Meet Yung Koprowski who started her own civil engineering firm in the East Valley as a way to create a better worklife balance to juggle young kids and aging parents while working full time. After spending both her maternity leaves at a large employer who had only had two pregnant employees in their 25-year history, Yung knew she could offer a better option for others as a company owner.
Read on to learn how Yung is, literally and figuratively, paving the road for other women in this STEM field.
Name: Yung Koprowski
Age: 34
Location: Gilbert, AZ
Children: Chase (8) and Charlotte (6)
You founded a business! Tell us about your company.
Y2K was launched by me, as a civil engineering firm, specializing in transportation, planning and traffic engineering. My team of 12 have helped more than twenty cities develop safer, more efficient road maps to help residents and visitors get to where they need to go.
Not many locals probably think about the transportation planning and design that goes into local city streets including: complete street design, traffic signal design, roadway lighting design, signing and pavement marking plans, safety analysis and other things that go into making local streets as efficient and safe as possible.
Why did you want to start your own business?
I launched Y2K Engineering in 2017 to be a role model for other women, minorities, and young professionals. I had not considered the idea of starting my own company until a senior advisor suggested it.
Many factors, including the freedom to cut my commute and spend more time with my children and aging parents, influenced my decision to start my own firm. I believe that engineers contribute to a better world. I wanted to build a company based on modern technology platforms, with a culture that would provide a comfortable, healthy, and flexible work environment that would support improved life satisfaction.
Tell us a little bit about your family!
My husband and I met while pursuing our civil engineering degrees. We started our family with our fur baby, a miniature schnauzer named Zeus. Then we had our son Chase who is 8 years old and in the third grade and our daughter Charlotte who is 6 years old and in first grade. We’ve lived in the town of Gilbert for over 12 years. My mother and mother-in-law also live in the East Valley.
Were you able to take maternity leave? Tell us about that experience.
I had both of my children while working for my former employer. I was only the second female employee to become pregnant while working there since the inception of the company 25 years prior. The first female employee (before my time there) did not return to work after having her child, so I had to navigate the experience on my own and there was very little precedence.
It was frustrating to have to use up all of the PTO that I had saved prior to short-term disability beginning. There were also procedures in place to calculate performance bonuses that did not factor in unpaid time off, so the maternity leave diluted my performance calculations. I took 10 weeks off with my first child and only 6 weeks off with my second. I do wish I had taken extra time to spend with my children in their infancy.
How do you make time for self-care in between all that you have going on?
I schedule facials and massages a couple times a year. I splurge on high quality skincare products.
How has motherhood impacted you personally and professionally?
Being an only child without grandparents or a father that are still alive, my children have given me family and so many reasons to celebrate life. Motherhood has made me brave with higher emotional intelligence.
For some fun chit-chat, now!
- Coffee order? House coffee with Splenda and vanilla creamer
- Favorite restaurant in the East Valley? Any breakfast place such as Cracker’s and Co. or Biscuits
- Best hidden gem in the East Valley for families? Freestone Recreation Center
- Most embarrassing mom moment? Showing up to a birthday party a year later. (I remembered that a good friend’s son was having a birthday so I looked for an Evite in my email. What I forgot is they alternate years for parties so the Evite I found was for the previous year.) My husband was so mad at me for that.
- Last Netflix show you binged? Downton Abbey (via Prime)
- Favorite family tradition? Mother’s Day waffle breakfast with my Mom and MIL
