March is Women’s History Month and, to celebrate, let’s look at wise words from ten women who have made great gains in STEM fields throughout history.

Maryam Mirzakhani, Groundbreaking Mathematician

“I like crossing the imaginary boundaries people set up between different fields—it’s very refreshing. There are lots of tools, and you don’t know which one would work. It’s about being optimistic and trying to connect things.” [1]

Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician who, in 2014, became the first woman and first Iranian to win the prestigious Fields Medal, often considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics. She was a professor at Stanford University until her death from breast cancer in 2017.

Sally Ride, Physicist and NASA Pioneer

“I would like to be remembered as someone who was not afraid to do what she wanted to do, and as someone who took risks along the way in order to achieve her goals.” [2]

Ride was a capsule communicator for NASA before becoming the first American woman and youngest person to date in space. After her historic flight, Ride worked at NASA headquarters, as a professor, directed the and co-founded the nonprofit , which creates science programs for upper elementary and middle school students.

Marie Curie, Radioactivity Researcher and Nobel Prize Record-Setter

“We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” [3]

The first person and only woman to win two Nobel Prizes, Curie is also the only person to date to earn the award in two different sciences. One of her many achievements was the development of the theory of radioactivity.

Mae Jemison, Astronaut, Doctor and Much More

“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” [4]

After earning her chemical engineering degree from Stanford University and her medical degree from Cornell Medical College, Jemison joined the Peace Corps and served as a doctor in Sierra Leone. Upon her return, she applied to the space program, eventually becoming the first African-American woman in space. She now works in the private sector, holds nine honorary degrees and remains a dedicated dancer.

Antonia Novello, Former Surgeon General

“I believe that fortitude is key. More than anything, be consistent. Go at it. Go at it. Go at it. When you succeed, don’t forget the responsibility of making someone else succeed with you.”

Novello was the first woman and first person of Hispanic decent to serve as Surgeon General of the United States. She studied at the University of Puerto Rico and held residencies at the University of Michigan and Georgetown University School of Medicine, focusing on pediatrics. During her tenure as Surgeon General, Novello focused on the health of women, children and minorities, as well as those with AIDS.

Dr. Francis Allen, Computer Scientist and Programming Wiz

“You need to hire and develop great people. You need to set the vision and trust them to do the right thing. You need to let go of control. That’s wonderful for all involved because you’re empowering and trusting your people to do what’s right for the brand.” [5]

Allen worked at IBM for 45 years, work that included code optimization, parallelization and pioneering work in optimizing compliers. She was the first woman to receive the notable A.M. Turing Award, the Nobel Prize equivalent for computer science, for her work.

Chien-Shiung Wu, First Lady of Physics

“There is only one thing worse than coming home from the lab to a sink full of dirty dishes, and that is not going to the lab at all!” [6]

Often called the First Lady of Physics, Wu left her native China in 1936 to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her Ph.D. She is most notable for conducting the Wu experiment, which contradicted the hypothetical law of conservation of parity. Although she was not recognized for the Noble Prize along with her colleagues, she later when on to earn the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics.

Helen Octavia Dickens, Surgeon and Public Health Advocate

“Somewhere along the way I decided that if I was going to be a nurse, I might as well become a doctor.” [7]

Dickens was a record-breaker several times in her long life. She was the first black woman named as a fellow by the American College of Surgeons and elected to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, along with being the first female African American board-certified Ob/gyn in Philadelphia. She worked tirelessly for the poor and underprivileged and was an early advocate of using Pap smears to detect cervical cancer.

Sheryl Sandberg, Technology Executive

“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” [8]

Sandberg, an economist and business woman, served as Chief of Staff for United States Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers before moving on to work at tech giant Google. She then went on to be the first woman on the board of Facebook and is known for her writing and activism for women in technology and business.

Rachel Carson, Environmental Scientist and Author

“We have been troubled about the world, and had almost lost faith in man; it helps to think about the long history of the earth, and of how life came to be. And when we think in terms of millions of years, we are not so impatient that our own problems be solved tomorrow.” [9]

Carson, the subject of , was an environmental scientist and author whose book, Silent Spring, brought attention to the dangers of pesticides in the natural environment. Her work was instrumental in inspiring a movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her environmental activism.

What quotes from women in STEM do you love?

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Sources

[1] Quanta Magazine, , 2014

[2] , 2006

[3] , 1937

[4] , 2009

[5] , 2014

[6] , 2001

[7] , 2001

[8] , 2013

[9] Speech accepting the John Burroughs Medal, 1952

March Madness in almost here, making college basketball top-of-mind. And so I perked up at last week’s California Association for the Gifted Conference when Dr. Sandra Kaplan mentioned that UCLA’s basketball team takes ballet classes. This caused me to sit up and think. Any young woman or man playing on a Division I basketball team is a gifted athlete. But ballet?

Well, yes, ballet. There is a lot of fancy footwork going on down below while basketball players are busy dribbling, passing, shooting and dunking.  Watching the Lehigh versus Bucknell Patriot League Conference Tournament Championship game, and looking only below the knees, I saw dance. Pirouettes, jetés, leaps, and the occasional third and fourth position were all there. Lehigh’s Tim Kempton (6’10”, 245 pounds, 20.4 PPG) would make a wonderful Rat King in The Nutcracker.

This all begs a few questions. Can an art inform a sport? Can sport inform an art? Can students advance in one field because they explored another? By combining unrelated fields, will our gifted scholar-athletes create a greater exceptionality? And what does this mean for us?

I am an independent college counselor, often working with gifted students as they apply for college. (I am also an ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ mother and consultant.) Some families consult with me when their students are just entering high school, so I see exciteabilities develop over the course of four years. Before taking on Dr. Kaplan’s question, I knew, but I didn’t comprehend, how ballet made for better basketball. My happiest students have been telling me for years that they like it when they mix things up, when obvious skills and interests become companion to less obvious skills and interests. Reflecting back, I see that those students who intellectualize their giftedness were among my most joyful.  Here are some first hand examples.

My first inkling this was happening came fifteen years ago, from a Mentor supervising five high-school-aged ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ Apprentices in a material science research lab. (ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ’s Apprenticeship Program has evolved into the , both outstanding.) These Apprentices were similar in lab skills and science understanding. One stood out, however, because of his English skills. Specifically, he could more quickly tease out ideas shared in conversation, read manuals and reports in and out of context, and clearly stated questions that moved ideas forward. Early on, he became the student leader because everyone in the lab understood him. He is now a very successful computer scientist. (And an aside: research labs are often home to scientists from around the world and of many languages, so clarity of communication makes for better science.)

I’ve had many students with exceptional mathematical abilities, and their stories speak directly to drawing energy from unusual sources. Four of them were quite upfront that their love of math was fueled outside of math classes. One, a Berkeley graduate, said that creative writing relaxed her into a feeling of bliss, and then, without any notes, she would imagine the answers to her problem sets. Another, now a math major at Reed, described how her remarkable sophomore year English teacher inspired her, through close textual reading, to consider multiple approaches to any problem. A UC San Diego math major told me he feels strongly that poetry and math are the same subject–economy of ideas—and so he approaches them in tandem. And another student, bound for college in 2018, craves playing golf every day because it is so much fun to watch parabolas on the fairway.

And it’s not just my mathematicians. One student, a Harvard graduate, became a better Russian language student when she started playing the piano every day. A current Berkeley undergraduate understands literature more deeply on days when she sees poor immigrants walk into traffic to sell flowers. One of my favorite students this year keeps finding ideas for prosthetic designs watching movies that are not about prosthetics. One young man, Cal Tech bound, described how ideas come while he paints. If he didn’t paint, would he have these ideas?

Lastly, and saluting March Madness, I have worked with both a semi-professional dancer, and a winning basketball player. My dancer, on History: “Yep, the world has always been all about ebb and flow.” And my basketball player thinks his internship in a research university’s chemistry lab is less akin to science classes and more like passing just outside the paint: “The graduate students throw ideas around faster than a good offense, so I’m still hustling to keep my eye on the ball.”

Our students give us their giftedness; our efforts should include enabling their intellectualism. The UCLA coach who first enrolled the basketball team in ballet is now a personal role model. Dr. Kaplan’s workshop, “Giftedness versus Intellectualism,” has prompted me to think of ways to help my students identify and encourage the productive combinations in their lives.

For me, as an independent college counselor, that means more time listening and waiting for the student to share enough so that I can ask more direct questions. For a gifted student, who feels his or her exciteabilities more strongly, working at this intersection is key. Within my niche in their lives, answers to those questions make for powerful application essays.

Sometimes we talk about nurturing a gifted student’s spirituality. For me, the mere though was daunting, so I stayed away. It is easy to get tripped up here because many of us equate “spirituality” with “religion.” But that was never gifted educators’ intention—instead, it is something wholly interior, unseen, and a powerful animator. Perhaps a mathematician’s spirituality lies in poetry.

Kate Duey is a private college counselor serving gifted students. She has worked with students who are age-mates with their graduating high school class, home schooled students, community college students, and students seeking accelerated or early college entrance. Kate is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She has a Certificate in College Counseling from UCLA. She also has three incredible daughters.

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I take it as true that a high percentage of American optimists out there still believe social and economic upward mobility is possible. The American Dream. The belief that if you start at the bottom, you can – through hard work and a can-do attitude – make a vertical leap and change your life significantly.

But is this true of the country we live in today? Over the past century, researchers and academics have attempted to understand upward mobility in America, to make sense of what seems like a stasis of migration between classes and a real lack of resources for those who might need them most. In a 2014 article, James Surowiecki, staff writer at The New Yorker, wrote about . Surowiecki references a study co-conducted by researchers at Berkeley and Harvard that revealed: “Social mobility is low and has been for at least thirty or forty years… Seventy percent of people born into the bottom quintile of income distribution never make it into the middle class”.

This question of mobility becomes more complex when you consider the gifted kids at the bottom of the ladder. There is a myth alive and well in American culture that individuals with a natural intellectual ability and prowess somehow have a “leg up” in life. “They’re smart; they’ll be fine.” As though gifted kids are somehow invulnerable to the ordinary woes of childhood and adolescence, not to mention the difficulties most gifted children experience with regards to social and emotional development, anxiety, fear of failure, perfectionism, and depression – to name a few.

Another point worth considering is the fundamental relationship between learning and challenge. All children deserve to be challenged – even gifted kids. The foundation of learning is growth, a measurable change in behavior and comprehension through challenge and experience. For gifted kids, the process of learning is often an atypical feature of their everyday classroom experience. And for these kids, learning is crucial to their sense of well-being and place in the world.

Maybe this is why the dropout rate among gifted students is estimated at almost 25 percent. Because the myth that says, “You’re smart; you’ll make it” fails to take these facts into consideration. Add to this the disappointing truth that , and we’ve got a problem worth talking about.

This is what Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author of books like Blink and The Tipping Point, discusses in his new podcast, , a podcast dedicated to going back and reinterpreting something from the past which was overlooked or misunderstood. In a recent three-part installment on the American education system, Gladwell asks important questions about the system as it stands and how, if at all, it supports this idea of upward mobility. Can those at the bottom really rise to the top? Is the system set up to help students succeed – even the “smart” kids?

The first episode of the series tells the story of a kid named Carlos. A math-loving kid from a small, disadvantaged enclave of West Los Angeles, Carlos was identified for his exceptional ability by a local nonprofit organization, the , a group dedicated to maintaining America’s promise of equal opportunity for equal talent. Supported by YES, Carlos is able to attend an elite private school with challenging curriculum and advanced learning opportunities. But even with the support and advocacy of YES, life isn’t easy. As Gladwell probes beneath the surface, the listener is confronted with hard truths about the experience of kids like Carlos in America.

I should qualify: I am definitely not saying that gifted kids born into money don’t also deserve to be challenged, receive a transformative education, or be encouraged to reach their fullest potential. Every child deserves to be challenged. Every gifted child deserves (and needs) to be challenged.  The point of Gladwell’s podcast and this blog is not to shame those with more resources – like time or money –  or imply that gifted kids from wealthy backgrounds have things easier. The focus of this conversation is whether upward mobility is as common as we would like to believe. Being smart doesn’t guarantee success, especially if you are a kid like Carlos. The greater the gap, the greater the need for resources to leverage the playing field and help these brilliant students tap into their academic and personal potential.

To hear this episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History, visit their website at: . You can also access all three episodes of Gladwell’s inquiry into the American education system (which I highly recommend) directly on their site. 

Like the Institute for Educational Advancement (ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ), YES is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing advocacy, support, and resources for our nation’s most promising students. For more information about Young Eisner Scholars and the incredible work they are doing in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Appalachia, visit them online at: .

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Every gifted person has a unique story. The following story is part of a series of posts depicting the many faces of gifted by highlighting gifted children and adults we have found through ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ programs. ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ’s – mentioned in this story – links gifted high school students from across the country with mentors who advance each participant’s skills through the application of knowledge and exposure to real world experiences.

Albert Keung
2000 Apprentice, Aeronautical Engineering, Occidental College
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Boston University/Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Can you imagine what it would be like to fly in an unpowered glider over Southern California? Albert Keung didn’t have to imagine it; he actually did it in the summer of 2000. Albert was an Apprentice in the Aeronautical Engineering program at Occidental College and mentored by the late Dr. Paul MacCready, founder of AeroVironment, Inc. and known as the “father of human-powered flight.”

“A small plane towed each of us up with a pilot and released us at 10,000 feet, and we soared for what felt like hours without any power. The views were amazing, and because of the small cockpit and the unpowered flight, it was the closest to natural flying I think I will ever feel,” Albert said.

Coming to California that summer of his senior year to participate in ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ’s program was just what Albert was looking for. “I had never been to California or the West Coast, and that was exciting to me. I had also never gone to summer camps growing up, so heading far away from home in Boston was also going to be a new experience. Of course I have always been naturally drawn to science and engineering, and I think some of the more visible and accessible fields for me at that age were in aerospace and mechanical engineering. Cool planes? Count me in! Plus, obviously the chance to learn from a pioneer in the field like Dr. MacCready was an incredible opportunity!”

“Our projects were to build model hand-launched gliders with mounted miniature cameras to record our flights. We learned about air currents, thermals, and maneuvers to take advantage of them to keep our gliders in flight. It was amazing thinking about how much energy for flight and maneuvers could be derived simply from the design and operation of the unpowered glider. We were also tasked with researching a specific area related to aeronautical engineering or sustainable flight and presenting our findings to our fellow Apprentices.”

I asked Albert what one of his biggest challenges was as an Apprentice. “It was deciding on a research topic from such a broad field. We could choose to read up on any topic related to aeronautical engineering, which was freeing but intimidating. It was one of my first introductions to unstructured research. It was liberating but simultaneously very difficult. I realized knowing what I didn’t know was probably the most important and difficult element of research, but crucial in deciding what was interesting to study.”

After returning to high school that fall, Albert looked at the world a bit differently. “The main difference I felt going back to high school was my sense of scope. In multiple ways, those few weeks opened my eyes to a much larger world, both geographically (I loved California) as well as scientifically. I had a new sense of curiosity for all the sights in the scientific world I hadn’t seen yet. While I was in awe of what could be accomplished in flight design, the experience wasn’t all aeronautical engineering. For example, Dr. MacCready brought us to the house of his friend who studied optical illusions. I remember walking down a hallway where flat pictures looked like they were popping out of the walls into your path. There were so many neat and diverse experiences that summer that it made me realize how rich in intellectual wonders the world is.”

Albert graduated with a PhD from the Chemical Engineering Department at UC Berkeley last year. “My thesis work was studying how stem cells can be engineered to become specific types of neural cells. Understanding how neural stem cells sense and respond to their environment is important for both regenerative medicine and our understanding of natural brain development. Specifically I was interested in how stem cells sense and respond to mechanical forces in their environment. In many ways, while I ended up in chemical and bio-engineering, I am still drawn to mechanical aspects of design and engineering like I was during my Apprenticeship. Currently, I’m a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University/HHMI. I’m investigating new synthetic biology approaches to controlling cellular processes and behaviors. My ultimate and continuing goals are to develop well controlled synthetic biology systems to study fundamental biological questions about cellular and tissue regulation and organization, and also to engineer synthetic devices for use in cells that could produce pharmaceuticals or biofuels or sense toxins or cancer cells in humans. Long-term, I am very interested in the architecture of biology, meaning how elements of our genome, cells, and tissues interact to yield such complex properties and behaviors and how these elements can be wired in useful ways for biomedical and industrial needs.”

As far as career goals, Albert wants to be excited and intrigued in the work he does. “A large part of my excitement will be whether there is some beneficial impact, short or long-term, of my work on human health. It is likely for me personally that I will remain in research and engineering. I think it is a privilege to study the sciences and in many ways studying how the world works humbles you just by its sheer complexity, diversity, and unintuitive surprises. But at the same time, studying how the world works makes one feel more human and more appreciative of everything and everyone around me. It’s somewhat like the feeling I think astronomers must get when they look at distant structures in the Universe, feeling simultaneously very small but very in awe. On the engineering side, I like to build things, so what better way to study science than by building something and testing it to see how it behaves. And in the process, hopefully we can build or learn something useful to society. After my experiences in college and graduate school, I’ve found I also like to teach and feel pretty strongly about improving education, so hopefully a career as a professor would be an ideal blend of both.”

Even though he’s a post doc fellow, Albert does have some free time. “Outdoors I like to ski, run, and play tennis. Indoors I enjoy watching sci-fi, spy shows, and anything with conspiracies! I’m a bit of a news magazine junkie too, reading a lot of articles mostly about education but also just keeping up with what’s going on in the world.”

Do you know a high school student that would be a good fit for ÓĹĂŰĘÓƵ’s summer Apprenticeship Program? Sign up for our emails and be the first to know when 2014 dates and applications are available!

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Kate Duey is a private college counselor serving gifted students. She has worked with students on traditional schooling paths, home schooled students, community college students, and students seeking accelerated or early college entrance. Kate is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She has a Certificate in College Counseling from UCLA.

Is an aspiring Ph.D. in the sciences better served by an undergraduate education at a liberal arts college or a research university? The vast majority (83%) of Ph.D.’s in science are awarded to students who graduated from research universities. The top ten research universities graduating undergraduates who go on to earn the most Ph.D.’s in the sciences are:

1. 1. UC Berkeley
   2. University of Michigan
   3. Cornell University
   4. M.I.T.
   5. University of Wisconsin, Madison
   6. Penn State
   7. UCLA
   8. Harvard
   9. University of Minnesota
   10. University of Washington

Liberal arts schools, however, educate roughly 8% of American college students, and from those 8% come 17% of Ph.D.’s in science. Thought of another way, the per capita distribution of science Ph.D.’s is twice as high in a liberal arts college as in a research university. Among the National Academy of Science members, 19% received their undergraduate education at liberal arts schools. The top ten liberal arts colleges graduating undergraduates who per capita go on to earn the most Ph.D.’s in the sciences are:

1. Swarthmore
2. Carleton
3. Haverford
4. Grinnell
5. Oberlin
6. Pomona
7. Bryn Mawr
8. Williams
9. Amherst
10. Wesleyan

Why are liberal arts colleges more productive at preparing science Ph.D.’s?

Thomas R. Cech, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry who led breakthroughs in the catalytic properties of RNA, discusses this in “”.

Dr. Cech offers several explanations for the imbalance, including:

As Dr. Cech illustrates, it is worth exploring all options available to you when looking for a university science program, including liberal arts universities.

What has your experience been with science programs at liberal arts or research universities? Please share in the comment section below!

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