STEM Archives - Mental Laps

2018 Missouri S&T Athletic Hall of Fame Class

Even though I received the letter 4 months ago, I am still surprised to be here today. It’s quite humbling. Being an engineer and swimmer are a couple of the defining elements of who I am, so this honor feels like a combination of the two.

Nowhere else can I start than by thanking my parents. Their sacrifices, financially and emotionally, as well as nights, weekends and missed family vacations, are the reason I am standing up here. This honor is theirs more than anyone else. Thank you.

Also, I want to thank Doug Grooms and Mark Mullin. Coach Grooms doggedness in recruiting me was a key factor in landing here. With a limited budget, he maximizes the resources available and maintains a nationally ranked team year after year. During my time at UMR, Mark was head of the NCAA swim committee and kept swimming a priority at the Division 2 level. Student-athletes continue to benefit from his commitment to the sport and NCAA Interscholastic athletics in general.

I did not expect him to be here today, but I feel it also important to thank Keith Bailey. His continued financial support of the university has made this experience possible for countless students, including me. Along with a group of students, I was fortunate to meet him during my time in Rolla. He shared with us a story of accepting new challenges. My takeaway from that encounter is to embrace the new and unknown. In this era, many challenges we tackle are unprecedented, there are no right or wrong answers, we need to try, fail quickly, learn, and keep pushing forward.

I am also grateful for my teammates and those I was fortunate to help coach and recruit while I was here. Reflecting on the other swimmers that have preceded me in Hall of Fame induction, and those I expect are upcoming, it is hard for me to see how I measure up to the heights of their athletic accomplishments. Since finding out about this honor, I have reflected on how I got here and why I may have been selected.

Recently I read the allegory of Taoism by Benjamin Hoff, which helped to galvanize my perspective:

That doesn’t mean that the goals we have don’t count. They do, mostly because they cause us to go through the process, and it’s the process that makes us wise, happy, or whatever. If we do things in the wrong sort of way, it makes use miserable, angry, confused, and things like that. The goal has to be right for us, and it has to be beneficial, in order to ensure a beneficial process. But aside from that, it’s really the process that’s important. Enjoyment of the process is the secret that erases the myths of the Great Reward…Perhaps this can help to explain the everyday significance of…the Way.

During my time in Rolla, whether I was a student, athlete, teammate, researcher or assistant coach, I embraced and enjoyed the process. I hope that embracing the process is the legacy I left. The experience in Rolla and embracing the process has had an immeasurable influence on my life, for which I am forever grateful.

Thank you!

Last week, diving deep into the speculative end of the Section 232 Steel tariff pool, and prepping for a trip to China, I neglected to keep tabs on a couple job postings that we have listed. Since the beginning of the year, we have been looking for someone with a technical background to develop a mid-level sales position. Getting back to them now, and looking through all the candidates, it struck me, where are the women in manufacturing?

In the roughly two months of receiving resumes, there have been a wide range of applicants, both qualified and not, but through it all, zero female candidates. No gender diversity, across LinkedIn, alumni job boards, local classifieds and recruiters. Seeing this, I am both perplexed and concerned: is this female candidate void a mirror, reflecting our deficiency, or a window to see the larger issue in the industry?

Or maybe it is both and the fact is that we have a long way to go. It feels like support for STEM is everywhere. For the last several years, coaching high schoolers, there were many girls I worked with who were good students with an interest in math and science and a work ethic I admired. I would hire any of them to work in this role, but besides not being old enough to work in manufacturing, they also have no interest. It seems that all the support of students in STEM is only the beginning. We also have to connect and inspire girls to the opportunities in manufacturing and other technical industries.

Eighteen years ago when I was entering university to study mechanical engineering, it was generally accepted that females studying engineering were rare. At the time, roughly 1/3 of the engineering student population were female and that fraction was generous, I do not recall a class as an undergraduate or a teaching assistant where 1/3 of the students were women.

Fast forward to now, and despite a decade of intense STEM support across the country, alumni relations informed me the rate of female enrollment is unchanged from when I was in college. WHAT?! How is that possible? I realize it is a midsize school, and there may be some big-name programs elsewhere that can tout growth of female enrollment, but this is not an isolated problem. How are there not more females interested in engineering? If the broad topic of engineering is not gaining interest, then the subset of manufacturing does not have a chance!

My view is distorted by my spheres of influence. Working with manufacturing companies every day and participating in a technical advisory at the local community college, I am almost constantly surrounded by like-minded people who support STEM and increasing opportunities in our industry. Plus, I infer the connection between STEM and technical careers, but that may be a leap for others outside of technical industries. As a high school coach, on the other hand, with many student’s parents being doctors, lawyers, business owners, and entrepreneurs, the fact that I worked in manufacturing was overlooked in favor of the more altruistic label as a volunteer youth athletics, so there is certainly some negative bias to overcome.

And even if we succeed in encouraging teenagers to pursue these technical careers, there are several years before they will be in the workforce. What about filling the immediate roles that are available? How do we motivate and attract women to this industry and careers? The point above, regarding my influences and connections, is that I do not have the answers.

A few years ago we hired a sales person that came from selling wholesale beauty products to salons. When she was going to college for fashion, did she think one day she would be helping maintenance workers troubleshoot hydraulic components and selling them replacement parts? Doubtful. And you know what, she is awesome at it! How did we get her? Pure luck. Human resources or I cannot claim any special insight. This is not to pat ourselves on the back. Being lucky is not going to solve the gender imbalance in manufacturing.

So what do we do? To paraphrase Sheryl Sandberg, how do we overcome them not doing something where they do not see themselves? I can think of several great women leaders in manufacturing that I have had an opportunity to work with, but the reality is, on the scale that the industry needs, there are not enough of them that can serve as role models for students. Women in Manufacturing is a great organization and I hope they can build even more momentum to encourage their peers to be a force in this industry.

And how else can we grow manufacturing? Take a chance! Reach across and embrace candidates from other industries. Manufacturing can be taught and if someone has the interest and willingness to learn and apply themselves, there is no doubt the employee and business will benefit. With the impending retail apocalypse, how many experienced store managers and key holders could kick butt given a chance in manufacturing? Probably thousands. Let’s figure out how to attract them, and ambitious individuals from other areas, to the opportunities in manufacturing.

Tag: STEM

Missouri S&T Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Speech

Where Are the Women in Manufacturing