and building foundational skills,” she explained. “We designed a kit that helps students build intuition for logic gates like AND, OR and NOT using Raspberry Pi components and hands-on puzzles.”

Throughout her time in the department, she found encouragement and support from faculty and staff who helped her grow both personally and professionally. She credits individuals like Jeremy Edmondson, Elena Veety and Sara Concini for going above and beyond in helping her succeed.

She also emphasized the role of her family, describing the ways in which her parents’ steady encouragement and wisdom carried her through moments of doubt and helped shape the person she’s become. As two engineers themselves, her parents provided more than moral support — they offered inspiration and insight that helped her chart her own course in STEM.

Looking back, Stupec said the real value of her NC State experience wasn’t just in what she studied — it was in the community she found, the leadership she stepped into, and the confidence she built.

“We came here as individuals, unsure of what the future would hold,” she shared. “But we leave as one Pack — ready to carry that spirit into the world, to innovate, to inspire and to lead with purpose.”