Here is a resource for girls interested
in exploring possibilities for their future schooling or careers.
Based on interviews with women in non-traditional career fields
working at the University of Maine, the profiles are designed
to give girls an idea of careers open to them, and what they
can do to get there, hopefully inspiring them to explore further.
Links to the women's respective department's WebPages have been
provided, where further information can be found.
Alice Bruce
Associate Professor of Chemistry
As a teacher, Alice Bruce teaches general
chemistry and upper-level inorganic chemistry classes to seniors
and grad students at the University of Maine. Her research as
an Associate Professor of Chemistry deals with investigating
the use of gold to treat rheumatoid arthritis. She grew up in
Maryland, attending a prestigious college-prep high school in
Bethesda, Maryland. Actually, as a child she was not particularly
interested in science, and even declined to take chemistry in
high school. She did take biology and anthropology as her science
classes in high school, and left with the intent to major in
nutrition in college. However, after attending Cornell University
for one year, she decided to take a year off from college, because
of disinterest in her major, and dissatisfaction with all the
large and impersonal introductory courses she had been enrolled
in. Then she applied to Antioch College, which was small, and
had an excellent co-op program, which she loved. Through the
program she got to spend time in a chemical research lab and
in a hospital as an gastro-intestinal lab technician. She then
went on to graduate school at Columbia University in New York,
earning her Ph.D., then did post-doctoral work at the University
of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, researching and teaching. In
1987 she came to UMaine, having been offered a research and teaching
position, as well as being able to make the position a joint-appointment
with her husband. Here at the University, she loves working with
the students on a one-on-one basis, and finds that the most difficult
thing is managing her time, scheduling all the teaching, research,
and service responsibilities that she has. To girls interested
in chemistry, she suggests keeping up in math classes, all the
way through school, and to “take courses that keep your
doors open.” It is important to ask questions in class and
to get to know your teachers. She stressed that chemistry is
a very versatile major, and can be useful to many careers, ranging
from business to law.
Carol Kim
Assistant Professor of Microbiology
Carol Kim grew up in rural western Maryland,
in an Asian family where high emphasis was placed on education.
Her mother was a pharmacist and her father an engineer, and while
they both encouraged her to do well in school, they did not push
her toward any particular subject. She attended a very small
private school in Maryland, where excellent math and science
teachers aimed her toward a major in science. Starting as a chemistry
major at Wellesley College, she switched to a double major in
biological chemistry and philosophy. She attended grad school
at Cornell, earning a Ph.D. in microbiology, studying molecular
virology. For post-doc work, she studied fish disease at Oregon
State University. Having spent 2 1/2 years here at the University
of Maine, she is an Assistant Professor of Microbiology, studying
infectious disease, and trying to establish the zebrafish as
a model for infectious disease research (much the same way mice
and zebrafish are used as a model for genetic research). She
teaches pathogenic microbiology, and enjoys working with the
students, especially with seniors on senior projects. The freedom
she has to work, the ability to do any research she desires is
what she loves about the University, while the hardest part is
multi-tasking—balancing research, service, and teaching
responsibilities. Microbiology, she suggests, is a good major
for anyone interested in medicine, as it is more clinically oriented
than biology. In high school, she says it is important to learn
how to think, as well as learning how to communicate what you
think through writing and speaking. More specifically, it is
very helpful to have as much lab experience as possible if you
are interested in a major in microbiology or any other science.
Sharon Crook
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Growing up in a household
of all female siblings, in Mississippi, Sharon Crook's parents
made it clear that their children's gender had no effect on the
way they were treated or what was expected of them. She did well
in school, attending a medium sized high school where good teachers
helped her excel and maintain an interest in reading and math.
After taking general college-prep courses, she was encouraged
by her AP calculus teacher to pursue math as a major in college.
College at the University of Southern Mississippi proved to be
a very enjoyable experience, where she selected a major in math
and a minor in computer science. The professors encouraged her
to do research with them, and she was given ample opportunities
to travel and present the research. She went to the University
of Maryland for graduate school, and was given opportunities
to teach classes, showing her what it would be like to be a professor.
She did post-doctoral work at Montana State University in computational
neuroscience, and is now finishing her first year at the University
of Maine as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. She teaches
applied mathematics and mathematical biology classes here, specifically
calculus, differential equations and mathematical modeling classes.
She finds that the students here are very nice, very polite,
and enjoys the resources that a large land-grant university offers,
although she does admit that the location is a bit isolated from
other professionals in her field of neuroscience. Encouraging
girls to take advantage of opportunities and programs offered
to them, she stresses getting involved. It is important to be
able to write and speak, and she suggests that cooperative learning
environments, rather than competitive ones might encourage more
girls to pursue math as a major, leading to countless other career
fields.
Karen Horton
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology
Growing up in an “IBM town”,
where her father and many other children's parents worked for
IBM, Karen Horton was surrounded by the children of engineers.
She had the added benefit of living close to Vassar College,
so the school system was very supportive of girls' achievement.
Her own father was an electrical engineer, and from an early
age she was encouraged academically to prepare for a career such
as engineering. She participated in Shop Club after school, and
rebuilt a bicycle by herself. In school she took advanced math
classes, but declined to take advanced science classes except
for physics, because she wanted to include music classes in her
schedule. After attending the State University of New York at
Albany for one year with the intention to double-major in physics
and music, she transferred to the State University College at
Oneonta and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Education.
She then earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from
Arizona State University, and earned her Master of Science degree
in Industrial Mathematics from the University of Kaiserslautern
in Germany. After her undergraduate work she spent 3 years in
civil service for the Navy, and while in Germany she had the
opportunity to teach high school classes. She worked for five
years at Bath Iron Works before coming to the University of Maine
with the desire to serve the public and to teach again. She likes
the freedom that a large University gives her, teaching 9 months
of the year. Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Technology,
Technical Drawing, Manufacturing Technology, Fluid Flow Technology,
and Industrial Vibrations are a few of the classes she teaches
here. Most of her peers and students are men. Financial issues
are very important for girls to consider, and she suggests engineering
as a career that can provide a solid income. Taking math and
science courses, especially physics, is a good way to prepare
for an engineering major.
Susan McKay
Professor of Physics, Chair of Physics and Astronomy Department
Susan McKay was not particularly interested
in science as a child. She grew up in New Jersey; her father
worked as a businessman for a pharmaceutical company and her
mother was a trained chemist. She did excel in math, although
the majority of her time was spent studying classical piano.
She attended public high school and took a basic college-prep
curriculum. She attended Princeton as an undergraduate at the
time Princeton was just beginning to admit women. She started
college unsure of what her major would be , with possible interests
in either music or psychology. While taking a physics class to
fulfill science requirements, she became intrigued by the challenge
it gave her, and decided to become a physics major. After graduation,
she worked for two years in the Gillette Company's research labs,
designing hair dryers. She came to the University of Maine for
a Masters Degree in Physics, then earned her Ph.D. in Physics
as an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of MIT.
She started at Maine, where she says she loves the students,
but never has enough time to do everything she wants. She urges
girls in high school to keep up in Science classes, as well as
English, Math, and Computer Science classes, saying, “it's
a mistake in high school to get too specialized.” Girls
should take advantage of summers by taking classes outside of
the regular curriculum and participating in internships. She
suggests that girls get to know themselves by trying lots of
things, so that in the future they will be better prepared to
make decisions about school and jobs. Teachers can help by giving
girls exposure to real science early in their education, and
giving them opportunities to explore. Now Dr. McKay is the chair
of the Physics and Astronomy department, balancing her time among
research, teaching, service, and administration responsibilities.
Her specialty is theoretical physics, specifically modeling systems.
She teaches senior and graduate level classes such as methods
of theoretical physics and classical mechanics.
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