Contact: Maridith Geuder
By Lesia Crumpton
The following is an editorial written by Lesia Crumpton, director of the Ergonomics Laboratory in Human Factors Engineering at Mississippi State University. She soon will be presented the 1999 Janice A. Lumpkin Educator of the Year Award of the National Society of Black Engineers. In 1997, she was named National Black Engineer for Education.
When I was a freshman in college, an academic adviser gave me some advice that could have been devastating and may have significantly altered my future. Determined to be an engineer, I had arrived on campus full of hopes and dreams.
I had attended a high school for the engineering professions in my home town in Texas. I had done well, but the academic adviser didn't focus on that. What he told me was, "Engineering is a tough area. Calculus will be hard. You may want to take something else."
Never mind that I had already studied calculus in the high school for engineering professions. Discouraged and upset, I considered changing my major. I didn't take calculus until later.
As educators and parents, we sometimes fail to recognize the influence we have on young people, especially young women. We tell them, and we allow them to believe, that they can't succeed in difficult technical fields such as science and engineering. We reinforce "I can't do that" from an early age.
Too often, we ourselves don't understand the rewards of possessing an "I can" attitude. While engineering, science, and math may not be the choice of every young woman, taking on the challenge of difficult studies offers a range of personal rewards and career possibilities.
In my field, industrial engineering, my female students and I are designing workplace tasks and work environments that allow disabled persons to work efficiently and productively. Around Mississippi and around the nation, women are making contributions in every engineering discipline, improving the way we design highways, developing more efficient ways to control industrial wastes, as well as finding ways to use energy more efficiently.
But careers are only part of why we should foster an "I can" attitude. Encouraging young women--and young men--to take on challenging studies also builds self-confidence and encourages the pursuit of personal excellence. I always tell my students, "I don't want to work on the easy problem." It's through grappling with the difficult and challenging ones that we grow.
As a teacher, I try to be the role model my ambitious, hardworking students deserve. As parents, friends, or relatives of young women, we also can serve as role models by the examples we set of being committed to hard work and giving our best.
We can begin by giving young female children the freedom to explore and to be inquisitive. That means not allowing ourselves to be trapped by male/female stereotypes and concerns of something being too difficult to accomplish. We can encourage young women to become comfortable with technical pursuits and with technology such as the computer at an early age.
We can encourage all of our children to read more. Young women especially can benefit from reading about female characters who show confidence in themselves and in their abilities. We can allow young women to participate in community activities that build leadership abilities.
We can encourage good study habits. And when the going gets tough in math and science, we can resist the temptation to convey in either words or actions that it is OK to fail or not to try hard.
By our example, we can teach young women that an obstacle is simply something to be overcome-not a barrier to their success.
In the single-parent home in which I was reared, my mother set that strong example. I learned that it was not acceptable to quit or to let someone else stop you. That's why I persisted in studying engineering at Texas A&M University. I was proud to be the first African-American female to earn a doctorate in engineering from this top-rate school.
We can inspire the young women in our lives to strive for their goals as well. February calls attention to the accomplishments of engineers, both male and female. For those young women whose lives we influence, I urge us to continue to challenge them to reach their potential. In technical fields, and in a host of other professions, women can compete-and they can excel.