Volume 4, Issue 1
Table of Contents:
Black History Month Feature
To honor Black History Month, WiSTEM is doing a series highlighting Black Pioneers in STEM.
Weekly features will be posted Tuesdays on our Instagram, Website, and LinkedIn Page.
Dr. Patricia Bath was the first African American to complete a residency in Ophthalmology, a branch of medicine dealing with eye disorders. She attended Howard University, a historically Black research university, to pursue a medical degree. She then joined a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University. After completion, she then joined University of California, Los Angeles as an assistant professor of surgery.
In 1976, Dr. Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. In 1981, Dr. Bath began working on the Laserphaco Probe, which was completed in 1986. It allowed for the treatment of cataracts. In 1988, Dr. Bath became the first African American female doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose (1).
Dr. Patricia Bath passed away on May 30, 2019.
We honor and recognize Dr. Patricia Bath and her contributions to the medical field.
Event Updates
WiSTEM’s previous semester was filled with original well-rounded events varying from professional development, community building, to handling financials. Our goal has always been to support the community by building stronger members. As we enter our fourth active semester, WiSTEM is more committed than ever to continue to pursue our mission by designing events to support you.
Led by Co-Presidents and Co-founders Barien Gad and Alisha Khan, Treasurer Tiffany Wong, Digital Media Office Sindhuja Bheesette, Representatives Manager Elizabeth Karagiannes, and Events Manager Savanna Gonzalez, WiSTEM promises an event filled semester accommodating for hybrid students, COVID guidelines, and above all worthwhile.
On that note, thank you to those who joined us virtually for our Mastering Applications seminar held during the lunch hour. While filling out applications can be fairly simple, standing out is not. We hope you learned from our own successful members on tips and tricks to ensure you land an interview and secure your future. Understanding the essential stops on the road to submitting an application and what to expect from the interview process is instrumental to putting your best foot forward.
One of our main objectives is to create a more united community, and this event meant uniting everyone through a process that all of us are/will be familiar with. As an organization, we were excited to organize an event that wouldn’t only benefit undergraduate students but graduate students as well. So, thank you again, and we look forward to seeing everyone in person at our future events.
Event resources are located here
Upcoming Event: Women's Center!
We are excited to announce a project two years in the making, the grand opening of Illinois Tech’s very own Women’s Center in McCormick Student Village (MSV) adjacent to Center Lounge. Supported by FEM and SWE, we are excited to co-found a secure space on campus for women and all to gather and access resources hand-selected by WiSTEM, FEM, and SWE.
We have been working tirelessly to provide a space in which any person, regardless of gender, can feel safe. A space where anyone can relax and have some downtime away from all the noise and stress created from our hectic schedules.
We are hosting a COVID-19 safe event to promote a safe environment for all, therefore at this event goodie bags will be handed out to prevent the removal of masks. We want conversations to begin between new students, and awareness of current issues to be brought to everyone who comes and is willing to learn.
Come join us on February 17th at the Women’s Center to celebrate such a monumental moment and event for this university.
Editorial: A COMMON Dislike Among Students
By Elizabeth Karagiannes, Representatives Manager of WiSTEM
There have been a lot of controversial decisions and policies that IIT has made during the time since I arrived on campus three years ago; however, one of the most questionable policies on campus falls under the school’s meal plan policy. The plan is so unanimously disliked that it is a common practice for students to go through the lengths of moving out of student housing to avoid the whole situation. It is astonishing and almost humorous to hear the extent that the school goes to defend its policy. To be fair though, it must be easy to run to the defense of the meal plan when the administration doesn’t have to choke down the specimens that Chartwells claims are food three times a day.
Before going into the reasons that IIT guards the meal plan, it’s worth going into some of the tedious specifics of the plan. One of the biggest sources of frustration is that every incoming first and second-year student living on campus must purchase the Hawk Unlimited Meal Plan or the Flex 300 meal plan. Upon reading the description of the Flex 300 meal plan, it becomes apparent that the new plan is just a farce to give the illusion of choice to the students. Sure the students can either get unlimited meals all year long where they receive 35 meal exchanges, 10 guest meals, and $100 worth of bonus points, or they must purchase Flex 300 which offers only 300 meals, 30 meal exchanges, no guest meals, and $50 of bonus points. There are some substantial changes between these two, the most considerable being 300 meals, which does not even amount to two meals a day in comparison to having 3+ meals a day. Astonishingly though the difference in the yearly cost of the two plans is a meager $314. This is equivalent to $25 worth of bonus points a semester and 23 extra meals. Therefore those on this plan can only have three meals a day 23 days of the whole year. When attending a school, where most students pay approximately around $20,000 to attend, $314 is an insignificant amount of money in comparison. Even if the $314 were a big difference to a family, which it can be for a lot of families, the differences in the two meal plans amount to much more than $314, and thus confines students to the unlimited meal plan to get the most out of their money. After breaking down the numbers of the plan it starts to beg the question, is IIT really listening to their students or are they attempting to give the illusion of choice to maintain profit?
Besides examining the financial constraints of the meal plan there lies much bigger problems within the realm of health and respect in The Commons specifically. In the Illinois Tech Student Community group on Facebook, real horrors of the quality of food take center stage. There are numerous postings on the page about receiving undercooked food, inadequate food conditions, and cases of food poisoning. The postings themselves are numerous and are accompanied by long lists of comments from other students' own shocking stories. A quick highlight reel of the Commons war stories includes finding pieces of metal in the pork, receiving undercooked chicken, spoiled milk being served, and chicken reeking of so much weed that it had to be recalled. One of these stories should’ve been enough for an investigation, yet these stories keep piling up and the school refuses to even hear their students out on it. A prime example of this is when the mass sprouts of food poisoning took place last semester. Many students took to ITSC, to warn others and express how they received food poisoning from eating the chicken at commons that week. All but one of the people in the comments had only eaten at Commons and no other location. When this incident was brought up with an employee of OCL, aggressively the employee responded that the cases were never proven to be in response to the Commons and to stop spreading rumors.
It is extremely difficult to prove where exactly one has received food poisoning from, but considering that all the students are forced to partake in eating all their meals at the school and only students on that meal plan were marked under the cases of experiencing food poisoning, it becomes ignorant to say that there is no correlation or even that there is no causation. Instead, if the university was concerned for the health and wellbeing of students as it stresses, an acknowledgment or deeper look into the situation would have taken place. Food poisoning and errors when handling food happens, while that frequency of these events is a problem in itself, the administration's lack of acknowledgement becomes an even bigger problem. Moving forward it’s only fair to ask our administration to consider and admit when a mistake is made, or even better, conduct an investigation into why certain events took place. Every STEM student knows that in order to produce better results one must conduct a thorough examination into what went wrong first. For a school that is so advanced in STEM fields, how can they not practice what they preach?
Let's say we were to ignore the many cases of undercooked meats, expired foods, and even metal in the pork, there is still a vast amount of other food contamination and cleanliness issues that take place in the cafeteria. Only at Commons will you be pulling hair at your food because select employees chose not to wear hairnets while cooking or better yet you are served food on dishes that still have remnants of their last meal on them from not being cleaned properly. The Commons is basically one FDA phone call away from being shut down. It is worth further noting that it has also been outright admitted by the staff in the Commons that when preparing food the same pans, utensils, and containers are used for vegetarian, Halal, and foods involving meats. This is a major problem especially for those who eat Halal, if it is not prepared in a specific manner and the food is not properly clean, then the food is not acceptable to be consumed. The problem with Commons is not necessarily that they don’t do this, but that they advertise the opposite. They have many signs labeling the food they consider “Halal” as Halal even though it really isn’t. This would be like serving something with peanuts to someone who is allergic to peanuts and telling them that the meal didn’t contain any. I applaud the university for hearing the concerns of the Muslim students, after endless emails, and bringing on hand slaughtered meat. However, cross-contamination makes the meat immediately impermissiable for students. The lack of efforts to address cross contaminations speaks to the respect the university holds towards students' health and religious practices.
"The lack of efforts to address cross contaminations speaks to the respect the university holds towards students' health and religious practices."
The lack of efforts to address cross contaminations speaks to the respect the university holds towards students' health and religious practices.
The most frustrating part of this whole meal plan for people who observe Halal, are vegetarian, or suffer from IBS or other dietary restrictions, is that they still are not able to get out of the meal plan. There have been multiple attempts of students to leave the meal plan as they are unable to eat most of the food Commons offers, and the administration refuses to excuse them based on the health and safety of the students. The administration told students appealing to be excused from the meal plan, that they would not allow students out of the meal plan last semester because they want to limit students from going off-campus and possibly bringing Covid back to campus. It’s reasonable to assume that it’s less likely that Covid would be brought to campus from students picking up food from grocery stores or fast-food restaurants, but more likely from let's say overpacked union board nights in the Commons instead? It is clear that the school’s real priority is not the students' health and safety but the profit they make from their deal with Chartwells. If the school was really concerned with the health and safety of the students in respect to Covid then they would enforce employees of the Commons to follow the basic requirements of the CDC. The majority of the employees in the Commons choose to wear their masks in a way that does not cover their nose and most of their mouth. The simplest and best way to protect students from Covid is having everyone mask up, and not even this can be followed. When asked to properly wear their masks by students, the employees are quick to roll their eyes. Unfortunately, Covid is used by the administration when it benefits their agenda most and ignored when it conflicts with their money-making plans. If Covid was so important to them, then why don’t they have a five-minute conversation with the Commons’ employees about proper Covid protection?
The school sticks to its claim that the mean plan at Commons is great for the students, and when questioned on why they stick to their policy, they claim it is for the student's health. If the health of your students was such a paramount concern, then the incidents of food poisoning, weed-infested food, undercooked chicken, spoiled milk, and non-Halal food would stand out as a concern to the administration. Therefore in the future, if the school wants to show that they care about its students it should provide the opportunity for students to apply to get off the plan and grant it within reason. If students are willing to go through writing some type of essay and or provide proof that they can provide food for themselves, then there is no reason that the administration should stand in the way of students attempting to pursue a healthier diet for themselves. That is unless they value profit over student’s health…..
None of these situations have been addressed or even acknowledged by the administration, any inklings of these topics are quickly shut down and are diminished to be exaggerations. Students starving because they can’t afford food outside their meal plan, or students suffering salmonella from undercooked chicken are serious health concerns. So IIT, try to tell us all one more time that you leverage your meal plan on us for our health and not your own personal profit.
Update on the Previous Editorial: Performative COVID Guidelines
By Tiffany Wong, Treasurer
The spring semester is always one filled with hope. Everyone had winter break to take a breather and reflect on what improvements they want to accomplish in the new year.
Well, not for Illinois Tech. It’s a new semester, but with the same lackluster COVID performative guidelines as last semester.
On December 21, 2021, all community members of Illinois Tech received an email from President Raj Echambadi titled “Online Instruction to Begin Spring 2022 Semester”. In this email, we were all officially notified that the university would be doing virtual instruction for the first two weeks of this spring semester and what documentations are required of staff and students to return to in-person instructions after those two weeks are up. These documentations were no different than what was expected of us at the start of the fall semester. However, the first two weeks of virtual instructions are meant to give more time for students to travel back safely and quarantine long enough to get an accurate COVID test result. This was a smart move Illinois Tech made that was different from last semester, and one that me, along with plenty of other students, were thankful for.
Then on January 6-7, 2022, we all received the full fleshed out emails detailing how the other guidelines are to be conducted and collected. The two new guidelines for this semester include: 1) Vaccinations and boosters are required of all students, faculty, and staff, and 2) Students, faculty, and staff must provide proof of a negative PCR or antigen test taken 72 hours before returning to campus, as per the “University Updates: January 13, 2022” email.
Although vaccines and boosters are required by January 24th, the email later includes vaccination events that take place in February. It’s great that Illinois Tech is providing resources in the first place, but the intentions seem to fall short when you think about the timing of the deadlines and vaccination events. Does this mean that staff and students who have yet to receive their vaccination(s) and booster cannot go to their in-person classes? That is a detail omitted from the many emails sent by Hilary Hudson Hosek, the Head of Human Resources. It would’ve been most effective to provide vaccination spots before the two weeks of online-instructions at the beginning of this semester to show the hard deadline Illinois Tech meant to reinforce.
As for the second point, the 72-hour negative COVID test requirement was made transparent to everyone before the first week of this spring semester and many have already scheduled for a test to be done in time and submitted for the first day of class. The purpose of submitting a negative test within 72 hours of the first day of class is to give the reassurance that everyone going to class on that first day is clear of COVID. However, there seems to be no necessary follow-up after the first day’s testing requirement.
This ties into the issue of Illinois Tech failing to provide their staff and students with the random sampling testing that was available to us in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The reasoning behind this abrupt stop in providing random testing is still unknown to the general public. One can only speculate that Illinois Tech feels that it’s no longer in their scope of responsibility or it’s not within Illinois Tech’s budget to feasibly provide this service any longer. I addressed this in the Editorial piece of our last newsletter, but it seems irresponsible to the community that Illinois Tech is requiring us to be in person again and not meeting our needs of having testing done at an accessible place on campus.
One point that I would like to point out is that according to the new and updated COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement and Reopening Policy Handbook, individuals who are not fully vaccinated need to “participate in increased levels of COVID-19 testing as and when determined by the university” (Policies and Procedures Handbook). So it isn’t an issue to get testing available on campus, but it’s that Illinois Tech has the train of thought that those who are vaccinated and abide by the requirements necessary to return to campus in-person do not need to be provided the aid and accessibility of nearby testing facilities when compared to those who are not vaccinated.
Going off-campus for the sole purpose of getting tested deters staff and students from going, leading to inaccurate numbers in our Weekly COVID-19 Confirmed Case Reports sent out by Hilary Hudson Hosek. Also, going off-campus to get tested seems like a bigger risk and chance of exposure to COVID-19 for students who live near/on campus than it would be to have an on-campus station for testing. A possible change we can make is to bring back random sample COVID testing that involved faculty and staff. This is a sentiment shared from many people I talked to about this issue.
In addition, the Saturday before the first in-person class date was the date of the Add/Drop deadline for the spring semester. The university expects us to finalize our classes when we have yet to experience how they are going to be conducted in person. This is an important factor to a lot of classes, especially the numerous hands-on, in-person labs that students are registered for. It would’ve been a lot more reasonable for the Add/Drop deadline be moved one or two weeks after we have all been back for in-person instructions.
Now, moving on to the issue with in-person instruction, there are a lot of benefits to having in-person classes, I will not deny that. But there was no common census if classes were being recorded for remote students or students with health concerns. At Illinois Tech, students who miss class due to COVID-19 may not be able to watch their lectures another time to catch up on their schoolwork because the administration has left this up to the discretion of professors.
After being in-person for a few weeks now, some professors are unable to record for virtual learning simply because their classroom does not contain technology available to do so. A good change to witness for the next semester is for all classrooms to have technology that can accomodate students in person and those who join remotely.
There have been multiple accounts of how Illinois Tech is treating the students who do report when they test positive for COVID. This was made aware last semester when many students took to the Illinois Tech Student Community Facebook group to express their frustration with the situation.
A student who shared their COVID experience recently stated that the way the school has been handling students who test positive “has been one disaster after another”. It seems as though the school is severely underprepared for handling the aftermath of a positive test case. There are no regulations or support for those who voluntarily send in their positive test result and it’s all the more frustrating to hear that those affected do not even have the medical visits they should be receiving to monitor their symptoms.
"How is Illinois Tech expecting us to take them seriously and feel safe to attend classes in person when they don't have anyone monitoring the Human Resources email? "
The same student mentioned previously stated that there is only one nurse that is responsible for all the students who test positive. That one nurse is in charge of performing routine check-ins on all the students to evaluate their needs and recovery status. However, the student stated that their first call “did not occur until a few days after I reported to the school I tested positive, which I find problematic, since the school should try to make sure we are alright right away.” We would feel a lot safer and better cared for if the school were to follow up in a timely way with students on campus who report that they’ve tested positive. Also, the workload on that one nurse to be in charge of the increasing number of positive test cases doesn’t help IIT’s case of supposedly being ready and equipped to handle the aftermath of reinstating in-person instructions. I hope to see some changes in the procedure of how positive test cases are handled in the near future.
Another factor that has been brought up is how the basic essential needs of these students are being handled. The common sense for students in quarantine is to self-isolate and quarantine themselves, as per the definition of quarantining. However, Illinois Tech has a different definition of quarantining as it’s a requirement put upon the positive-tested students to “go to the ORL office in McCormick Street Village dorms [MSV] to pick up their food.” The lack of judgment here puts many other students and IIT community members at risk for being exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID. It would make more sense for the school to solely dedicate some members of faculty to do no-contact delivery of Commons food for those who tested positive. This way, no one feels compelled to hide a positive COVID-test due to the terrible accounts of those who received this unjust treatment.
The blatant disregard for students’ health is alarming as it goes against all the promises and assurances President Raj Echambadi and other Illinois Tech board members made to the students to justify returning to in-person instructions for Spring 2022.
I’ve repeatedly reached out to the Human Resources department for clarifications on all the concerns listed in this updated piece since I wrote the editorial piece for the last newsletter, but there is nothing but silence on their end. The only email provided in all of the Updated COVID Guidelines emails was the Human Resources email. How is Illinois Tech expecting us to take them seriously and feel safe to attend classes in person when they don't have anyone monitoring the Human Resources email? It would benefit everyone who is simply worried to have their concerns answered by a member of the faculty and show that the school has thought through all of these worries and is correcting it along the way.
There is no shame in changing a policy set earlier in the semester or introducing a new one. It would be comforting to know that the school is dedicating time and efforts to adjust to new circumstances put upon the community as these COVID times are changing.
Featured Woman in STEM: Sara Simon
"On the Oregon Coast. I grew up in Portland. I love hiking and being outside."
Biography
Sara Simon is a first-year Technology and Humanities Ph.D. student at Illinois Tech. Prior to graduate school, Sara worked as a communications associate at a software consultancy, a web developer at Vermont Public Radio, a software engineer at The New York Times, and an investigative data reporter at Spotlight PA.
In September 2020, Sara left traditional journalism to join The COVID Tracking Project, where she worked to compile, vet, and document state-level COVID-19 data. Studying the history of fragmented data pipelines in an attempt to make sense of their outputs was what compelled Sara to head back to school. In her first semester as a Ph.D. student, Sara completed a project titled COVID-19 Data in Historical Perspective: Lessons from Chicago’s 1995 Heat Wave for her SoReMo Fellowship.
Sara graduated with honors in English from Wellesley College and received a certificate in full-stack software development from the Turing School.
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.
A New Language
I started by asking Sara what her undergraduate years were like and how they influenced her career path, and the journalist in her quickly revealed itself.
As I wondered how she started a career in software engineering, her responses started to tailor themselves naturally. Post-graduation, Sara joined a software company as a Communications Associate. The company was small with around fifteen employees. As a result, she got to know her coworkers very well. The majority of Sara's coworkers were engineers.
Sara, like many others, didn't grow up tinkering with computers and writing small programs. Without prior exposure, computer science and similar fields are fields that people may be hesitant toward because it may seem like a lot of prior experience is needed.
Once Sara started working, she learned about the work engineers at her company were doing, and she realized her prior perception of code and engineering was much different than what the engineers at the company were doing.
Observing Sara's interest in coding, her company nurtured Sara's inquisitiveness for coding by sending her to coding workshops on evenings and weekends.
The engineers at the company would let Sara look over their shoulders. "The more exposure I had, the more I learned what it meant to write code" Sara reminisced.
Her experiences reminded me of my experience in high school. Although I did have a positive perception of programming as my dad is a computer scientist, I never understood what coding actually was until I took an intro to programming class my freshman year. After learning about coding in that class, I aimed to build my knowledge by taking every computer science class offered at my school.
Sara realized that learning code was not different from learning another language. As Sara thought about what direction her career would take, programming was a top contender.
"Showing off my undergraduate honors thesis from 2013. I wrote about Ernest Hemingway's early work in journalism. Feels like ages ago! I'm very happy to be back in school."
"I usually like to use calm pastel colors for my computer terminal and text editor, but a few years ago, when a photographer came into my office to photograph my team at work, I quickly changed my settings to make myself look more like the stereotype of a 'hacker.' Ha!"
Changing Directions
Sara then started to discuss her more formal career transition to software engineering. In 2014, coding bootcamps were fairly new, but Sara took enough coding workshops on her weekends and evenings that she knew this was the next move for her. She did a lot of research and she chose to do a boot camp at Turing School in Denver.
After completing the boot camp and gaining a rigorous background in software engineering, Sara joined Vermont Public Radio as a web developer. While Sara enjoyed writing code, she also cared about what she is writing code for.
Listening to Sara speak, reminded me how computer science is a field of opportunity and allows for one to work in any field they choose to, given they have the skillset. Although there are misconceptions that computer science is boring, it really matters where one applies those skills. The opportunities in the field are truly endless, which is why I am quick to recommend it to all.
Sara felt that her job encompassed all parts of her and tied to her interests. Additionally, it was a great learning experience. Sara was the only person writing code in the building, she reminisced "I learned either how to do it or who to ask for help." Her ambition and drive were clear as I spoke to her and heard more about her work experience.
When the New York Times had positions open for creating tools for newsroom research, Sara submitted her resume not expecting anything from it. A few interviews later, she got the position.
Listening to Sara speak I quickly noticed how most women do fall victim to underestimating their qualifications for job postings. The sense of insecurity within women prevents many from pursuing ambitious paths. Overcoming this feeling can lead to amazing results and Sara's story shows that.
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.
Pursuing Research
Sara spent the last decade thinking she might want to continue her education in graduate school. Now that she had an interest in a research topic, a Ph.D. seemed like the appropriate path. Sara moved to different locations for her previous jobs, but now she wanted to choose where to be. Sara and her partner wanted to be in Chicago, where they both have family. She connected with a few students as well as Dr. Mar Hicks, Associate Professor of History and Historian of Technology, Gender, and Labor and founding WiSTEM advisor. The stars aligned and Sara ended up choosing to pursue her Ph.D. at Illinois Tech.
In Sara's first semester, she got involved in SoReMo, the Socially Responsible Modeling, Computation, and Design Fellowship. The interdisciplinary program stood out to Sara; she met with people in math, architecture, and the Stuart School of Business. The fellowship aligned with her values in so many ways and Sara is grateful for the opportunity and funding to work.
What Sara aimed to emphasize with her SoReMo Research Project is that challenges with public health data are not new but it doesn't mean public health data shouldn't be trusted. For her project, she compared the problems with the COVID-19 pipelines to the problems with public health data during the 1995 heatwave in Chicago that took a lot of lives quickly. There are lessons to be learned from the public health data pipelines of that event and previous crises.
"My most natural habitat is being bothered by my tuxedo cat, Clooney."
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 only kind of news podcast that she can handle these days. She enjoys how the host engages with the guests. She also appreciates that the podcast constantly exposes Sara to stories that have slipped past her radar.
The podcast is about our relationship with the environment, which is something Sara cares a lot about. What she especially liked about the podcast is that when she ends the episode, she never feels down in the dumps. The podcast doesn't sugarcoat anything, but at the same time, they provide hope. There are individual things we can do to save the planet such as putting pressure on public officials. It is a great podcast if you want to learn about the state of the planet, how one can get involved, and how one can process their thoughts and emotions about the state of the planet.
The hosts go into different topics such as decades-old events from history or people of history. They tell a more nuanced narrative than what is usually portrayed. You may think you know about something, but they go into the nitty-gritty about how the media portrayed the story in a certain way and how there is more to the story.
On behalf of WiSTEM, we wish Sara the best of success in her future endeavors! We are so excited to learn about the history Sara will uncover during her Ph.D. at Illinois Tech.
Help the Bees? Or are the Bees Helping Us?
Forensic Chemistry is a field that comes with lots of variety. Every case is different, new, and unpredictable. This means the techniques that come with analyzing the evidence must continue evolving to keep up to date. Portable scientific tools like FTIR and Raman Spectroscopy can help in some cases. And in others, the average honey bee can be of great help. There is new research on honey bees and their ability to aid in tracking human remains.
The bees help by producing honey with very specific proteins in them based off of where they last fed from. Human remains give off volatile organic compounds when decomposing and the flowering plants nearby would take up the volatile organic compounds and then the bees would have the same volatile organic compounds in their honey. However, to do this it is important that a distinction between human volatile organic compounds and other types of animal volatile organic compounds can be made. Research is being run right now to see just how much help the honey bees can be in solving crimes.
The research is taking place at George Mason University, Virginia, at their Science and Technology campus. The two main teams working on this project are George Mason's University Honeybee Initiative and the outdoor Forensic Science and Training Laboratory. They used one acre of land from the Forensic Science and Training Laboratory to plant different species of flowers to move forward in their research.
The different plants were helped by the Department of Environmental Sciences and Doni Nolan, Mason's Greenhouse and Gardens sustainability program manager from the School of Integrative Studies within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Virginia Department of health and their Virginia State Anatomical Program are also helping with the donation of the human remains. Along with them, Alessandra Luchini, an associate professor within Mason's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine has contributed by detailing a procedure to extract the proteins from the honey.
This honey bee research truly shows just how far science can go when multiple disciplines are combined. The advancement in forensic chemistry with the honey bees could be a huge help to police, or even the FBI. The director of the Forensic Science Program within Mason's College of Science and a former FBI profiler, Mary Ellen O'Toole, said that outdoor crime scenes could be greatly helped with this research. The honeybees could help accelerate the search for human remains and could lower resources needing to be used. Who knows, maybe a special honeybee will solve the next homicide case, anything is possible with science.
Featured Role Model: Mary Barra
By: Ellie Kindseth, Electrical Engineering Representative
As a young woman pursuing electrical engineering, especially one looking into the automotive industry, Mary Barra is an extraordinary role model.
Born and raised in Southeast Michigan, Barra has been in love with cars since her childhood. The first vehicle that caught her eye was a red Chevy Camaro convertible that her cousin drove. As she got older, she saved up to purchase a flashy Pontiac Firebird, but changed her mind at the last second, getting a more sensible Chevette before she went to college. She still enjoys driving today, looking forward to her commute each day to and from the Renaissance Center in Downtown Detroit. (1)
Barra attended the General Motors Institute, now Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, which at the time served as a training facility of sorts for future GM engineers. Here, she pursued a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
At just 18 years old, she followed in her father’s footsteps and started working at General Motors through the university co-op program that still exists today. Using her co-op money to help pay for tuition, she continued to study and work throughout her time in university. Barra graduated in 1985 and was inducted into the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. She continued working for General Motors for 3 years as a Senior Plant Engineer before leaving the company briefly to attend Stanford for business school in 1988. Graduating in 1990 with her MBA, she returned to the major automaker and worked her way through the ranks. Barra held various management positions, working her way up the ladder and eventually becoming the Detroit Hamtramck Plant Manager in 2003. By 2008, she was the Vice President of Global Manufacturing Engineering and then shortly after became the Vice President of Global Human Resources. At this point, Barra had become the highest-ranking woman in the automotive industry. After a few more years of holding various vice president positions, Barra became the Chief Executive Officer of General Motors in 2014. She is the first female CEO in the automotive industry. (2-3)
Working at one company for your entire professional career might suggest a lack of ambition or drive, but it seems to be the opposite for Barra. Her unique leadership style and intimate knowledge of the way General Motors operates put Barra in a great place to hold all of her well-deserved leadership positions. What set her aside and aided her rise through various leadership roles was the way she analyzed projects, tackled problems, and used her experience working throughout GM. Increasing efficiency is a common theme throughout the big changes Barra has made in her leadership roles. She led a team that upgraded the 2012 Chevy Malibu in less than a year (a previously unprecedented feat), worked towards designing more vehicles that shared the same parts, as well as connected the Product Development and Purchasing departments (4). Furthermore, accountability and decision-making are also some of Barra’s strong suits–as the Vice President of Human Resources, she famously changed the 10-page dress code to “dress appropriately”. (5)
Barra’s unique leadership style sets her apart from previous leaders at GM–she puts an emphasis on inclusivity and ethical decisions for the company. She is always willing to receive feedback and tries to maintain an open environment where employees and coworkers feel comfortable and able to voice their ideas (4). A key part of why this strategy works is Barra’s confidence and decision-making skills. Taking the thoughts and ideas brought to her, she analyzes and evaluates the advice, and uses that to finally make a decision. She has no problem taking charge and stepping up. This leadership style gives her efficient and effective teams that help promote the success GM has had in recent years. (4)
As someone who has been in situations where leaders did not prioritize making employees’ or peers’ feedback heard, it is easy to see why Barra has done so well in her role as CEO, and how she got there.
In terms of ethics, Barra has set several goals for General Motors regarding green energy. By 2025, the automaker plans to introduce 30 new electric vehicles. By 2035 GM will eliminate the production of gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. She is also pushing towards a net-zero carbon future for the company. “Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution by putting everyone in an electric vehicle,” Barra says, and she is certainly putting General Motors in a good position to be the leading manufacturer of a mass-market electric car future. (6)
In addition to her green energy initiatives, Barra led General Motors to use plant resources to assist the healthcare industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are proud to stand with other American companies and our skilled employees to meet the needs of this global pandemic,” Barra said. According to their website, General Motors produced 30,000 Ventec Life Systems V+Pro critical care ventilators, as well as millions of face masks, and thousands of latex-free face shields, protective gowns, and aerosol boxes to help combat the PPE shortage in the early stages of the pandemic. The first of these ventilators arrived in Chicago in mid-April of 2020, about a month after production started. (7)
Barra’s inspirational story isn’t over yet. There are still many things in store for her leadership, especially with the ever-growing push to commit to green energy in the face of climate change. Her impressive resume, impeccable leadership skills, and ambitious goals for the future of General Motors are certainly paving the way for women in the automotive industry. Barra’s achievements and success despite the “boys club” in this male-dominated field are empowering. As a young woman pursuing the same degree she did and growing up in the same suburbs of the Motor City, having a role model like her and being able to see that it can in fact be done, makes the long nights of homework, studying, and being one of the only girls in the room a little more worthwhile.
Our Stories
"Our Stories" serve to provide insight into true experiences on campus - certain details have been manipulated to protect the individual's identity.
My first year at college…a new country, a new city, a step closer to what defines the rest of my life…
Before I know it, it’s time for class one.
As my professor introduced himself, he impressed us with jargon, his qualifications, long teaching experience, and the scope of his class.
“I am one of two people in the country that is qualified to teach this course. One of two!”, he said. Now that’s an interesting thought, there's almost no way he can say with certainty. But his gloating was the least problematic part of class that day.
“Why don’t you all introduce yourselves? Let’s waste time getting to know each other”, he said.
We spoke reluctantly with a constant awkwardness lingering among us. We were all just trying to read his actions, not knowing what he’d say or do next.
As I begin to introduce myself, he cuts me off, “Oh, an Asian female in my class. That’s a deadly one.”
“Excuse me?”, I asked. Did I hear that right?
“I’m just saying that because I had a couple of Asian female students last semester and it was very difficult to converse with them. I had to give them a C. I just didn’t understand what they said most of the time.”
I almost felt guilty being there for a second. I started to sweat. I lost my train of thought.
Anyway, that’s enough of that. Let's begin class. He didn’t let me finish.
His next big moves were taking off his mask, putting both his legs on the table, and speaking some more about his own work which of course, had nothing to do with class.
He followed that up by saying he would prioritize the Ph.D. students because they know a lot of what this course has to offer and that we graduate students need to catch up.
“When I ask questions, I don’t want to hear answers if they’re not smart. So women can just watch”, he said and laughed hysterically. “No offense guys”, he added.
My friend and I look at each other fully shocked. Did he just say that? Did he just make one of the most sexist comments and laugh it off like it was nothing?
I wanted to walk out of class right then. I was so angry that my body felt numb. This is my first class. What am I doing here? He made my biggest fear of being “accepted” in this new country feel completely valid.
I walked home that night and the dark streets of Chicago felt less than welcoming. There was a lump in my throat that had now started to hurt. Could I write or speak to someone in college about this? I didn’t know who that would be. But would they care?
I dropped the class. That’s all I did.
A Campus Designed To Accommodate Its Students
Immigrating from the Middle East, my parents arrived bearing nothing but their voices, and despite their native tongues and thick accents, they showed me how to use my strongest tool: my voice.
Dinner tables were filled with my father urging my younger siblings to speak up and my mother’s constant reminder to “teach your teachers how to pronounce your name.”
In watching my parents sacrifice their homeland and community, fight for our citizenship, and work endlessly for my access to adequate education - I learned the price my parents paid so my voice was heard.
I feel so fortunate to bear the fruits of their labor and always hoped to continue their teachings by pursuing a field where advocating is important. I came to Illinois Tech on a full-tuition merit scholarship knowing I wanted to pursue the pre-medical track.
In attending a male-dominant university, I quickly recognized academic institutions were designed to support the success of male students. My experiences as a female student motivated me to co-found this student organization that focused, supported, and cultivated my community. By listening to the experiences of my community, I learned of the shared health struggle surrounding menstruation and being a student.
Period poverty is defined as the inadequate access and disposal of menstrual sanitary products and affects one in ten college women currently in the United States. Period poverty disproportionately affects students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
Most college campuses are not designed to accommodate the needs of students suffering from the lack of education and stigmas surrounding menstruation.
While I am not equipped to practice medicine yet, I can still practice the overall mission of medicine and that is an ultimate reflection of my project. As someone looking to enter the health profession, being a doctor means leading difficult conversations and advocating for the health needs of all. My project was a display of my ultimate desire to cultivate an inclusive environment where the health demands of all are prioritized, destigmatized, and accommodated.
This past year, I had the opportunity to pursue this growing health concern on campus as an inaugural fellow of the SoReMo fellowship. Guided by Dr. Sonja Petrovic and Dr. Carly Kocurek, I researched and created a proposal to be adapted by the university in implementing menstrual sanitary products across women and gender-neutral restrooms.
Over the summer and fall, I worked closely with Kevin Gallagher and Terra Cooney from facilities in implementing my proposal through a pilot program.
Free sanitary napkins and tampons are now available in seven restrooms around Mies Campus and both women’s restrooms on Rice Campus.
The following Mies Campus locations will be regularly stocked:
The McCormick Tribune Campus Center (main floor women’s restroom south of welcome desk)
The McCormick Tribune Campus Center (main floor gender-neutral restroom)
Keating Sports Center (first-floor women’s restroom)
Galvin Library (first-floor women’s restroom)
John T. Rettaliata Engineering Center (first-floor women’s restroom)
Kaplan Institute (first-floor women’s restroom)
Kaplan Institute (first-floor gender-neutral restroom)
I am so grateful to see the university adapt my proposal and see the impact of using research to advocate for change.
I owe my accomplishment to my parents who inspire and shape my work ethic. I am excited to continue my initiative as I reach out to other universities to adapt my proposal.
Each restroom containing MSPs will be marked with a sticker of this image on the entrance door
Thank You for Reading
Chief Digital Editor: Sindhuja Bheesette