Encouraging students to try STEM and college

Whatever your political leanings, I'm sure there are some politicians you like and others you don't.  I've always liked Mark Warner, but I really appreciated him more after hearing him speak at commencement at Virginia Tech in 2012.  He was down to earth, talking about his failures (i.e. "couch surfing" with friends while trying to make it) and how it took those failures to get him where he is today.  Of course he was somewhat upstaged by Michelle Obama, who also gave a great speech, but I can remember more of his speech than hers.

I saw this on my Facebook feed yesterday, posted by Mark Warner: "One proposal to help poor student gets to college."  I know there are a lot of initiatives to encourage students to get dual enrollment credits and associates' degrees while in high school, to save money and to get a jump on college.  As someone who has worked with college students for 20+ years, I could write a long post on why that may not always be a great idea.  But this idea I like.  Being a first generation college graduate myself, this would have been a wonderful opportunity for me.  I still get grief from some members of my family about "all that education you have," like it is some kind of bad thing. (For those of you who know me and my vehicle will probably have a better understanding of why I have the vanity plates on my car.)

I'm for anything that will give students the boost of confidence they need just to try, which leads to a story in the news today.  Tomorrow's Tech Stars Sound Off on Why Silicon Valley Should Embrace Diversity.  As I've told many computer science students, I don't have a background in computer science, but I do know what it feels like to be the only girl in the room.  As a music education major in college, my primary instrument was percussion.  I was quite often the only girl in the room, the ensemble, or in the audition waiting area.  I can still remember the excitement of being first chair snare drum in All County Band, only to show up and have none of the guys talk to me and at times, literally push me aside.  That's when it comes in really handy to have a local middle school band teacher, a percussionist himself, step in and explain that the first chair decides who plays what parts and when.  He stepped in when I really needed some support and made a big difference to me, which kept me moving forward as a musician. Thank you Bill Ray, retired BMS band teacher.

For me, I'm just stubborn enough to hang in there and keep trying.  I can still hear the phrase "You're trying to get better than your upbringing," ringing in my head and how much it bothered me to hear it.  20+ years later and I can now say, "But isn't that a good thing?"