Resilience: My Pathway to the Information Technology Professoriate
While recently attending a conference in Atlanta, a scholarly gentleman and I struck up a conversation regarding academic life and multidisciplinary research. When asked, I told him that I was in the information systems/technology field. “Wow! How did you get into that?” he asked me. “There are not a lot of sistas in that area.”
Sadly, he is correct, as data from the National Science Foundation, the National Center for Education Statistics and others confirm. I had to stop and reflect on how I landed in IS/IT. My parents weren’t engineers, physicians, mathematicians, scientists or corporate executives, but nevertheless high expectations were the norm in my home.
I clearly remember my parents, particularly my father, working to ensure that I was enrolled in Advanced Placement science and mathematics courses, such as algebra, calculus, chemistry, physics and trigonometry. My parents’ insistency and tenacity continue to serve me well.
My senior year, I chose to enroll in Calculus I and Trigonometry concurrently. My parents supported the decision, but my calculus teacher questioned my presence in the class. The course was “prestigious,” and the students were the children of doctors, Ph.D.s, corporate executives and high-profile local entrepreneurs … and there I was. I wanted out, and I made my desire known to my principal. But he wouldn’t let me withdraw from the course. He was the first person I remember talking to me about the critical need for minority representation in the STEM disciplines.
His stern but motivational discourse stuck. I stayed in the class and completed the year with honors.
