Bringing diversity into STEM fields is this STCC grad’s mission in life

By LAURIE LOISEL

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Vastly underrepresented in the STEM field, women and people of color often feel marginalized and unsupported in the halls of academia. That was true for Carolyn Gardner-Thomas until she came to Springfield Technical Community College, where she graduated in 1998 with an associate degree in engineering.

“STCC is where I found community – that’s where I found people who looked like me and people who wanted to work with me, smaller classes, instructors I could connect with,” she said.  “That, coupled with the fact that it fit my budget. I could pay for the courses I was taking.”

After STCC, Gardner-Thomas went on to UMass Amherst where she earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 2000 – and years later she would go on to earn a Ph.D. in STEM education at the state’s flagship campus. STEM refers to the areas of study and careers within science, technology, engineering and math disciplines. It’s no secret that women and people of color don’t flock to those fields.

Gardner-Thomas has devoted her career to expanding the possibilities for women and Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) in STEM, encouraging greater diversity in the field she loves. She credits her time at STCC, in part, with helping her understand how that could be done.

She ran a STEM starter academy at Holyoke Community College for a year, at UMass for three years she directed the STEM Ambassador Program and today is co-director of the Mathematics for Teaching master’s program at the Harvard Extension School.

Aminah Bergeron, in her second year at STCC majoring in mechanical engineering, is just the kind of student Gardner-Thomas wants to see entering the field. Bergeron, 27, who calls herself a “proud mom” and is working her way through college, said she has felt both welcomed and supported at STCC.

She remembers early-on a meeting with Professor Zahi Haddad when she expressed doubt about her abilities in computer science, asking if he thought she could do it. “And he responded immediately, ‘yes, why not? You can do whatever you like,”’ she said.

STCC is where I found community – that’s where I found people who looked like me and people who wanted to work with me, smaller classes, instructors I could connect with. Dr. Carolyn Gardner-Thomas, Class of 1998

Later, thanks to encouragement from STCC Professor of Engineering and Physical Sciences Beth McGinnis-Cavanaugh, Bergeron took part in a competitive NASA program that flew her to a NASA facility in Virginia for a week. She aims to go on for a bachelor’s degree in engineering after STCC, hoping eventually to land a job as an engineer at Pratt and Whitney. But she’s got an even bigger dream: One day she wants to become a CEO.

Bergeron’s experience may illustrate how much things have changed since Gardner-Thomas first entered the STEM field as a pre-med student in the 1980s.

Born on the Caribbean island of Antigua, Gardner-Thomas came to the United States in 1986 to attend college. A student at UMass Amherst as a pre-med major, she found herself increasingly unhappy.

“I felt like it was a space that did not welcome me and who I was, and it wasn’t that anybody was mean,” she said. “You feel yourself to be excluded and invisible yet in other ways hyper-visible.”

She quit the program in her senior year and worked in various fields, including in payroll, that used her passion and talent in mathematics. Later, working at an engineering firm, she discovered she had love for and skill in engineering, and was promoted to an engineering position without the degree. The company encouraged her to earn her degree, which is when she enrolled at STCC and found her home.

Gardner-Thomas believes what she found at STCC – and what can be offered in an intentional way at other institutions – is building a sense of community for people who feel sidelined and invisible by offering study groups, inviting people for dinner, having social events, “so you feel like you have a family away from your home.” Another strategy is to pair-up newer students with others who are more seasoned in a supportive, mentoring relationship.

“That is what I instill in the students I work with – that as you go through, you pave the way for others to come through,” she said.

Women on the STEM faculty at STCC are trying to do just that. McGinnis-Cavanaugh, a 1998 STCC graduate, said she was very often the only woman in the classroom during her time at STCC and also at UMass, where she graduated in 2001. And the numbers of women in STEM majors are still too low, she contends, which is why in 2014 she started a STCC chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and opened it to all women in any STEM major.

“I just thought it would be great for our students to have an organization that valued them,” she said. “It just really opens their eyes to what’s out there in the world in terms of STEM pathways.”

McGinnis-Cavanaugh says over her 16 years on the STCC faculty, while she’s seen improvement in the situation for women in STEM, she’s not satisfied.

“I think it’s better, but I don’t think it’s good,” she said. “I think we have a ways to go on that.”

Barbara Washburn, interim dean of the STEM school at STCC, said she believes raising awareness in the general public about what STEM fields are will help open doors for women, as do special programs that provide guidance and mentorship to young women in the field.

Gardner-Thomas contends STCC is an institution that in a sense has no choice but to be welcoming because of the people who attend.

“Naturally you will see people that look like you. I’m a big advocate for community colleges that sit in the inner city,” she said. “That is an environment that has to be welcoming because that’s who’s there.”

Meanwhile, Gardner-Thomas was among several speakers featured at a STEM careers symposium held in October 2020. In her talk, she ticked off a list of the problems facing the world that the STEM field will be instrumental in addressing, issues such as health crises (including COVID), climate challenges, food and water insecurity, and equity in education.

“The list is long and we need you – we need all of who you are. We need people that look like you with your unique identities and intersectionalities of identities so if you are an immigrant, Black, a woman like myself, we need your experiences; we need your background,” she said. “This is the way we’re going to be able to solve problems.”

Aminah Bergeron is among those who has gotten that message loud and clear.

“STEM has always been a male-dominated field, but with the future generation we can change that,” she said. “I encourage women to pursue a career in STEM. When women come together and work with each other, we come up with ideas that are out of the ordinary.

Interested in applying to STCC? Visit stcc.edu/apply or call Admissions at (413) 755-3333.

About Springfield Technical Community College

STCC, the Commonwealth's only technical community college, continues the pioneering legacy of the Springfield Armory with comprehensive and technical education in manufacturing, STEM, healthcare, business, social services, and the liberal arts. STCC's highly regarded workforce, certificate, degree, and transfer programs are the most affordable in Springfield and provide unequalled opportunity for the vitality of Western Massachusetts. Founded in 1967, the college – a designated Hispanic Serving Institution – seeks to close achievement gaps among students who traditionally face societal barriers. STCC supports students as they transform their lives through intellectual, cultural, and economic engagement while becoming thoughtful, committed and socially responsible graduates.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jim Danko, (413) 755-4812, jdanko@stcc.edu

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