My grade school had roughly 300
students in total and my graduating high school class had around seventy. Though not many students were in my class,
there was still a lot of
diversity; however, not as much as others would experience in a larger school. It
was not until I went to College of DuPage that I truly saw diversity. There were many people there from different
cultures with many diverse qualities and personalities. It was great to meet and become friends with
people from a variety of cultures and it provided me with good life experiences
and made my time at College of DuPage more enjoyable.
My
mother immigrated to America with her family when she was just ten years old;
she faced many challenges in trying to adapt to her new life in a new country,
including trying to learn a new language, attending a new school in a new
county, and adjusting to the new culture, different from what she had grown up
with. Because she spoke very little English,
when she first started school in America, many did not want to be friends with her,
as they did not want to take the time and help her. I remember a story she told me how she once
was skating on the ice in school one day and she fell, one boy helped her up
and made sure she got to the nurse safely.
She then told me that that one boy that helped her went on to be one of
her closest friends. It was from her
experiences of being treated differently and how alone she felt, that she and
my dad instilled on my siblings and I to
respect and treat everyone equally, no matter their differences, and they taught
us the values that we have today. That
though we may not fully understand someone’s culture or what language they
speak, we should never make anyone feel bad for it; instead, we should be kind and try to get to know that person better. We should all take a lesson from that boy who
helped my mother on the ice, that we are all humans and we deserve to be
treated the same as we would like to be treated.
When
I decided that I wanted to become an engineer, I was in seventh grade. I had just attended the Argonne National
Laboratory’s Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and that was the day I told my
parents that I was going to be an engineer.
I did not know at that time, but I later found out the bias and inequity
for women in STEM fields.
I
have actually been told a couple of times when someone asked me what I wanted
to become that that was something that boys do.
One time I remember a friend of mine asked me what I was majoring in, I
told them, biomedical engineering, and they then said that they bet I did not
even know what that was, saying that that was more of a man’s job. Though they assured me that they were just joking,
I still could not help but feel hurt by that comment. I had read in articles before how little women
are represented in the field of engineering, and I unfortunately began to doubt
myself and thought that I was not good enough or smart enough to become an
engineer. I consider myself a
nonconfrontational person, so when I heard comments like the ones I mentioned,
directed towards me or overheard in a conversation, I did not want to say
anything and just sat there quietly. I
knew that I needed to gain confidence in myself and understand that nothing
should limit me or anybody from achieving their dreams. The following are two moments in my life
where I gained those elements and truly learned that no matter what I was told,
I could do this and the lessons that those experiences taught me and what I
took away from it will carry with me in my future career and in life.
Two
years ago, before I transferred to Bradley, I was in an engineering graphics
class, I was in a group with three other individuals and we had to do the
classic egg drop experiment. We were
given different materials: tape, Popsicle sticks, newspapers, tissues, etc. Our first thought was to go with something stronger, like the Popsicle sticks.
The thought then crossed our minds to try and use the newspapers; we
took the newspaper and loosely crumpled it, creating air pockets between the
sheets of newspaper and wrapping it around the egg with rubber bands. We did get a lot of strange looks, snide
remarks, and laughing from others who thought that this idea had no chance of
working. When the time came for us to
test, it turned out that we were the last ones standing and our egg was still
intact. Sometimes, we think that
something is so impossible, we forget to look at the simple solutions.
I
learned two things that day, the first was that we should never count anything
out because it seems too simple or it is not the best-looking idea. The other thing was that this was something
that I wanted to do for the rest of my life, building things. In the group I was in, we were all able to contribute
our opinions and ideas and were all given a chance and not ignored or
dismissed. I can use that experience in
the classroom to, in the future, accept all my colleagues’ ideas and if I do
not think their idea will work, I will give it a chance and ask them to explain
the concept to me and see if I can understand their view on something.
The
next story is from my internship experience.
I have had an internship now for almost two years, and I when I had
first started, I was nervous as this was going to be my first experience
working with engineers. I was surprised
as to how much they were accepting and willing to help me and that when I left
to attend Bradley, that if I needed a reference letter or would like to come
back over the summer, that they would be happy to do that for me. That meant a lot to me because not only had
that experience taught me more about the engineering world, but it also gave me
the confidence and knowledge that I could see myself working as an engineer and
that I could do this and nobody should tell me otherwise. Through having that experience, I learned how
important it was to have people there for you to guide you and be able to
motivate you and believe in you. I hope
that that is something that I can do for someone one day. Someone, who like me, was nervous about being
treated differently because of something about you that is not classified as
“typical” for people in that profession; guiding that person and treating
them with the same respect as everyone else did for me. Through my different experiences with diversity, I have learned that while there may be people out there in the world who will try to belittle you with their words and actions, there is still good in the word. That is something that believe should still be taught; that we may have to deal with all the bad stuff going on in the world; however, there are still good people out there who care and fight for equality everyday, they know it by no means is easy, but it is worth fighting for. People like in our different case studies, who fought for a GSA club, stood up for the students and teachers in the face of pushback, and who educated others that everyone is different and it would be boring if we were all the same, which is why diversity is such a beautiful thing. We must also continue to fight for equality and equity, it is not an easy thing to do, as people have been trying for hundreds of years, but they never gave up and neither am I, as one day hopefully that dream can become a reality.
The
main takeaway that I learned from my family, my life experiences, and my
experience with this class is that it is important to know that it does not
matter your gender, sexual orientation, race, culture, etc.; we should all be treated
with the same amount of respect that we would like ourselves to be treated
with. It is important as well to stand up for yourself and educate others who make offensive and bias remarks that what they believe is true. I wish that I had the knowledge that I know now back then when I was told those biased remarks; instead of being silent and allowing the comments, I should have stood up for myself. I can use this knowledge now to advocate for others, like myself in the past, that was too afraid to stand up for themselves. In my major of engineering, I can use the lessons that I learned to join in the movement for change both in equity and equality. Through these blog posts and
hearing everyone’s views and analysis on these case studies, I have learned
that many people share different views and we can learn a lot by listening to
other people’s views. I know that
hearing other people’s analysis on these studies showed me that there were many
different perspectives and ideas that I had never thought about; in a way, we
all worked together and gathered each other’s opinions and we know for the
future what to consider when faced with something similar to these studies.
This
class really opened my eyes on different diversity topics and the sad fact is
that many, if not all, of the case studies that we all read about are happening
right now and on a regular basis. It is
important, as I should not be judged for being a female in STEM, that we need to
learn to accept everyone for who they are and to not let comments or snide remarks
affect you. It is important to also be
advocates for people who are being left out or are excluded and let them know
that they should not change anything about themselves. Though this class was taught more towards
those majoring in education, I feel that we can all benefit from taking a
diversity class, as I know that I have and I will take what I learned in these
short few weeks and use and pass on to others now and for the rest of my life.
