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I am a Ph.D. student at the University of California at Berkeley.
My current job is to be a graduate student researcher. So I get
paid a
salary to do the research leading to my degree, which to me is a
surprising gift!
This actually happens in many fields, but it is very common in the
sciences.
I chose this career in sort of a chaotic way. I grew up on a farm
in Iowa
and really loved math and science, but I also liked music and english.
I grew
up as one of many children of poor uneducated, immigrant parents.
I knew that
they couldn't help me financially with school or early in my career.
Given that, I chose the sciences because it seemed more secure to
me, and
I knew I would have no one else to fall back upon. I am very happy
I did
so.
As an undergraduate, I studied math and physics, but I also minored
in
music.I got some scholarships and financial aid, and went to the
University of
Iowa where I paid in in-state tuition. I also worked and went part-time
some of
the time. I think people who grew up in families like mine often
think that
going to college is an impossibility. I think it is difficult, but
very possible!
I ended up in engineering because I wanted to use my math for something
tangible. I think lots of times people today have the wrong view
of electrical engineers.
They think of them as men usually who are fixing things and designing
wiring.
My dad would always tell me to be an engineer, and I would always
say,
"Yuck! Maybe physics, but not engineering."
The engineers I knew built tractors at John Deere and had boring
lives
(or at least I thought they did!).
I just use mathematics to model signals and images. My group has
worked on
HDTV (high definition TV) in the past, but not the wiring, just
the math.
So I get to try to remove noise from pictures using math. I love
it.
More women tend to choose the theoretical sides of engineering actually,
but I think few of them know about it.
The most exciting part of my career is talking to other people about
engineering. I very much enjoy teaching, and I also enjoy talking
about my
research to other people. I get to travel a lot due to the latter
in the
last year, which was really exciting for me. I gave talks in San
Diego,
Barcelona Spain, and Cambridge England.
The toughest barriers I have had to overcome were probably foremost
financial,
and then also physical challenges created by a bad knee and back.
In high
school, I ran track and in undergraduate school and after, I did
triathlons.
I was always very active, but then I hurt my knee and needed three
surgeries.
I was also in a car accident, which injured my back permanently.
So now I have to modify my life to make things work.
I also put obstacles in my own way by not believing in myself early
on
in graduate school. It's difficult to move to a new place with people
with degrees from famous schools. But everyone has their own path
in life,
and no path is better than any other!
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