How Safa Azad Promotes Equity:

You’ve read about how Safa got to where she is today and what drives her to do what she does, but Safa Azad is passionate about a topic some may say is completely different from STEM; equity and inclusivity. “Before I started my Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Manager role for Illinois Tech’s EcoCar, I was the business team lead for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and one of the things that I valued the most was making sure students who didn’t study engineering knew that there was a spot for thin in an organization like SAE.” Safa continued by saying that “even though SAE is mainly car based, I realized the importance of majors like architecture, business, and anyone who had the passion and the drive to work together in a team was just as important as engineering majors.” Azad made it clear that providing those types of opportunities to students on campus and to commuters was extremely important to her. 

“I think the reason why I’m so passionate about this is because I used to be a commuter during my freshman year. And being in clubs and organizations was really difficult because I had to get home at a certain time, which lead me to not being able to devote more time to things I wanted to pursue, so I wanted to change that. The meaning of equity is making sure everyone gets onto the same level as their counterparts, even if it means you have to put additional resources towards the person who might not know as much as others!” Safa put her plan into action by creating flexible workspaces and schedules that created more opportunities for more students to attend her organization. It was a real game changer for her organization because a lot more people of different backgrounds and majors joined SAE thanks to Safa’s work!

"I want to prove to those who believe that I can't do engineering, that I in fact can."

Her journey to BME and Illinois Tech:

Dr. Dhar has always been curious. Coming from a family of educators, learning has always been something she’s enjoyed, both inside and outside the classroom. From her childhood trips to farms over summer break where she peeled back every layer of corn to understand how it grew, to dissections in 9th grade, she has always been interested in figuring out how things work. This led her to study biophysics and biomechanics, where she studied blood flow and vascular mechanics using applied mathematics techniques in her research. Dr. Dhar throughout our interview said that her studies have always been driven by her passions and interests. School was never a path she was placed in due to outside pressures or expectations. Witnessing her success, myself, it is easy to see that this is the case. 

Dr. Dhar actually came to Illinois Tech by chance. What was initially supposed to be a temporary one and a half year stay for her husband’s job, became permanent, and she started looking for different positions. She sent a cold email to the newly established biomedical engineering department at Illinois Tech, and she has been here ever since 2005. “Sometimes you have to pull the string,” she said, “there’s no harm in trying!” She likes to tell her students this story when they’re feeling discouraged to remind them that it’s okay if it feels like nothing is going as planned. Through managing changes and adversities, you can become successful regardless. 

Dr. Dhar’s favorite thing about her job is working with students. She loves being able to help, support, and share her knowledge with them. As mentioned before, her dad and grandfather were both educators, so education has always been very important and emphasized in her life. I asked if she had a least favorite part of her job, and she smiled and said “This is my dream job. I love what I do.” Her dedication to her students and her passion for her job is very evident and uplifting.

Goals, Role Models, Success, and being a Woman in STEM:

I asked Dr. Dhar what her goals were as a student, how they changed and if she achieved any of them. She said that her goals as a teenager were to be on par with men who were making impacts and changes. Growing up, she looked up to her dad who was a great, well respected leader and educator who made impacts on his students and the community. She always wanted to be like her father. However, being a female would lead her to different challenges than her father and she was excited to overcome them. Both of her parents were incredibly supportive, reminding her that she was “no less than any other boy in terms of what you can bring to the table”. Another goal of Dr. Dhar’s was to be financially independent. “I wanted to be financially independent, but never arrogant. Financial independence was always for me, and my confidence, and never to be arrogant,” she said. She also always wanted to do research and have an impact. For many years she did various kinds of research with vascular mechanics and blood flow, thus achieving this goal. Although she isn’t in the lab anymore, Dr. Dhar is making different impacts through her work with students both in the classroom and advising. Even though she has had to adapt and change throughout her life, she is grateful for everything she has accomplished. 

Dr. Dhar’s life has long been impacted by strong women, especially her mother. She was always there every step of the way as a strong pillar of support. Another strong female role model was her PhD advisor, who she still keeps in touch with. Her PhD advisor did a lot of similar work in biomechanics, and was a great source of inspiration. Dr. Dhar also worked with a woman physician during her postdoctoral fellowship, who worked on circadian rhythm research in Antarctica. Dr. Dhar knows how important it is to have a female role model, especially in STEM. She works hard to be a role model herself and says she is happy to have an impact on even one person. 

When asked what her definition of success is, Dr. Dhar laughed and said it was up to the individual. “For me, I don’t see whether or not I’m successful, I look to see if I am happy or not. Happiness is a fulfilling day where I’m on the right track. Did I hurt or harm anyone that day…Growing up my dad would tell us stories every day, every day something inspiring. In a seminar or big place, school, before you sleep, look in the mirror and say ‘Was I true to myself? Did I hurt anyone?’” This has now become a habit of hers, where every evening she asks herself those questions. If she has stayed true to herself and not harmed anyone, she has had a successful day. Success to Dr. Dhar is not hurting anyone, doing her job well, being happy and having a fulfilling day. Although she says she is unsure of whether or not she is successful, Dr. Dhar says she is happy with her work, her relationships, her family, and that she is always learning. 

I asked Dr. Dhar if she could give any advice to her younger self, or to any other young women pursuing STEM careers, and she said her main pieces would be the following: use your time wisely and efficiently, don’t stress over small things that don’t matter, treat life as a journey, win the war and not every battle, and most importantly, never ever give up. “It’s very important for women to stay goal oriented…spending four hours being negative and worried about small things is losing four hours towards your goal. It is so important to have self confidence and to never give up,” Dr. Dhar says. Treating life as a journey and to look at the bigger picture has been advice that helped in her own life. When she encountered struggles, or “rough roads” in her journey as she called them, she tried to enjoy every moment and make the best of it. Through support from family and friends, she was able to continue on her journey and make it to the other side. 

Conclusion:

As this interview ended, I thanked Dr. Dhar for imparting her wisdom on me. I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity for such a wonderful conversation with an amazing woman in STEM. I am not a biomedical engineering student, but I understand why so many of her students love her so much. Having a professor who is so inspiring, humble, and genuinely cares about the well-being of each and every one of her students is such a gift to have. The Illinois Tech community is incredibly lucky to have Dr. Dhar, and I am so glad that she is able to make the impact on the world that she has been dreaming of since she was a child. I’d like to end this piece with a quote of hers that I think captures the essence of both Dr. Dhar as well as what it is to be a woman in STEM: “My meaning of life is to have a positive impact on people, on women…it is an unwritten rule that women need to support each other. They are strong, and every woman has the strength to bring out the strength in other women. Positive impacts are so important.”

Christina Majercak’s Journey to STEM

Christina grew up in a household engulfed in Slovakian tradition. Her parents being immigrants, she knew she had to put her best foot forward in every opportunity that presented itself. Her parents sacrificed many things when leaving Slovakia, so she felt the need to repay them any chance she got. Wanting to be very successful, she wasn't held back by the perception that women are not suitable to work with men in such difficult careers. Instead, her reason for choosing a career in STEM was more about the opportunities available in the field, instead of being just another statistic. Christina explained, “I wanted to be a part of a fast-growing industry. Within STEM, there are always new innovative findings that lead to exciting discoveries and challenges.”

She was aware of all the gender disparities present in the field and knew she would have to work even harder to be seen as a candidate. It was a tough decision to make and ultimately Christina has not looked back for a second on the decision she made. When choosing the specifics of her career, she was fascinated by the versatility and possible growth of chemical engineering. After deciding that chemical engineering was right for her, she was set on this path and nothing was going to stop her. With that being the case, Christina applied to be a part of the five-year accelerated master’s program here at Illinois Tech. Starting her fourth year this semester, she still has a way to go, but she is adapting and becoming a better candidate for any company looking to hire in the future.

Christina continues to persevere and prove that even with STEM being a traditionally male-dominated field, women belong. Christina is a shining star in a male-dominated profession and continues to grow off of the opportunities that come to her.

It was not until my senior year when I began to see the applications in industry.” Having taken a multitude of rigorous courses, Christina has become a well-rounded student in every subject needed for her profession. 

After completing her undergraduate courses and moving on to her graduate courses, there has been a shift in Christina's mentality. 

"Christina continues to persevere and prove that even with STEM being a traditionally male-dominated field, women belong. 

Using all the obstacles seen in her undergraduate courses, Christina feels even more confident and prepared for her next step into harder classes. When speaking with Christina about how her graduate courses have been going, she surprisingly stated, “My graduate courses are going better than undergrad. This might be because undergraduate courses equipped me with the foundational knowledge that was needed, and now I am focused directly on the application.” 

She appreciates the difference between the two level courses being that graduate courses don't focus so much on the assignment aspect, but instead focus on the teaching point of it all. Many undergraduate courses have a heavy workload, with multiple assignments each week. We get through our undergraduate courses not paying much attention to the content, but instead by rushing to submit assignments right before 11:59 pm. 

Christina explained that for her graduate courses as a new way to complete more projects and focus on the larger picture. Taking these graduate courses allows Christina to have freedom in choosing where her focus goes and where to specialize. 

Christina continues to persevere and prove that even with STEM being a traditionally male-dominated field, women belong. 

Word To the Wise 

Speaking so highly about everything Christina has been able to achieve, she has a few words of wisdom for everyone who reads this. “I would advise a student to focus on their communication and leadership skills while they develop technical knowledge. Sometimes it might be hard to remember these things when we are so focused on studying for classes and doing well at IIT. It is actually more important to focus on how you present yourself and your skills. While having a high GPA is very helpful in landing a position, it is the conversations that you have and the thought process that the employer looks into. I am always being tested on my understanding of my project through multiple series of questions, and one needs to be competent in answering correctly and presenting the information adequately in order to engage a team. Without strong communication skills and confidence within, there is a low chance of engaging a team of stakeholders.” 

An Analysis of Sara's Journey to STEM

The Socially Responsible Modeling, Computation, and Design Fellowship (SoReMo) has given me a lot of opportunities including an introduction to data science, but more than anything it allowed me to meet women that have redefined applications of computing and modeling such as Dr. Petrovic, the founder of SoReMo, and Sara Simon, this newsletter's Featured WiSTEM.

When thinking about who I should cover for this piece, I remembered how I attended the SoReMo fellows' presentation at the beginning of the semester of Fall 2021 and that is where I first learned aspects of Sara's journey. Her thorough and well-put-together presentation introduced what she planned to research and her relevant background experience. I learned that she had career experience in tech and journalism which I wanted to hear more about.

As a person with a very diverse career path who chose to pursue her Ph.D. at Illinois Tech, Sara has an amazing journey to share. I enjoyed speaking with her and learning about her story and feel honored to have the opportunity to share it with all of you.

Four Years to Study Anything

When reading Sara's biography, I was really curious about what her undergraduate years were like and how they influenced her career path, so I began by asking she elaborate on her past education.

Sara explained, during her undergraduate years, she was open to studying any path. She attended Wellesley College where they had many introductory classes geared towards students who have not declared their degree. Similar to Introduction to the Profession classes at Illinois Tech, the classes provided students with exposure to the selected field.

More than a decade later, these are the classes that were the most memorable, Sara reflects. For those four years of her life, she could study anything, so she made sure to get exposure to different fields. She always knew that she liked reading and writing, in addition, she enjoyed her English classes. It was only natural for her to gravitate to doing her undergrad in English.

Sara's education in English at Wellesley College further refined her skills of being able to communicate and parse text.

Starry-eyed, Sara moved to New York and worked there for around two years. She was behind the scenes and worked on data pipelines. Such pipelines were the ones that were given to the graphics team to build visualizations such as the ones on Election Night. Another example of something she worked on is software for document investigation to get through 800-page documents when a story was about to break.

Her favorite part of the job was "walking into the newsroom, being in the center of the action, and being able to ask reporters what they are working on and if I, as an engineer, could help with anything". If Sara and her coworkers noticed that a reporter was refreshing a site every 30 seconds to get an update, they could build an automated service to give them the information they are looking for. She was first hand using her knowledge and skills as a programmer to improve the productivity of her team.

The Pandemic Hits

The more Sara talked to reporters, the more she was interested in the work they were doing. She realized maybe she could do that too and maybe she has different skills that could help with this role. After spending two years at the New York Times, Sara took a job with a news organization in Pennsylvania as an Investigative Data Reporter. In addition to interviewing people, she also interviewed data, put in requests for data, thought regularly about how she could use her knowledge of technology, the internet, and data to find and report stories. This job was a great fit for Sara as it incorporated tech and her newfound interest in journalism from her previous job.

The newsroom launched just a few months before the pandemic began. Once the pandemic hit, Sara covered COVID data full-time. She was in press conferences with the governor and health secretary. She was able to ask great questions because of her eye for data that she got through her previous experiences. She was there for a while covering the pandemic non-stop, not taking breaks while working. Sara stated that "it is a struggle to be working in a job when you feel a profound amount of responsibility". As expected, Sara experienced extreme burnout and she realized she did not desire the fast-paced job.

People in tech often talk about knowing when to leave a job because you can benefit more from another job and I could see that in Sara's journey.

Sara moved over to the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. She did the same tasks as her previous job, interacting regularly with health officials and investigating data to see if there are any trends. But in addition to this, Sara did a lot of research into understanding state-level COVID data pipelines because every state handles the data differently. One state's definition of a COVID death can differ from another state. The more she dug into this, the more she found it interesting. She saw the urgency of this research and at her workplace, she was able to look into this at a detailed and deliberate pace.

Podcast Recommendations

I concluded the conversation with Sara by asking her what her favorite podcasts are. I was very curious to know what she enjoys listening to as she worked at a public radio station and journalism companies.

The Encounter That Changed Everything

During her first week at IIT Sarah was already taking a decision that would have shaped the entirety of her academic journey.

During welcome week Sarah met a group of 4th-year Architecture students. One was her RA, he showed her around Crown, and told her all about the things he had the chance to do within his major.

Sarah had started out as an Architectural Engineering major, but those upperclassmen’ experiences convinced her to switch her major to Architecture just one week into college. Sarah still considers this one of the most meaningful experiences at IIT, and wouldn’t go back on that decision in hindsight.

"I have chosen to pursue architecture because I want to help people feel safe in their homes, and I believe that this can be accomplished through well-designed and built spaces."

Sarah loved buildings ever since she was a little kid, she knew she wanted to pursue and Architecture-related major.

She chose IIT because it was one of 18 colleges in the USA offering Architectural Engineering. After spending months compiling essays about why she wanted to pursue Architectural Engineering, and why she loved the math-side of this degree too, switching to Architecture wasn’t a lighthearted choice, but it was a choice perfectly aligned with her values.

Sarah says about herself: "I love being surrounded by beautiful buildings. I want to create meaningful spaces for people to interact. Help people solve problems through interacting with space."

Sarah’s heart lies more in human interaction rather than the interaction of forces within spaces. She defines herself as an experience-driven person, whose natural instinct is to look for the little things that will ruin a seamless interaction between humans and physical spaces.

Mentorship

Sarah was in touch with those upperclassmen she met her first week for a while.

She believes they were indeed mentors to her, but with time she was able to find many other such figures at IIT.

Sarah joined AIAS during her first year. Here she met many other upperclassmen who mentored her and introduced her to their own experiences.She then proceeded to take on various leadership roles within AIAS.

At this time she’s working for one of her previous studio professors, and she feels that most of her studio professors have served as mentors throughout her time at IIT. Each professor was able to present her with different questions, allowing Sarah to look at her work from several different perspectives and engage in an ongoing process of learning.

Sarah’s heart lies more in human interaction rather than the interaction of forces within spaces. She defines herself as an experience-driven person whose natural instinct is to look for the little things that will ruin a seamless interaction between humans and physical spaces.

When I asked her if she feels like a mentor, now being an upperclassman herself and interacting with younger students on a daily basis, Sarah says: "mentorship doesn’t really work in a clear way where there’s a mentor and a mentee, because it’s a learning experience on both sides. I would say I’ve had about 90 residents over the last 3 years. People I’ve talked to and learned from.This is the best thing I’ve gotten to do in college. I really love people and this gives me the opportunity to create experiences for them." 

Coming to IIT and Chicago 

Sarah was born and raised in Austin TX. She chose to move to an entirely different state because she wanted to experience a different spatial layout than usual. Sarah believes she is going to move back to Texas eventually, but she enjoys the way Chicago makes her feel out of her comfort zone. 

Her favorite thing about Chicago is the city’s grid-system, which makes it almost impossible to get lost. Sarah values the honesty within this city’s structure and the way it is logically laid out.

Extra-curricular Involvement

Extracurricular involvement represents a huge part of Sarah’s identity and how she nurtures that here at IIT. One of the experiences she values most is her time spent within AIAS. Being involved helped her learn about the inner workings of an organization. She says taking on different roles within AIAS was challenging, as she acknowledged she was not always making the best choices, but even those helped her grow.

One of the most challenging times for Sarah was 2020. She was the Vice President of AIAS during the pandemic year, and she often asked herself: if the world is shutting down, why do we have to keep going?

Despite the challenges Sarah really takes pride in taking on different leadership positions at IIT. 

She feels like these highly contribute to her development as an individual. 

"I have always found myself wanting to get leadership positions because I really enjoy thinking about what it means to be a leader, and why you should care about others. I really care about human experience, and I learned to be a leader on the back: talking with people and just showing them the road. A leader on the back will hold people’s hands while doing things together with them. Being a leader doesn’t necessarily mean directing people, but rather walking side by side with them."

"Treat every opportunity like an experience that can help your own growth. Good, bad, challenging, easy: everything you do should be contributing to your character development. Don’t shy away from things that scare you or feel like a bad idea."

Before coming to Illinois Tech, Dr. Ding always had academia in mind when it came to her plans. She looked into the different overseas opportunities there were for PhD programs linked with Shanghai University. Funny story, when asking Dr. Ding about her decision behind choosing Illinois Tech she said she didn’t know it was located in Chicago. It was only after her acceptance that she realized the location and found out that her father’s colleague was located here as well. She mentioned that after realizing Illinois Tech is in Chicago, she thought about Michael Jordan coming from here and how he’s a hero so it would be cool to relocate to Chicago. 

It’s important to make time for what we think we’re interested in...these are the formidable years of our lives that shape who we will be later on. 

After her acceptance, she spent the next five years at Illinois Tech studying towards her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, with Dr. Fred J. Hickernell as her academic advisor. In December of 2015, she graduated with a 4.0 GPA and successfully defended her dissertation on Guaranteed Adaptive Univariate Function Approximation. After graduation, she went into teaching by starting as an Assistant Professor at Illinois Tech and Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania. 

Misericordia University is a teaching-oriented university, where Dr. Ding needed to teach at least 4 courses per semester. It was similar to Illinois Tech, as it was a small university and the classes had no more than 20 students. She started with teaching some Computer Science courses and it was certainly different from what she learned from her education. Dr. Ding found herself having to learn a lot of the material she had to teach the semester before she was scheduled to teach it and the more advanced the Computer Science courses were, the harder it was to acclimate to them because it simply wasn’t part of her interest. Upon asking her to reflect on her time there, she said that it was tough on her because she had to self-teach herself to teach her students and although the different topics she taught were interesting, she liked the way math courses were taught more. She noted that she liked how math is well-structured. 

After that, she made the final decision to come to Illinois Tech to teach. This decision was heavily influenced by the established familial feeling she had with Chicago. Dr. Ding likes that Chicago is a city, but it isn’t as big as other cities like New York City. Chicago is also a very diverse city, where you can see all different kinds of people and cultures from neighborhood to neighborhood. She has met many friendly and nice people here, including the brothers and sisters in Christian fellowships and church. She loves how she never intended to come to Chicago, but she now has a home here and she likes that some parts of Chicago remind her of Shanghai. Another redeeming factor is that Chicago has incredible food, and it’s great that the food here is similar to the dishes she had back at home in Shanghai. It’s her home away from home. 

Needle in the Haystack 

When browsing through the Illinois Tech faculty site, I saw that there are only 6 female faculty members in the Applied Mathematics department. When asking Dr. Ding about this fact, she noted that when she was a student in the department, she remembers there only being one female faculty actually. When I asked her how she felt about being one of only six female faculty members in her department and if this impacts her in any way, Dr. Ding stated that she really doesn’t consider herself that much different from her fellow male professor coworkers. She believes that she, along with her coworkers, just has to do what she is responsible for in order to get through her work. Regardless of their gender, all her fellow coworkers are really nice to her and it sets a good example of what she should strive to be for up and rising new professors. 

Although Dr. Ding doesn’t notice the gender difference in her day-to-day work at Illinois Tech, her age is something that sets her apart from others. I asked her whether she feels the need to prove herself since she is younger, and she agrees that there’s a subconscious need to do so. It’s one of her biggest motivations and she finds herself making a lot of time available to her students and superiors. Dr. Ding attributes her eagerness to respond to her students and emails to her personal life being less hectic than other professors. She points out that many professors in the Applied Math department have an established family and have children already, so it makes sense for their time to be split between students, children, and personal time. On the other hand, she’s not at that stage in her life yet, so there are fewer factors that compete to require her attention consistently. She is always connected to her email and replies at any time during the day, so it’s a boundary with her work life that she’s actively working on to improve. 

Reflection 

Some of Dr. Ding’s future goals range from improving her teaching to furthering her research fields. Right now, she is a part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, where she is mainly writing budget proposals for the research experience plans for undergraduates. She hopes to get funding so that for the next three years this program can continue to house other undergraduate students and be a creative outlet for STEM-related research. As for her teaching plans, she wants to learn to plan courses more efficiently and upgrade the teaching strategy she currently uses. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic guidelines are changing to allow for in-person instruction, she is excited to go back to the classroom to teach and get feedback from students. To be in person on campus and have face-to-face communication with her students again is very helpful in critiquing her lesson plans. 

After talking to Dr. Yuhan Ding, I deeply felt the passion she has for teaching others and learning from them just through her words. As a student myself, I asked if she had any advice she wished to give fellow readers of Words of WiSTEM. Dr. Ding says that at this stage of our lives, we are a sponge —no, not Spongebob Squarepants,— and it’s so important for us to take time to learn more about what we think we’re interested in because these are the formidable years of our lives that shape who we will be later on. 

Your knowledge belongs to you, no one can take that away from you.

An Analysis of Dr. Petrovic’s Journey to STEM

Dr. Sonja Petrovic was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia where she remained until she immigrated to the United States for her education with the support of her parents. 

When talking to Dr. Petrovic, she spoke honestly about how she did not know what she wanted to pursue professionally. She knew that she wanted a successful life where she “wore high heels to work”, traveled, and experienced new adventures. She figured the field of study most likely to help her achieve her city girl dreams was Computer Science, so she initially majored in the field. 

She then discovered her hidden gem which entailed “a famous guitarist and composer” motivating her to switch to a music major. She soon left music because she felt it was unfortunately unsustainable for her as an immigrant trying to succeed. Barien understands and sees first hand the pressure immigrants face in giving up their passions to make it in the States. 

Eventually, Dr. Petrovic declared her last and final major: Mathematics just because “she enjoyed the classes.” 

Alongside Dr. Petrovic’s passion for math, her mentor influenced her decision to attend graduate school where she realized that being a Professor was the right job for her. Being a professor allows her to live where she wants, wear what she wants, flexibility in her schedules, and the freedom to walk away from her job if she does not enjoy it. Her need for flexibility in her profession is evident in Dr. Petrovic’s job requirements and speaks to her extraordinary ability to adapt to situations. Dr. Petrovic decided to pursue her Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics at the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Petrovic’s mentor, Dr. Stephen Feinberg at Carnegie Mellon, was essential in her choice in research during the last year of her Ph.D. He called her theorem “relevant” and made her feel valued. This monumental moment in Dr. Petrovic’s life serves as a reminder that language can deeply influence the lives of others. Soon she started a collaboration with his group with the support of Dr. Uwe Nagel, her Ph.D. advisor, and that was her informal switch to statistics. 

As mentioned in the biography, Dr. Petrovic's research interest is Algebraic Statistics. The question that Dr. Petrovic is researching is determining the best way to summarize data based on its structure. People can create all kinds of visualizations and measures, but we really only care about them if they are statistically relevant. 

During Alisha’s SoReMo fellowship, Dr. Petrovic's expertise guided the way she analyzed and presented her data. She showed Alisha different hypothesis tests she could use to present her observations quantitatively. This helped her with framing her project so her findings were as accurate as possible.

A Home Away from Home

A city is something that Dr. Petrovic cannot live without. In most places in the country, Dr. Petrovic feels like she doesn't belong there. If she doesn't have "hot days, cold days, art, music", specifically orchestra, and vibrant culture, she cannot imagine living in that area. 

Fortunately, Chicago fulfilled all of Dr. Petrovic’s requirements. 

After she finished her Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky,  Dr. Petrovic applied for jobs near the west coast and east coast, but she also applied for jobs in Chicago.

After this round of applications, Dr. Petrovic chose to work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, completing a three-year postdoc, during which she fell in love with the city. After only a couple of months living in Chicago, Dr. Petrovic felt like she would not want to live anywhere else. Chicago was the only place she felt at home other than her hometown, Belgrade.

Subsequently, Dr. Petrovic landed a tenure track job at Penn State, which was an amazing opportunity, especially for statisticians. Despite being in the tenure track process at Penn State, Dr. Petrovic still craved to fulfill her city life dreams. She wanted to move back to Chicago. 

Dr. Petrovic's late mentor, Dr. Stephen Fienberg, was not quick to let her leave and questioned why she wanted to leave Penn State when she had such a remarkable position. She defended her choice by discussing how she wanted to live in the city. Dr. Feinberg was accepting and respected her choice, but reminded her to "make the job work" for her. Dr. Feinberg's conversation with Dr. Petrovic became a pivotal moment in her life that she reflects on frequently. She also had amazing mentors at Penn State, notably Dr. Donald Richards, who wholly supported her decisions and prioritizing family life. 

Her experiences with Dr. Feinberg remind us that mentors serve to help you live out your best self and support your dreams - not theirs. WiSTEM has stressed the importance of a reliable mentor and had multiple speakers discuss the impact of their mentor. It was an exciting opportunity for Barien and Alisha to hear about Dr. Petrovic’s mentor as Dr. Petrovic slowly becomes their mentor. 

Over the years, Dr. Petrovic visited Illinois Tech a couple of times to attend seminar talks with a friend, Dr. Despina Stasi. Dr. Petrovic loved the beautiful campus and had her eye on Illinois Tech ever since. While at Penn State, Dr. Petrovic applied as soon as openings were available at Illinois Tech.

Dr. Petrovic started at Illinois Tech in 2013 as an Assistant Professor and in 2017 was promoted to an Associate Professor.

Illinois Tech and SoReMo

Dr. Petrovic enjoys being at Illinois Tech and values the diversity of research within the department. While it is small, she fits right into the culture of the Applied Mathematics department. 

Dr. Petrovic especially appreciates the constant support she receives from several colleagues and the department chair, Dr. Chun Liu. In a conversation pre-pandemic, Dr. Liu asked Dr. Petrovic what she really wanted to do.

This conversation led Dr. Petrovic to reflect on her passions and planted seeds for SoReMo later. She told us that Illinois Tech is the kind of place where she felt empowered, and we could not agree more.

As Alisha reflects on her college decision process, she recalls the reasons why she liked Illinois Tech. In particular, Alisha appreciated the culture of innovation that can be seen through Illinois Tech's promotional material as well as the design of MTCC, the State Street Village dorms, and the Kaplan Institute. 

Although every university has its problems, Alisha believes that at Illinois Tech there is a community of people who care and want to better the environment on campus. She appreciates this about Illinois Tech and hopes that students at other universities also have such a community present on campus.

The pandemic hit all of us hard, and for Dr. Petrovic, it was a time where she did a lot of pondering and reflecting. She kept on asking herself "What am I teaching my students? What will they do with the material I teach? Is it just for grades?" 

Grades are not of importance in the height of a global pandemic. Dr. Petrovic stated "people were worried about leaving the country. Why would they care about grades?" And although grades are not important, the topics taught in class can be very powerful when applied in meaningful projects.

Reflecting on the question that Dr. Chun Liu, the Applied Mathematics department chair, asked her, Dr. Petrovic started thinking about what she is passionate about and what she wanted to do. Dr. Petrovic wanted to start something meaningful in this pandemic, that shows people that "we are still here, we care about each other, and we care about society." 

Social Responsibility was a hot topic on LinkedIn in 2020 and continues to remain as one. Social Responsibility encourages individuals to work for the benefit of society at large, to see beyond making a profit. This includes components of ethical, legal, and economic responsibility.

Dr. Petrovic wanted to allow students to use what they learn in classes for projects they are passionate about, as well as build a community at Illinois Tech for people who care about such issues. 

Dr. Petrovic thought of the name "SoReMo" on a Sunday evening while having wine on her balcony, and watching the traffic grow sparser on the highway. What does SoReMo mean? So: Socially, Re: Responsible, Mo: Modeling. SoReMo. It is a "network of faculty and professionals providing a framework for social responsibility to become a core value in research and education at Illinois Tech." 

The SoReMo fellowship invests in students and allows them to "integrate data, statistics, analytics, design, and ethics in finding solutions to societal needs." The bridge between faculty and students that Dr. Petrovic made is changing the way students at Illinois Tech relate mathematics and computing to solve problems outside of class.

Before her SoReMo fellowship, Alisha didn't know what she wanted to do with her Computer Science degree. School felt kind of meaningless to her and she didn't know what she was working towards other than putting a good GPA on her resume. Through Alisha's SoReMo project, she found that she could relate content from her classes and utilize them in her project.

Barien went into SoReMo looking for support for a project she had previously been working on that involved combatting period poverty on college campuses. SoReMo was the perfect opportunity to grow her project with the support of highly qualified faculty. Dr. Petrovic coordinated with other faculty members to guide Barien to properly research period poverty and work on building an implementation plan for the university. More than anything, Dr. Petrovic’s efforts with SoReMo instigated confidence in Barien’s capabilities.

Identity

Individuals such as Dr. Petrovic have multifaceted components to their identity. We asked Dr. Petrovic how she felt the different factors of her identity contributed to her profession and teaching style. She began by discussing what it means to be a woman in STEM stating that she never had trouble, unlike what some women may feel in different countries. She was always filled with questions and was encouraged to speak up and ask. We agreed that the cultural differences between US education and Serbian education were a contributing factor. 

Dr. Petrovic credits her courage to ask questions to the multiple oral exams she had growing up. As an immigrant who experienced primary schooling in the United States, Barien can confidently say she never had any oral exams and to this day have yet to have one. 

In fact, Dr. Petrovic now integrates oral exams into her courses and encourages questions and comments when teaching. Dr. Petrovic firmly believes “If you can’t communicate what you are learning, you have not learned it”, something many educators preach.  

As an Applied Mathematics minor, the majority of Barien’s classes will contain one other woman and she rarely hears them speak up or ask questions. One of the biggest reasons Barien decided to pursue a math minor was because of her high school math teacher. She was this strong, opinionated, intelligent woman who reminds her a lot of Dr. Petrovic. 

Barien doesn’t know if she would have ever decided to pursue a study in mathematics if it were not for the women mathematicians in her life, which reiterates the stress to include more women in male-dominated studies. 

Dr. Petrovic admits that her research interests were highly influenced by her gender identity explaining that at conferences where the research field was male-dominated she struggled to speak up and feel comfortable. Instead, she chose a field of research that has a higher concentration of women and younger individuals than other math-related fields, but not just for the sake of her gender but as well for the presence of diversity. She reflects on how working on diverse teams was always more “energetic” and “exciting.” 

Another notable aspect of Dr. Petrovic’s identity is her immigrant background. While she had the support of her family when immigrating it is still important to recognize the sacrifices made by immigrants. She continues to stress the constant social annexation of immigrants, “You leave your home, you leave everything, and you show up and you are different.” As an immigrant Barien recognizes that no matter how young you immigrate, the social pressure to conform exists. The insecurity of feeling you don’t belong and are not wanted will get the best of many immigrants and force them back. This discrimination will prevent many from ever succeeding and achieving the American dream. It was being different that empowered Dr. Petrovic, she described herself being, “the math nerd at a social party, the musician in math grad school, the European in small-town America.” 

Dr. Petrovic recognizes, accepts, and celebrates her accent proudly saying “I have an accent. I know I have an accent. It is not going away.” But no matter how confident Dr. Petrovic is about her accent, it never prevents discrimination. Many have told her to “shut up” but the negativity did the opposite and inspired her, even more, to speak up. 

A continual theme with Dr. Petrovic is how strong she is. She does not let others speak over her, take her ideas, take her deserved credit, and she always defends herself. 

On the note of living through xenophobia, Dr. Petrovic argues “You fight back with everything you have because you are an immigrant” reiterating the countless sacrifices individuals will make to immigrate.   

Being an immigrant has made Dr. Petrovic appreciate her international students more as she knows the struggles they go through. She recognizes that she would be a different person if she grew up in the states and is grateful for the insight that being an immigrant gives her.  

The final aspect of Dr. Petrovic’s identity that we chose to discuss was motherhood. While we praise the healthy balance we see in Dr. Petrovic’s personal and professional life, Dr. Petrovic is quick to disagree and humbly admits that there is room for growth but then argues there is no right balance and that all decisions have sacrifices. 

Dr. Petrovic reflects on when she first came across a working mother in academia: her first Ph.D. student showed her how it was possible to have both lifestyles. Dr. Petrovic acknowledges how privileged she was to have her first child after she was tenured. 

We had an insightful conversation with Dr. Petrovic on how there needs to be more recognition of the difficulties and choices of motherhood and how women do not deserve to be discriminated against for choosing motherhood. 

The sacrifices of motherhood are evident and Dr. Petrovic acknowledges and accepts that her accomplishments are bound to decrease as her children need more and more attention. She stressed that “every mom needs to give herself a break.” 

More importantly, Dr. Petrovic highlighted what motherhood gave her, her children. She credits her children for making her curious by always asking “why” and for making her open-minded with their willingness to try new things. She voiced how she has “never met anyone in my life who is more open-minded than my toddlers."

We conclude the conversation by asking Dr. Petrovic what advice she has for her daughters, swiftly she says, “trust your intuitions.” 

Illinois Tech is truly lucky to have faculty like Dr. Petrovic who make students want to learn, want to better themselves, and want to achieve their biggest dreams. On behalf of our team at WiSTEM, thank you Dr. Petrovic for everything you do for women, immigrants, mothers, students, and much more. 

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Petrovic in the middle of this pandemic. I was introduced to Dr. Petrovic through SoReMo, but our conversations always go beyond just my project. Dr. Petrovic truly cares for students beyond the classroom and went out of her way to found SoReMo as a way to cultivate a community at Illinois Tech. I admire her knowledge and kindness and wish Dr. Petrovic the best on her sabbatical. I am very thankful to have a figure that I can look up to like Dr. Petrovic in my life.

--Alisha

Dr. Petrovic reminded me that representation is important and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her this past year. Dr. Petrovic takes the time to get to know the students she works with past a surface level and is always supportive of my choices and dreams. More importantly, Dr. Petrovic always takes the time to find opportunities for her students. Every time I see her name pop up in my inbox with a video or article she wanted to share, I smile because I feel remembered. I respect Dr. Petrovic beyond words can describe and admire her ability to speak out against injustice. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have such a strong and talented individual like Dr. Petrovic present in the most crucial years of my professional and personal development. 

--Barien

Jamie is the President of the IIT chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She has grown in this club from the secretary to vice president and finally made her way as the president. She is a selected participant in the mentorship program for the organization to professionally develop herself and network to guide her towards success in her future career path. Jamie was a member of the ASCE Steel Bridge and Sustainable Solutions team, where she was involved in a competition where her team was assigned to build a structure to sustain a given amount of force.

She is also currently the Vice President of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois. Here, she is directly involved in gaining more experience in her master’s specialization. 

Jamie has exceptional work experience; she is very well-developed in her different positions. Jamie had an internship experience in the summer of 2019 at Antelope Valley Engineering. She was involved in draft work in AutoCAD and compiling cost estimation for the company’s projects. She is currently involved in the Armour Research & Development Program where she is researching the relationship between human bone density and fatigue fractures. Jamie also has held an impressive role as a teaching assistant for a computer science course, specializing in MATLAB, for two years. 

Not only is Jamie highly involved in her academic and career development, but she is also an exceptional athlete. Jamie has been a crucial member of the Women’s Soccer team. Soccer has helped her flourish her communication skills as well as develop herself in a collaborative environment. Her first year she was named NACC Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Conference. Jamie is continuously rewarded as a NACC Scholar Athlete. She is also a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee where she helps with community service projects as well. 

Jamie is a highly involved individual who strives in everything she is a part of. Her leadership goes unmatched and is a strong factor in her success. With her remarkable time management skills, she is able to stay highly involved and find success with all her goals. 

An analysis of Jamie's time at Illinois Tech:

As a highly involved third-year student, Jamie had a ton of new advice and perspectives to offer. I enjoyed speaking to her because of her optimistic outlook on all the opportunities at IIT. To start, Jamie can easily say that IIT has shaped who she has become. Her experiences have benefitted her academic, professional, and personal life. It was interesting to hear how all of these topics sort of coincided together. She has thanked athletics for all the cooperative skills she has acquired, as well as having a ‘family away from home’. Having a relatable support group is something very essential to success. Through IIT's challenging coursework, Jamie feels that it has prepared her adequately for all of her recent and future opportunities. 

When hearing more about Jamie’s involvement I quickly began to wonder how she is able to balance all commitments sufficiently in addition to maintaining her high GPA. 

Jamie focuses on managing her time in blocks. This allows for an equal balance of her academic and personal life. Jamie advises to ‘plan out your schedule days in advance of deadlines so that if something unexpected comes up, you still have plenty of time to pause an assignment and come back to it, or just to take a personal break so that you don’t burn out.’ As college students, we tend to become fully immersed in our academic and professional lives that sometimes we forget about those personal breaks. For Jamie, getting her assignments done during the week and in between classes allows for her to have a more open weekend to give time for relaxation and preparation for the next week ahead! I loved how Jamie suggested always have something to look forward to on the weekends. This can be anything from a big event to a small treat! This can in return provide more motivation for the work ahead. 

As IIT students, we face a rigorous course load, but this should not stop us from pursuing our hobbies and personal needs. Being a student is all about finding the perfect balance between all the aspects of your life. Try to evaluate yourself and see how well you are keeping up with your needs!

Being a leader on the executive boards of clubs takes a lot of serious commitment. When asking Jamie what led to her success in securing these positions, she quickly replied by talking about her ability to stay on top of deadlines, while also maximizing communication between other members. Jamie continuously sets goals, so she can check her progress and ensure that she is providing what the organization needs. 

Goal setting is a great factor when it comes to involvement with anything. From experience, having a fine set of goals can always push a project goal forward. Even in your personal life, goal setting will allow you to stay on track and be honest with where you are at.

Lastly, I spoke to Jamie about the importance of her research/internship experiences and how they have helped her grow as an engineering student.

Jamie confirmed that research and internship opportunities provide new routes of learning that students can only achieve through hands-on experience. When talking about research, Jamie was satisfied that ‘classes typically involve learning the processes required to repeat what has already been done, research allows me to investigate the possibilities of what has not been done yet without needing to worry about a certain right or wrong answer.’ I think that her statement truly describes the beauty of research involvement. Going for opportunities like this sets an individual ahead of those in the classroom. These unique experiences can only be found in new, exciting research/work opportunities. Working in these subjects allows a student to experience present-day problems and be the fuel for the newest solutions. Jamie feels like she is allowed to fully apply her education when she is working and is able to open herself up to a new method of learning. 

Exposing herself to many different opportunities allowed Jamie to become the well-rounded individual she is today. Being a female engineer and athlete, Jamie admits being faced with challenges, but she quickly overcomes the odds with her proven success. By both growing up as female athletes, I can easily say that the grit in academic/professional success stems from the continuous hard work that was put into our sport as youths. Growing up and always being in a team setting directly translates to the ‘teams’ she works with now in engineering. Through her experiences, Jamie has proven to be a powerful role model in the Illinois Tech community.

‘Although being a woman in engineering may come with its own challenges, working hard and succeeding in this field just becomes that much more gratifying. Rather than giving up when faced with hardships, going through the same challenges with women of all different majors has brought us all together and has led to a community of support and encouragement for each other. It is because of all these friends that I am proud to be a woman in engineering’

On behalf of Women and Gender Minorities in STEM, we wish you the best of success in your future endeavors. I have no doubt that you will continue to do extraordinary things in your field!

She is the Founder and Chief Editor of the Undergraduate Research Journal of Illinois Tech, where she works to encourage undergraduate students to get involved in research while highlighting and promoting the incredible research that is currently being done, both through interactive initiatives and the annual journal. As the Head of Education at UNICEF, she organized campaigns to highlight important issues affecting children globally, held monthly presentations to raise awareness on important and time-sensitive issues affecting children around the globe and how UNICEF could help, and organized volunteering events to help children in the local community. 

She is also the Co-Director for the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium, one of the largest undergraduate research symposiums in the nation, where she worked with students and faculty from six core universities to organize the annual conference. She also spearheaded efforts to convert the canceled 2020 symposium into a multidisciplinary undergraduate research journal that highlighted and shared the impactful work done by undergraduate students. She further worked with sponsors to manage a budget of almost $40,000. 

She continued her passion for research as a Student Liaison for Illinois Tech  Undergraduate Research Council where she worked closely with representatives from the various colleges to  plan a college-wide undergraduate research poster day to encourage the professional presentation of research. This would help expose students to the varying research interests across campus and increased cross-collaboration across disciplines. She further initiated the social media campaign to advertise the Council’s initiatives, highlighted student research from across campus, and encouraged open communication between students and the Council members.

She served many academic positions as a supplemental instructor for Organic Chemistry I and II, a teacher’s assistant for microbiology, a peer scholar that covered a multitude of topics in her major, and a research volunteer at the Comprehensive Care Program.