Emily Frantz: Notes on my Nuclear Network

This past July, I had the opportunity to attend the US Women in Nuclear conference in Chicago.  This was the first time I saw my network build from previous connections, especially ones from SWE!  But I'll get to that...  

I was one of 36 students of the 460 conference attendees.  WIN is a 5800 member organization of women and men who work in nuclear and radiation related fields around the country that focus on networking, professional development, and outreach activities.  The direction of WIN is different than SWE in many ways, but the stressed importance of continuously networking and developing all your professional skills is the same.

Group of students and I before we left to eat deep dish pizza and explore Chicago!

My roommate from the conference and I on the last day!

This incredible experience began when I received an email announcing the scholarship to attend the conference from the Nuclear Energy Institute.  I applied on a whim and was lucky enough to receive sponsorship to go to Chicago!  I would be travelling to a new city, by myself, and arriving without knowing anyone attending.  I didn't even know my roommate until I arrived at the hotel room.  While it sounds risky, I highly suggest doing it if you have the chance!  When networking is a survival technique, not just a professional skill, you will catch on much quicker.

The first night of the conference I attended the student and mentor meeting (as part of the scholarship, I was partnered with a mentor; this was when we met each other).  First of all, I would like to say that at least half of the students attending were guys!  I expected a few, but it was surprising to see so many at the WOMEN in Nuclear conference.  Sitting there, assessing the room, a girl sitting in the front looking very much like a collegiate I had met at the WE12 (the SWE national conference) in Houston.  I thought, "Eh, couldn't be", until seeing her later in the evening at the networking dinner.  I went up and sure enough I was right!  In Houston, she and I had chatted at the career fair at the conference because she was looking at many of the same companies as I, since we're both nuclear engineers.  Through her I met the other students from her university that offered advice on starting a WIN chapter at RPI.  Those students then introduced me to all of their supervisors at their respective internships.

The next day of the conference my mentor said there were a few people she wanted me to meet:  her coworkers and "someone who is looking for you".  Taken aback, it turns out that through the grapevine, she had heard that a woman was looking for Emily Frantz.  The mystery was concerning, but my pursuer ended up being an RPI alumni who had seen in the attendees list that I was from RPI!  I learned she graduated from the nuclear engineering department about 20 years ago when there were only eight in the major, three of which being women.  She joked that "the number was so small that the ratio was easy to beat"!  Soon she introduced me to colleagues who introduced me to colleagues who introduced me to a woman who was an intern program organizer, who turned out to be a woman I had sat and spoke with at dinner the night before!

The best part of travelling by myself is that I felt free to sit with strangers wherever I went:  meals, sessions, programs.  By doing so, I made more connections than I could count in the three days of the conference.  I suggest that even if you attend an event as a group, break away from each other and meet new people!  Set goals to always make a new connection, especially if you do so through a previously made connection.  The more you try, the bigger your network gets!  Just like on LinkedIn (if you don't have a profile, go make one), those you meet are your "first connections" and everyone in their network have the potential to be a new direct connection for you.  By putting yourself out there, you are giving yourself the opportunity to build and grow.

A summary and set of parting messages on networking:

• Use what you have (SWE, school, major, interests, etc) to make those connections.  The number of times I said, "I'm in SWE" and got the response, "ME TOO!" was significant
• Talk less and ask more questions, it shows you're genuinely interested in making connections (not just building a network) and will give you info that is easier (and more interesting) to remember than just a name and job title!  
• And write it down!  Name, contact, where/when you met, and what you talked about.  It sounds like a spy notebook of creepy notes, but it comes in handy so all your networking doesn't go to waste when you meet so many people you can't differentiate one from another
• Mentors play a key role in networking.  They help introduce you to the right people and want to help, so don't be afraid to solicit their assistance in making connections
• Go outside your comfort zone and take EVERY opportunity to network (there was a walk around the city every morning of the conference at 6AM and I'd drag myself out there; I met women who are truly powerhouses and as tired as I was, I'm glad I did it)
• Don't stress that you "have" to meet people and "make those connections" and "make it happen if you're ever going to get a job"... it is something you learn, so go at your own pace (its a marathon. not a sprint)!  It isn't the number of business cards you collect, its if the person you spoke with is going to remember meeting you

If anyone has further networking advice for those starting a network at their first conference (WE13 is coming up!) or how to build the network they have, please comment below or submit your own post (it can be a few lines, not necessarily a novella) to swe@union.rpi.edu!

More information on WIN can be found on the WIN website!  And if you are really interested in a nuclear career, I hope to start a chapter soon!

Emily Frantz: Any Ladies in the House? Using SWE to be a Female Roll Model

There has been the question if we have enough female role models for STEM: both role models in the media and enough women out there being real and relatable.  The answer is most definitely no to both!

While yes, we should have strong STEM women as protagonists in more shows on TV and in movies, I don't work in Hollywood, so how can I help there?  I can't do much other than support such productions.

What I CAN do is be a role model myself, and as a SWE member, you can do the same!  Through outreach and mentoring, we can show the next generation what a female engineer, mathematician, chemist, physicist, or computer whiz looks like.  We have jumped one hurdle by having more women pursuing higher education.  In 2009, 57% of college students were women!  Compared to 1970, when less than 27% of female high school graduates enrolled in college, that is a step in the right direction!  The next hurdle?  Women hold less than 25% of STEM jobs.  We need role models to show that these are positions women can not only hold, but excel in!  (Statistics from Getting to the STEM of Gender Inequality)

Chelsea Clinton recently spoke on the issue and gave her opinion that, "I think [girls are] not seeing role models — they’re seeing boys who are astronauts, boys who are engineers, they’re seeing boys who start Facebook or Google, they’re not seeing girls, its really hard to imagine yourself as something that you don’t see, particularly when you’re a kid” (Quote from Girls need STEM role models).  I agree with her.  My father is an engineer and I know that because of seeing that as I grew up, I considered the career.  How often do we hear that someone becomes an engineer because their mother is an engineer?  I haven't heard it often enough from my peers.  As women in STEM, we need to be the role models that we wanted to see growing up.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said (and many have said since), "Be the change that you wish to see in the world".  How to be the change you may ask?

• Become a mentor.  Check out the Women at Rensselaer Mentoring Program and get involved!
• Join RPI SWE's Outreach group!  Multiple times a semester we work with girls of all ages through local schools, Girl Scout troops, and different programs RPI's School of Engineering does (Design Your Future Day for example).

I recently heard this poem:

A Cautious Leader
A cautious leader I must be, for a future leader follows me.
I do not dare go astray, for fear they’ll go the same self-way.
I cannot once escape their eyes, for what they see me do they try.
Like me one day they say they’ll be, the future leader who follows me.
So I must remember as I go, through exhilarating highs and discouraging lows.
That I am building for all to see, the future leader who follows me.
–Anonymous

Just something to keep in mind while we're following our dreams, who we can inspire to follow theirs!

On a side note, the blog THIS IS WHAT A SCIENTIST LOOKS LIKE features posts from real scientists who have submitted their stories!  If you look, at least half of them are women!  Quickly look at the "Stereotype" page too.  I challenge you to submit a post from your summer internships and share it with RPI SWE if you end up on the blog!

Book Club: More STEM Summer Reads

The next book I read was A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I would dare say that this has been my favorite read of the summer (thus far, of course).

The title is very appropriate as the scope of this novel is quite large.  Bryson tells the history of our planet from the Big Bang to now by going through every discipline of science, including everything from astronomy to zoology.  While there is a lot of information, the author's humor made this an incredibly entertaining read.

One of my favorite passages tells the story of Thomas Midgley, Jr.  The Ohio inventor was an engineer by training, and as Bryson says, "the world would have been a safer place if he had stayed so" (page 149).  Instead in 1921 he began to work for General Motors Research Corporation working on the industrial applications of chemistry, specifically tetraethyl lead.  The compound reduced engine knock (when it shakes and vibrates), but released lead, a neurotoxin into the air... YET it still reduced engine knock so a few large corporations invested together to create Ethyl Gasoline Corporation to mass produce it.  Soon the production workers were suffering severely from the effects of lead, but the media was told they were simply working too hard.  After a number of deaths, Midgley went in front of journalists and poured tetraethyl lead all over his hands and held a full beaker under his nose for a minute, saying he would be fine if he did that every day.  When really, he had suffered from overexposure a few months before and never went near the stuff unless he needed to reassure journalists!  It wasn't until 1986 that actions were successful at ending the compound's production, and almost immediately "lead levels in the blood of Americans fell by 80%.  But because lead is forever, those of us alive today have 625 times more lead in our blood than people did a century ago" (page 158).  If that wasn't bad enough, in the 1920's he also invented chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) which began for refrigerators but ended up being used in thousands of products from air conditioners to deodorant sprays.  CFCs stick around forever and devour the ozone in the stratosphere.  Bryson sums their effects as, "in short, chloroflurocarbons may ultimately prove to be just about the worst invention of the twentieth century" (page 152).  Thomas Midgley, Jr.'s final invention was a device to automatically raise or turn him in bed after he became crippled with polio.  In 1944, Midgley was entangled in the cords when the device went into action and strangled him.

This one is a little darker than most, but I found Midgley's end somewhat fitting!  That is one of the countless snippets of our history.  The breadth of Bryson's findings provide plenty of stories for those of all interests, go find your favorite!  

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Earlier in the summer, I read The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by  Denise Kiernan after a recommendation from a classmate.

The novel follows several women  in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who were brought in secret to work on the Manhattan Project.  For many of the young women, it was their first job, a means to provide for their family, or an opportunity to make a life.  Many met their husbands and started families in their years working on the project.  The whole time they were kept in the dark to what they were actually creating, most not learning until a radio broadcast after the atomic bombs had been dropped and Oak Ridge erupted into cries of victory.  This descriptive telling of life in Oak Ridge best paints the whole picture, each young women having a different role in the war effort, living situation, background prior to the war, and life after her years there.  This was a historical novel, much like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks that tells the human side of scientific discoveries and events.

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It you have any younger siblings, nieces/nephews, cousins, or children you babysit, SWE recently posted on Facebook this list of great STEM books for kids!  Check those out and help inspire some young minds!

Book Club: "Strengths Finder 2.0" by Tom Rath

This book came highly recommended by our section President, Ashley!  She read it as a SWEFL before the Collegiate Leadership Forum.  Just as I was about to start reading it,  a coworker who read it as a part of a team building retreat was raving about it as well!  

Turns out this book is less of a novel and more of a personality assessment (like a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator sort of test).  The whole idea is to find what you have natural talent at so your energy can be invested into developing your strengths instead of correcting your deficiencies.  There is a thirty page introduction and explanation of the StrengthFinder 2.0 test.  The test itself is 177 questions and takes about 35 minutes.  The test reports back five strengths (of 34 common talents) that you then look up more information on in the book.  You can learn the blind spots of your strengths as well as how to apply your natural talent.

I found this was a useful look to what my strengths are!  This is good to know for self improvement and is also an easy answer in interviews when asked to describe your strengths (and weaknesses).  If you find analysis's of yourself helpful, this book and website provide excellent resources!

Book Club: STEM Summer Reads

This series of posts started as solely books on professional development, but I have also come across some interesting reads to keep our nerdy brains engaged! This great list of recommendations has topics ranging "from brains to biology to space to art to physics". These are the few I've read so far!

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I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Amazon’s book of the year for 2012.

This novel tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer who's cells were taken without her knowledge during her cancer treatment.  Her cancerous cells became what scientists know as HeLa.  These cells have played an import role in medical research and various discoveries such as the polio vaccine, the atom bomb’s effects, cloning, gene mapping, and more.

The author entwines the story of the Lacks family with the controversies surrounding HeLa: the experimentation done on African Americans, the beginnings of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control what we are made of.   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the humanity that is behind science, both good and bad.

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I also read, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss. This book was not what I expected. My first impression was that it was simply a grown up picture book, but the author put great thought into this work of art. She did the illustrations herself, and the font was created especially for the book, named after the spiriualist the Curies would visit.

This was a quick read, but was a well written history of the life of the Curies who were lab partners and spouses. Their story was broken up with information about what their discoveries later helped create. Marie Curie was an inspirational woman who maintained her career, family, and personal life, even if the lines would sometimes blur. Pierre Curie did pass away and Marie met someone new, a married man. This scandal caused many colleagues to ask her not to appear to accept her Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Her response was that her personal life should not be of consequence to her career; something that professional women must answer to this day (maternity leave, moving to be with spouses, etc).  Learning about Marie Curie, an influential woman who made great strides in her career, is beneficial to any young woman studying in the STEM fields.

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I'm a bit of a Feynman-freak. Richard Feynman assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, was on the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, a professor, the 1965 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics, and a clever and creative individual (hobby of cracking safes, taught himself to play the bongos and how to draw). This summer I read one of his autobiographies, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman: a collection of entertaining anecdotes ranging from his days in school, his career as a physicist, to how he found interests outside of his work. I found it to be humorous and give insight on decisions about your education, career, and finding a work-life balance between a fruitful career, outside interests and raising a family.

This book first started my interest in Feynman's life and career. I then read Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From the Beaten Track, a collection of over forty years of his correspondence with family, colleagues, students, fans, and others! The book was organized by his daughter Michelle who inherited a few file cabinets full of her father's letters.

The letters highlight the personal relationships that underwrote the key developments in modern science, but also form the most intimate look at Feynman. While his autobiography briefly mentioned his family, this goes into his relationship with his parents, wives, and children. Feynman's words give more advice (especially as fans write in asking questions!) as well as depicting how he approached his career, family, and life long pursuit of knowledge and maintain an inquisitive mind.

A side note:  if you would like to learn more about Feynmen, check out these videos!  Many of the lectures, documentaries, and TV specials are mentioned in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman and Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From the Beaten Track.

Book Club: "Know What You Don't Know" by Dr. Michael Roberto

Over the course of the summer, I will be reading books on professional development and posting my less than professional opinion and a summery of lessons to take away.  Feel free to read the books and comment your opinions!  Share any books you've read on professional development (or something of interest to SWE)!  

The first book I read was "Know What You Don't Know" by Dr. Michael Roberto and my book club post can be read below!

Best wishes,

Emily

This was one of those books I read with a pen in hand writing how my own personal work and leadership experiences compare to the examples given in this novel.  The most interesting part was reading dozens of different case-study like examples about the leaders in hospitals, the military, the government, and industry (Pixar, Chrysler, Dyson, Polaroid, etc).  Each case-study from the variety of industries and companies showed different leadership styles, work environments, and levels of experience.

The leadership skills this book attempts to develop are how to find problems before they become even larger issues.  Problems can come from breakdowns of a technical, cognitive, and/or interpersonal nature.  Learning to be a "problem finder" is broken into seven sections:

1. Circumvent the gatekeepers: look for the raw data, remove information filters
2. Become an ethnographer:  observe and take note of employees, customers, and suppliers
3. Hunt for patterns:  experience gives you a deck of patterns you've seen; reflecting and refining your pattern recognition helps; novices often don't see the same patterns as those with experience, which has pros/cons (I'm talking to you interns and those new to a job!)
4. Connect the dots:  large scale failures are often preceded by small problems
5. Encourage useful failures:  always be reflecting (some companies in the book had museums or walls dedicated to remembering failures); "rapid, relatively low cost experimentation" (pg 133) is an opportunity for youth (such as interns or newbies) to experiment and for anyone to be creative and find problems early
6. Teach how to talk and listen:  communicating effectively; the RPI Archer Center for Student Leadership Development is a great resource for all students to take advantage of to build collaborative  skills, as well as speaking and listening
7. Watch the game film:  review what you've done as well as competitors (ESPECIALLY your competitors) to learn from what you've done

Quick Tips to Consider:

• Empower those you work with to bring problems forward.  Mistakes and false alarms are learning experiences.  Even if you intuition is saying something is wrong, run with it.
• There is a fear of repercussions for bringing forward a problem, but know that you were hired for a reason, so don't worry about your job security.  Bring forward the issues so you can get help with them.  
• Do not conform, a unique viewpoint makes you an asset
• Make sure everyone feels personally accountable and invested in the project
• Look at the assembly line, not just the task at hand
• Group decisions exceed the quality of individual choices (studies have shown this!)
• Communicate face to face whenever possible

This novel also brought up points you should consider as you look for your dream career!  The environment is a large part of ensuring your happiness in your career.  This novel brought up the thought that the company/managers/leaders should create "a climate in which people feel comfortable coming forward" (pg 35) with any problems.  You should feel considered and valued, and not fear bringing up a problem.  Job rotations are a part of some careers early on.  They are very beneficial in that they expose you to other units of an organization.  This fosters a better understanding and appreciation for the work being done in other units.  This also helps individuals build your social networks as well as who to ask about critical information (pg 110).

Leaders should be on the lookout for problems, no matter your position in an organization.  This novel was a great breakdown of how to train your brain to look for them.  Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences! 

Member of the Month, March: Nicole Gagnon

Nicole, at left, teaches girls about liquid nitrogen at Spring GSED 2013!

As a freshman I joined SWE. Being a member of SWE, I have had the opportunity to attend so many wonderful events and workshops and network with fabulous women. My favorite part of SWE has to be outreach committee though. I am still a kid at heart so doing experiments and building things is a blast! I love being able to share the fun of engineering with young girls so that maybe one day they will grow up to be engineers too. As an outreach member, I have participated in Girl Scout Engineering Day which is the most fun event on campus! I have helped build giant marble roller coasters and freeze marshmallows in liquid nitrogen (which are delicious). I have really enjoyed being an RPI SWE member during my 4 years here. I have had so many great SWE experience and met so many fabulous people!