Written by: Vanessa Avila
The STEM field is very diverse with career opportunities that it can stir indecisiveness when it comes to picking the right STEM major that one can be solid about. It’s not unusual for students to wonder whether they are pursuing something they truly want if they don’t even have the slightest clue about the reality of their ideal careers. STEM undergraduates particularly have intense curriculums that bound them to their academic responsibilities, while other STEM students juggle their school life with part-time jobs. It makes it easier for these students to disconnect with their own school advisors or individuals who can help them know more about the working environment relevant to the majors they are pursuing.
Having someone who will shed light about the atmosphere of a specific career or major in STEM can help undergraduates know what to expect as they apply their knowledge and skills to the real world. In a time of doubt and uncertainty as to whether one is in the right track, a mentor who can speak from experience can come in handy! To have a good look at the scope of what one can reap from being mentored, a series of questions were asked to mentors and STEM students, thoroughly discussing the perks and the bouts of mentorship.
Preparing STEM Students for the Future Through Mentors
Typically, students identify their lack of interest for their majors through the courses they take, but there exists many students who enjoy their courses and complete them successfully. However some students feel dissatisfaction once they start working their careers. As mentioned, professional mentors working in the areas being studied by STEM undergraduates can help students have a true grasp of their potential roles in their ideal careers. Students can have an idea of what it will be like through the words of an experienced mentor, and it can help individual students assess whether their chosen majors are the right ones for them at an earlier time before completing a degree in a field they might regret working in.
Sayrah Muyco, a current undergraduate pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering in Xavier University (Philippines), has expressed how she was given the impression that her chosen career path was one of the challenging paths to take in the engineering world. Under the guidance of a mentor, she claims that he has helped her prepare for future situations she might encounter in her career by exposing her to relevant lessons and situations that can stand as potential challenges towards her journey of becoming successful. In addition to this, he also helped her identify her own strengths and weaknesses. She states, “I realized that I’m good at programming, yet bad at lab works,” when discussing what she was able to take out of the activities he provided for her to identify her strong and weak spots. STEM mentors who are capable of showing their students their strong and weak sides enable the knowledge of what the student can refine or improve. This in turn can mold strengths that will uniquely represent them apart from other contenders who have acquired similar skills necessary for a specific career.
STEM Undergraduates can also increase their networking pool for valuable connections with the help of a mentor. These connections can be a boost in having important opportunities in-hand and enable students to be noticed by working professionals while still studying in school. A great example is Jordan Oliver, an undergraduate student fulfilling her academic responsibilities as a mechanical engineer. “Networking crossed my mind before I met my mentor, but I didn’t practice very often since I rarely attended events where networking would be possible,” says Jordan. “But whenever we’re with people, my mentor encourages me to continue sharpening my networking skills, or sometimes, I watch her network and see the talking points and questions she chooses. ” Jordan has maintained a good relationship with her mentor for over two years and continues to find her as an inspiration.
Sharing A Different Perspective in Following Career Paths
Not only can mentors relay tasks and responsibilities inside the working environment to their protégés, they can also show how one can be creative with a specific major and follow a non-linear career path. This is evidently true for Vianne Greek who is a Cloud Services Administrator at Virginia Tech and a current mentor in a STEM mentorship program held at Virginia Western Community College. In regards to her experience, she explains, “the degree may or may not lead you to your true path. My career has taken a very circuitous route to lead me where I am, and I’m in a role for which my natural talents and abilities are a natural fit, but in a field in which i have no formal education. So, while it’s important to complete the degree, your chosen major may not dictate your life or career going forward.”
Vianne initially obtained a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and soon topped it off with a master’s degree in Business Administration. However, her current career involves information technology. Throughout her college study, she transitioned from marketing to databases, to financial, back to marketing, switching again to marketing a database-based platform, and finally to marketing and administering technological software. The skills she has obtained throughout her college and work experience have been generously exhibited through her various occupations, both in marketing and information technology, and it has shown her creativity in utilizing her foundational majors. She also has set another milestone for herself by being a strengths coach, venturing in another path that fuels her various interests.
Mentorship Encouraging the Close to the Gender Gap in STEM
It has definitely been stressed in today’s society that there is a scarcity of women joining the STEM field. Yong describes that women taking engineering courses is similar to “running a psychological gauntlet” with having to evade from sexism and the “implicit tendency to see engineering as a male discipline.” In addition to this, he highlights that it has been found that the U.S. only has 13 to 22 percent of women with engineering doctorates, not to mention the overall low percentage of women in the sciences as a whole (Yong, 2017). This reels in the roles of female mentors and how it is recognized as an important factor to bring more women in the STEM field and break the stigma of these known “male-dominant” professions.
“Engineering was very much considered ‘men’s work’ when I started in 1979, and the few bosses who served as mentors to me made up for the dozens of others who either subtly or blatantly indicated I didn’t belong,” answers Kimberley Homer when asked why she chose to be a mentor alongside her occupation as a Systems Engineer/Analyst. “Young people, or any person studying for a new career, hear mass marketed messages designed to sell the student loans, computers and apps, online courses, clothing, and cars that the sellers want to sell,” added Homer. “A mentor serves the protégée for the purpose of her well-being.”
Homer had the opportunity to mentor a young lady named Aziza Longi who she describes as an insightful and empathic person that has walked a life completely different from her own. Aziza is currently following an engineering curriculum but realized that it is not the path she feels strongly in continuing. Meeting Kimberley Homer taught her that in order to succeed, one needed to fail and experience rejection for it is essential to one’s growth. “She breaks the stereotype of engineers being anti-social and stubborn by learning from people through all walks of life, spending her time traveling and joining various social events.” says Aziza. She has been the ultimate role model for me and I’m so glad that I have met her.”
Alexie Jean Jacques, a female undergraduate pursuing Civil Engineering, was mentored–and continues to be connected to Sarah Glenn, a fellow structural engineer and project manager for AECOM. When Alexie was asked how Sarah helped shape her perspective about the working environment in STEM, she explains, “Sarah taught me that it is more than possible to be a female engineer. So often when we hear the word ‘engineer’ we think ‘male dominated field.’ Women play a vital role in the engineering field performing just as well as men do. The engineering world, believe it or not, has women, mothers, wives, breast cancer survivors… The list goes on.” Alexie admitted that through her study as a civil engineering student in Virginia Western Community College, she has had moments of feeling discouraged when she did not automatically understand a concept taught in class. Sarah’s words and encouragement have been sources of motivation for Alexie to power through her courses.
A recent study showed that female engineering undergraduate students with female mentors have “higher retention in engineering and more intentions to pursue advanced engineering degrees,” compared to the ones who were assisted by male mentors or no mentors at all. Although the study reflected that male mentors and female mentors were “equally conscientious”, it was evident that female students found more comfort and similarities with female mentors and the resulting effect from some male mentors fell along the same line as having no mentors at all (Dennehy and Dasgupta, 2017).
A consultant for TFR Services, LLC, Kim Long mentions that through her work as a consultant in the company, she often encountered young women who felt “overworked or underpaid” despite being recent graduates. Her efforts as a mentor involved her teaching her own mentee about how she was able to work around an environment filled with males. “I never let it be an excuse, I didn’t complain or go to HR or anything like that,” says Kim. “I wasn’t a ‘whiner’, for lack of a better way to say it. I ‘sucked it up buttercup’ and worked both harder and smarter. I carried the book ‘Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office’ for a long time earlier in my career. It wasn’t until later that I learned I could be nice and get the corner office… In the end, I told her I can honestly say [that] I have achieved every single career goal I’ve ever set for myself.”
Is The Idea of Mentorship Not as Dispersed?
When asking STEM students about who they consider have guided and taught them about the actuality of their majors, the usual response was the incapability to pinpoint a specific person who has fulfilled that role. When mentors were asked if mentoring is extended commonly to society, many seemed to agree that while it exists and plenty of individuals get the chance to be guided by knowledgeable peers, there are still a good number of individuals who do not have this guidance for various reasons. A mentor herself, Diane Stokes, believes that there is no “deficit” when it comes to mentors and mentorship, rather there is a need to reach people who do not have access to such a resource.
Dr. Victoria Cox, a mentor and a Nurse Recruiter for the Department of Veterans Affairs, mentions how connectivity in a mentor-protégé relationship also plays a role in the blossoming of a mentor-filled community. “It is being encouraged more in today’s society yet the formalities are met without the connecting relationships. The mentoring experience is more than a checkbox or time to complete, it is about establishing lifelong connections from which both parties involved can grow!” says Dr. Cox. “Mentorship is important to educate and inspire youth to the principles and morals that are the foundation of this nation’s existence. In this time our world is faced with such challenges that lifting one another up, if only by one relationship at a time, is essential to the continual being of mankind. The mentorship connection is necessary to grow the people.”
What is your major?
I major in civil engineering at the illustrious Morgan State University.
How did you get interested in STEM?
My college career is rooted in STEM, because I am always focused on solving problems! Growing up, I was intrigued by how products were developed, and STEM is the brainchild of the future in which we are heading.
How did you find out about i-Trek?
I found out about i-Trek from Christopher Gaines, my former Calculus professor and a colleague of Niaja.
What have been doing since participating in i-Trek?
After the trek, I interned in Los Angeles where I worked on an earthquake-engineering project. This involved assessing the spatial correlation of tall reinforced concrete buildings and ground motions.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I enjoy soccer and taking trips.
What is something you are really looking forward to?
I look forward to using my degree to change the world and visiting one country on each continent.
Would you recommend the i-Trek program to current undergraduate students? Why or why not?
I-Trek is one of the most useful programs of which I have ever been a part. From networking with students, faculty, and CEOs, all participants benefit from the diversity of thought and obtain great insight into the different paths to take after graduating college. As a team, we also built strong bonds with people from all over the country, which is essential in building out a contact base for professional networking.
What skill are you most proud of possessing?
I am most proud of, and thankful for, my intellectual creativity. It is what keeps me up at 3AM writing in my “idea book.”
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In 10 years, I definitely see myself out of graduate school and working on my goal of creating a company that forms a healthy coalition between business and engineering.
By: Niaja Farve
The most common justification given to STEM students for pursuing a graduate degree is the promise of a “free” education. Rarely is there an explanation for why this is the case and how it works. Is simply being accepted and registering for a program enough? While the large majority of STEM students never pay out of pocket for their graduate degrees, they do work for them. Graduate school is generally available without out-of-pocket tuition expenses because you, as a graduate student, are now a researcher. In return for the knowledge you create through your research, your advisor, department or institution takes care of your academic fees. Therefore, as a graduate student you are employed by the school — you now have a full time job! However, it is not your only job. You are a still a student expected to fulfil certain academic requirements prior to receiving your degree. So yes, your graduate diploma may not cost you money, but it will not simply be handed to you.
There are several ways to achieve a debt-free graduate experience — each has its pros and cons. The following options are specific to STEM graduate programs.
Research Assistantship (RA)
The majority of your academic fees are paid for by serving as a research assistant. This is the default title for a graduate student conducting research. Most research institutions will require you perform research every semester, regardless if that is how you plan to pay for your semester. To obtain an RA appointment, you typically need to seek out a professor with funding for an open research position that you would fill. Therefore, although you may be in love with a lab and the research they do, if the professor does not have funding, you cannot hold an appointment with that lab unless you have your own way of paying for your academic expenses.
A fellowship is the ideal way to pay for graduate school. Fellowships are comparable to scholarships. They are given based on merit, although applications will ask about your research experience. Fellowships allow you to have more control over where you do your research. You are essentially a free student to a professor. If they have the time and resources for you, there is not much incentive for them to turn you away. The only caveat is that fellowships come in varying amounts. Therefore, you will need to make sure you understand how much funding the fellowship provides and for how long.
Teaching Assistantship (TA)
A teaching assistantship is exactly what it sounds like: an appointment for a semester where you help teach a course. Most programs will generally require you to hold an appointment for at least one semester. While serving as a TA, you are still expected to progress with your first job (research) and depending on your schedule, your own courses. Therefore, a TA position typically functions as a third job that you have to balance.
Grants are funding specifically for a research project. A graduate student would most likely only apply for a grant with an advisor that will serve as the primary investigator. This route is generally only pursued once you have joined a lab and have a clear project. Since it is given based on a set research proposal, a grants limits the flexibility of your research.
Last but not least, loans. Loans are an extreme effort taken in very rare cases.
Each STEM graduate program is different and has varying funding methods for students. While most programs leave it to the student to decide how they will find funding, some programs take care of everything as soon as you are accepted. This article is meant to help inform you about the options that exist. Make sure to know all the facts before making a decision on where you want to earn (and pay for!) your graduate degree.
Once upon a time, the single-serve, freshly-made cup of ‘designer’ coffee was only available from a barista. But now all of these mainstream coffee blends can be found right inside our very own kitchen cupboard thanks to the Keurig K-cups. Since they were made famous in 1997, K-cups have slowly become the preferred way America wants to enjoy its coffee. With each pod, a single serve can instantly be brewed without worrying about cleanup or making too much, or even about it ever tasting ‘bad’.
This seemingly perfect invention does have one major stipulation. The plastic used to create the K-cup must be able to resist high temperatures (such as those that come from being in contact with boiling water). Because of this, the plastic of K-cups is made to be virtually unreactive and therefore when it is thrown into a landfill, it causes major harm to the environment. It takes a longer time than most materials to degrade, and has become a major concern to environmentalists. John Sylvan, the original founder of the K-cup, revealed his bleak outlook to The Atlantic online newsletter in a recent interview. “No matter what they say about recycling, those things will never be recyclable.” It bothers him so much that he doesn’t own a Keurig machine. He sarcastically made the remark, “it’s like a cigarette for coffee…a single-serve delivery mechanism for an addictive substance.”
The plastic used to make the pods is a special #7 type plastic arranged in 4 combined layers designed to keep the coffee inside safe and dry. It is such a specific type of plastic that only a handful of cities are able to recycle it, and even they are finding it hard to do so with the large volumes of pods coming into the facilities each day. As reported in the The Atlantic, “the best estimates say the Keurig pods buried in 2014 would actually circle the Earth not 10.5 times, but more than 12”.
Even with all the unfavorable aspects of the pods, people seem very committed to their daily K-cup coffee fix. James Ewell in Business Insider explains that “People want convenience, even if it’s not sustainable.” A typical Keurig machine costs about $100 and the pods have an average cost of $0.65 to $0.75 each. If this same customer were to get his coffee twice a day from the local coffee joint, he would expect to spend between $7 and $10. In less than 2 months, this consumer will have paid for the machine and be drinking each subsequent cup of coffee for less than a dollar. With the economical benefits and the convenience of having the machine nearby, the environmental harm each pod creates is being carelessly overlooked. These thrifty K cup users seem to forget that undegraded K-cup plastic can end up in farmland and even underground water. This can decrease water quality and decrease locally farmed produce. This ofcourse would increase our local taxes, and our grocery bill, not to mention, ruin our health and our planet’s health.
Modern society is quickly implementing a more sustainable lifestyle. There are more solar panels installed today then there were 10 years ago, styrofoam is banned in the Washington, D.C. area (and more of America hopes to join in), single-use plastic bags are being banned by cities and states, and even major corporations like Ikea now provide more environmentally friendly options to customers and employees. In a time when saving the planet has jumped to the top of many people’s priority list, K-cups seem rather out of place. Besides, the cost of a drip coffee machine is much cheaper than a keurig machine. If more people could keep in mind the increasing environmental harm K-cups are causing and switch to more sustainable options, perhaps we can begin to to ‘fix’ our daily coffee fix before it demolishes our wallets and our planet.