My interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) was influenced by my dad who is an Electrical Engineer. For that period of history, my dad had a very progressive mindset. He pushed my sister and I into math and science. I remember my dad saying, “If you can do math you can do anything.” Therefore, I took the hardest math classes available at the all-girls Catholic day and boarding school that I attended in La Cañada Flintridge, CA. We didn’t have any science clubs at our high school, so my friends and I started one! Self-starting has been a skill that has helped me in achieving my personal mission to expose women to STEM early in their education.
When I was attending college, my dad encountered severe financial issues. I wasn’t sure if I would achieve my dream of becoming an engineer; however, I received sponsorship from St. Mary’s University’s Work-Study Program. My Work-Study job consisted in assisting Brother Herbert Janson, S.M. (a Marianist Mathematics instructor). My task was to use my acquired French language skills and translate biographies of French mathematicians into English. St. Mary’s allowed me to continue my education there based on this Work-Study job. I was so happy to be able to continue pursuing my dream. To this day I will always be grateful for the opportunity and my friendship with Brother Janson. After I graduated from college, with my early employers, I was almost always the only female on my team and the only woman of color. I remember walking into a boardroom where the team was ready to kickoff this multi-million dollar base logistics support contract and I was the only female and woman of color. I remember everyone looked my way when I walked in. However, my supervisor at that time had confidence in my skills and assigned me to help the team. I probably made the retired General and CEO nervous, but with time I earned his respect and I continued to work that multi-million-dollar contract, which we won! I realized then the importance of promoting more STEM to young ladies so that there would be more of us because teams are stronger when we are diverse.
When I graduated from St. Mary’s University as an Industrial Engineer, I began to work as an engineer for a company with a STEM outreach program. There I saw a lot of employees volunteering in the north region of San Antonio, but not nearly as many volunteering in the south region (i.e., “South Side”). This community had and still has a lower socio-economic status. They needed more encouragement to pursue college and STEM careers. I remember my mom always emphatically saying, “People don’t choose to be born into poverty. If you are given privilege, you should help others without resources.” So, I took it as my duty to become a mentor to the kids on the South Side. Many of the kids didn’t have good family home environments like I did growing up, which was a huge factor in my success by allowing me to focus on fulfilling my potential to become an engineer. Recognizing how blessed I had been motivated me even more to give back to these students. If there was a need for a speaker at a school or university I always would make the time to go. I would tell myself that these kids may not have anyone else at home as role models and if I was going to be “it” for them that day, then I was going to inspire them. I would always make a point to talk to the young ladies after a presentation. One time at Harlandale Middle school, a few young ladies gathered around to hug me and thank me afterwards. The Principal came by afterwards to tell me that those young women did not have good role models at home.
When my daughter started attending a private elementary school, I realized there wasn’t enough emphasis on science and math at her new school. At the time, I was going through a divorce and working full time and I really didn’t have the time to start a club, but what I have learned is that our kids need role models. I decided to start a science club at my daughter’s school where guest speakers would come in and speak to the children. I remember taking my young daughter with me to conferences and fairs to recruit the speakers (e.g., neuroscientists, geologists, Children’s Hospital doctors, cystic fibrosis experts, nurse practitioners, technicians, etc.). One of the aspects I love about science and engineering is that everyone is so willing to share their knowledge! The speakers would present to the students, often accompanied by some hands-on exercise, and inspire them to become a doctor, an engineer, and so on. Many of their activities were hands-on, which is key to getting kids excited about STEM. In the beginning, the science club only had a few kids, but it quickly gained popularity and became the most popular club at the school with plenty of girls.
Later we added a Robotics team. Although we got a late start on our inaugural FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics season, the kids on the team, the coaches (I was one of them), and the mentors and parents really pulled together and the FLL team for this school won a trophy at their very first competition! The program expanded to two FLL teams the second year. Everyone pulled together again. I got my employer Booz Allen Hamilton to help sponsor the team with funds for another Mindstorms robot and the Lego mission models and the teams again did well. Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2018 (a month after returning from my honeymoon) and I had to put everything on hold. Since then, the FLL Robotics program has been integrated into the school’s curriculum and fields three competitive teams and a teacher gets paid a little extra to run the program.
After leaving St. Anthony and moving on to a new school, three moms all with PhD’s in science approached me about continuing the Science Club. I was so excited about this! I thought the program would die but instead it continued thanks to these moms. They asked me what to do about it and I told them “Just make it hands on and have fun!”
One of the things I have learned is that everything starts small, but with passion and dedication even a small project slowly grows into something big. It was one of the most rewarding experiences to watch the science club grow into what it is today.
In addition to the team of three Ph.D. moms who continued the STEM Club, and teachers who have continued the FLL Robotics teams, I was very blessed to have such a great medical team of M.D.’s, Nurses, and other medical staff at University Health composed of many female M.D.s who are amazing women who have successful STEM careers. Dr. Elmi, Dr. Shah and Dr. Kaklamani literally saved my life and neutralized the breast cancer before it was too late. I owe them more than I can ever repay. I was also blessed with an amazing support system at home to help me fight through my cancer. My mother came with me to all my chemo’ appointments. My father brought over prepared meals. My sister, a Sister General, enlisted the help of hundreds of nuns who prayed for me. Finally, my new husband was very supportive during such a difficult time to include helping me bathe after my surgery and draining my surgical drain and keeping me organized with med’s, logs, etc. He is a wonderful man. We travel to conferences together, and share many interests, including STEM development. In fact, STEM is what brought us together 5 years ago. He helped with a STEM speaker event at my daughter’s middle school, shortly thereafter asked me out on a date, and a couple of years later, asked me to marry him.
For a time, I helped boost San Antonio’s ecosystem of STEM efforts, when I served on the San Antonio Mayor’s STEM Task Force. Dr. Rudy Reyna was leading the effort. I met Dr. Reyna through the Pre-Freshman engineering program that he was leading, and I was a recurrent speaker. Our mission was to expose students to STEAM (STEM + Arts) and to incorporate the subjects into all San Antonio school curricula. We also want to instill the values of community service early on. As we increase our community’s talents, we want to ensure we retain this talent in San Antonio.
Currently, I am on task with Dr. Anna Downey of the Incarnate Word High School (IWHS) to integrate STREAM (STEM plus Arts plus Religion) into the IWHS curriculum. I will leverage many of the experiences listed previously for this task. I plan to also ask my phenomenal team of women STEMinists to be guest speakers at IWHS and inspire the next generation of medical doctors. As Margaret Meade said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”