This week I was reminded at how truly amazing my mentor is outside of the NSF. At the NSF alone she has done so much more than was expected of her. She is so kind and humble that I nearly forgot how influential and accomplished she is SO let me remind myself and you.
This week my mentor once again took me on an outing where she was giving a talk about I-Corps, this entrepreneurial program to take things out of the lab and onto the market. When we arrived people snuck out to greet her and hug her explaining "That's my girl!!" both of them shushing each other because their excite was a little loud. Mind you the people I'm talking about are well respected scientists and educators. Eventually, she gets around to presenting and every single person in that room had their eyes glued to her. She has a dab of preacher to her presentation style which kept the room alive and made a conversation about STEM entrepreneurship more personal and after she was mobbed with people asking for incite and advice. With my presentation around the corner, I really sat and thought about how I can bring life to what I'm saying. That is something I will have to keep thinking about as I make slides and wrap up my project.
Ultimately, through this I was able to see first hand what it looks like to lead when half the room has PhDs. Dr. McCauley has a very unique brand of scientist and one that I have been privileged to see through this internship but events like this show me how important individuality despite expectations to assimilate to the dominant culture. Forget code switching! Just be the boss like my mentor!
Friday concluded with a photoshoot for Women of Color Magazine. Yes ,when I say boss I mean it. My mentor outside of being a great person is super accomplished. So let me name a couple of her accolades from this year:
2019 Technologist of the Year
https://womenofcolor.online/article_list/3433/?fbclid=IwAR1y58IutWL8tzFNUyZWCdYj5UlfzPcBzpabBPxP53detrkohfM4yn8Ck_c
2019 Wall of Fame Honoree for the Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools
Winner of AFFIRM's Special Leadership Recognition Award in Science, Innovation and New Technology
https://affirm.org/news/2019/5/6/affirms-annual-leadership-awards-recognize-exemplary-performance-in-the-government-community?rq=pamela%20mccauley
Winner of a Fellow Award from the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers
https://www.iise.org/details.aspx?id=49064
This was very humbling and made me feel super grateful. Which is hard because I feel this way all the time but it took me from a 8/10 to a 12. For these last two weeks, I want to absorb all I can. Fingers crossed my mentor's brilliance and dedication rub off on me.
