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My STEM Journey: Catherine Douglas

11/19/2020

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By: Catherine Douglas

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I always liked math in school. Even though I excelled in math in middle school, for some reason I was not recommended to advanced math class for high school.  I never let those things bother me…when people underestimated me. I knew they would eventually find out. The opportunity came in the 10th grade. My school had a grade wide math test to assess students’ knowledge in order to place students in their 11th grade math class. Everyone was stressing about the test. I decided to take a few days to review the math. I don’t remember being stressed. On the day of the test, I took the test and did my best. When the results were released, I received the highest score on the test.  I did better than the students in the advanced math class. The teacher met with me and wanted to know what I did to achieve the highest score. I told her I studied.

Even though math came easy to me, it was not a subject I pursued. I thought I was going to become a doctor. In college, I struggled with my Introductory Calculus class. My instructor was speaking a foreign language – limits, deltas, epsilons, limits, derivatives etc. Uggh.  I wanted to do well so I paid a tutor but I still struggled.  I eventually reached a crossroad when I was taking an Organic Chemistry class and a Calculus class. I disliked the Organic Chemistry class and was struggling in the Calculus class. However, I would spend hours trying to figure out the math but was not interested in learning Organic Chemistry. Then it dawned on me, if I was willing to spend so much time trying to learn math, I might as well major in Mathematics. So I switched my major to Applied Mathematics. 

Throughout my college career, I always tutored students and worked with outreach programs. After struggling with math, I realized one of the reasons I struggled in math as I progressed to advanced math classes was because sometimes the instructors were not able to explain the concepts in terms I could understand.  I figured out a way to explain math in terms that related to my everyday life. It was very rewarding when a student realized that math was not as hard as they thought.  I knew I wanted to help students learn that they can excel in math based majors and careers and thought the best way to do this was to become a math professor.
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After working for NASA maintaining satellites for 4 years, I applied to grad school to pursue a doctorate in Applied Mathematics with a focus on Math Modeling using Differential Equations. At a point during my journey, I came to understand there were not many students of color excelling in STEM major – Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering in particular. I also understood that to increase the numbers of students of color in these majors we had to reach these students at an earlier age. Therefore, I made the decision to pivot and focus on developing and implementing programming to introduce students, particularly students of color, to STEM through hands-on projects and develop their mathematical, problem solving and critical thinking skills. This led to me working full-time for the UCLA Samueli Engineering Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity (CEED) Program. Through my work in the CEED Program, I learned more about the problem and how to develop programming to address those problems at the pre-college and undergraduate levels. I also built relationships and partnered with other professionals doing the same work. Over the years, I progressed from a pre-college program coordinator to the Associate Director of CEED’s Pre-College Program and was recently named the Director of the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity. In this position, I will continue to provide and develop programming to address student needs on the pre-college, undergraduate and graduate level. My plan includes on the Pre-College level:
  • Exposing students to STEM through hands-on projects
  • Developing students’ STEM identity
  • Preparing students to be competitively eligible pursue and succeed in STEM majors with a focus Engineering and Computer Science
  • Increase the number of students of color applying to and being admitted to schools of Engineering. 

On the Undergraduate level:
  • Support undergraduate students academically
  • Help Students grow their professional network
  • Encourage and provide students to research and internship opportunities
  • Develop Students leadership skills 
  • Encourage pursuit of graduate school 
Ultimately, my goal is to increase the number of students of color who are prepared for success and leadership positions in the engineering and technology workforce.

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