Thanksgiving is approaching !

What's up everyone ! 

Time has been flying! I hope all is well with everyone reading this!

Video Observations 

This week I researched various Engineers in the archive. I intend to give the freshman majoring in mechanical engineering an assignment this semester doing the same research. The proposal of the assignment has been postponed due to my professor falling ill from Covid. 

The research I did was impactful for me because I was able to learn about African Americans in my field of study. Hearing from them encouraged, and inspired me. A few of the people I learned about were Darryll Pines, and Ayanna Howard. 

Mr. Pines currently serves as the president of University of Maryland, College Park. In his interview, he discussed his decision to choose mechanical engineering due to its broad spectrum of avenues. He was interested in aerospace, but they did not offer that degree program at UC Berkeley at the time. Although he studied mechanical engineering, he did the majority of his professional work in the aerospace field.  He and I share some similarities. I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering and my concentration is propulsion which is comparable to aerospace. I am also aware that despite me majoring in mechanical engineering, I could be in another engineering discipline in my professional life. 

Ayanna Howard was a phenomenal black woman that I learned about in the archive. She is the first chair of the PHD robotics program at Georgia Tech. My mother attended Georgia Tech as she received a dual degree in physics and mechanical engineering from Spelman College. Ms. Howard stated that a lot of the projects that were carried out were not new ideas. She mentioned that some of these ideas were 10 years old, but at the time of the initial proposal, the world was not technologically advanced enough to carry out the projects. I never thought about that before watching her interview, but she was really able to put things into perspective for me.  

Life Update

Thanksgiving break has come, and I am so happy about it! This will be my first thanksgiving away from my immediate family. They will be celebrating in Texas. I decided to stay at school for two reasons. One, I have to work in the dorm, and secondly, I just wanted to get a peace of mind since things have been so hectic and fast paced for me. Fortunately, my god family lives here in Huntsville so I will be spending thanksgiving with them. I am really looking forward to it! I mentioned in my last blog post that I have been busy running my photography business and things haven't changed. I have been gaining a lot of attraction from my various clients circulating my work. I enjoy the attention but it also comes with more work. I have been having to learn how to find balance so I don’t spread myself too thin. 

Continued work

Recently I have been brainstorming on new additions to propose for the archive. I have three really good people in mind! Two of them are family members who are the first black women in their respective fields. The third person is an old high school classmate who had devoted his life to the mentorship of boys. All three of them have been in the national spotlight during their career. 

I am also revising my yearly plan. I have not been doing the best job with sticking to it.

Thank you for tuning into my weekly post and Happy Holidays !