[Music]
good evening so look at me see me tell
me what do you see
[Music]
[Laughter]
participation yes I am a triple e an
educator and entrepreneur and engineer
I’m a mathematician I’m an analyst I’m a
manager to a team of cyber security
engineers
I am Nesby one of Nesbo’s DFW hidden
figures I am a congressional Award
recipient u.s. congressional war
recipient I am all of these things but
when I asked you to see me is that what
you see so I went to college and I had
to read this book it was called
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison maybe you
know about it now don’t ask me anything
I could not tell you the details of that
book because it was so long ago when I
read it but two distinct quotes stood
out to me and the first one is this one
I am invisible understand simply because
people refuse to see me when they
approach me they see my surroundings
themselves or figments of their
imagination indeed anything and
everything except for me so it’s the
second day of class and I am a professor
of this higher-level math
and a lot of students didn’t believe
that I could be the actual professor of
this class I was young in my early 20s
at the time after he de cámara
african-american and female and I was
counseling a student and so I could see
out of the corner of my eye a student
waiting to talk to the professor so when
I finished talking to student ID through
counseling he walks away and the waiting
student does not walk to me he walks to
the student that I’ve been talking to
and proceeded to ask him questions about
the class and so I found it funny and I
just stood to the side and just kind of
smiled but this interchange went on for
maybe five minutes and then the student
I had been counselor said you know dude
I’m not the professor she is the
professor of the class you need to be
asking those questions of her and then
you should have seen the look on this
guy’s face he could not believe that I
was actually the professor of this math
class he thought it was a joke but now I
look back on that incident and I wonder
why didn’t I correct him when he
initially approached why did I allow
that interchange to go on for as long as
it did I was engulfed at that time in
this curse of invisibility
I found the situation funny
I found it humorous and I laughed at it
then but had I known that that error
would manifest itself throughout my
career as an educator and entrepreneur
and an engineer I would have taken it a
little bit more serious because I know I
could analyze that code I know I could
solve that problem I know I could do all
those things but I always felt
throughout my career as I had to perform
some type of trick I had to yell to be
seen
trying constantly to remain visible so
you know about this movie
it came out last year over the summer
it’s hidden figures and when it first
came out I don’t know why I was
hesitating I didn’t go see it but a lot
of people in my circle a lot of my
friends a lot of my family a lot of my
peers a lot of my co-workers they all
would tell me the same thing they saw
this movie and it reminded them of me I
would get im’s
on social media I would get texts just
all around saying this movie reminds me
of you so I don’t know why I waited so
long to go see the movie but I’ll get
truly I want to saw it and you know what
that movie reminded me of myself and I
cried through the entire thing because
Miss Catherine Miss Dorothy and Miss
Mary all those things that they had gone
through all their slights all of the
times of being invisible I had also
experienced and it just it just teared
me up
and so cried through the whole movie and
get to the credits I’m in the car and I
stopped crying and I got mad and I was
mad at myself because I asked myself why
didn’t I know about these women why
didn’t I know about their contributions
they were invisible to me and that
frustrated me because I felt that I
should have known so I started looking
up some statistics and these are women
in stem and I was curious to know how
many women are in stem now science
technology engineering and math how many
are in this stem careers so this is a
2015 statistic from the National Science
Foundation and as you can see there is a
small percentage of women in 2015 that
are taken apart in these STEM careers
and don’t even add women of color then
the percentage drops significantly and
so I begin thinking again so I know
these women
when did it start are they feeling
invisible this
artists young girls were they feeling
invisible in their STEM subjects and so
I found another statistic from the Girl
Scouts and 57% of girls won’t even
consider a career in the STEM fields so
I’m wondering why is that why is it that
so many people young girls specifically
why aren’t they considering careers in
stem so I bought back on another
incident in my life and this is goes
back to the seventh grade
it’s a seventh grade biology class and
so I’ve been preparing for this biology
test and I studied really really hard I
studied really hard and I ended up
making a hundred on that biology test
and I was proud yes I was proud of that
hundred I was proud and but back then
young girls we weren’t supposed to be
smart especially in the subjects where I
excelled were math and the sciences it
was okay for us to be cute but it wasn’t
okay for us to be smart and so I’ve made
that hundred but the teacher didn’t
believe I deserved that hundred they
thought I cheated so they made me take
the test again and you know what guess
what I made another hundred and so I
thought in my mind I’m like every time
you give me this test I’d studied for it
I am gonna make a 100 that’s the first
thought but then the second thought was
why bother if my intelligence is always
going to be challenged if I’m always
going to be challenged every time why
even do it so you know what I did I made
myself invisible I did just enough to
get a good grade but I stopped doing
more to stand out and so I’m wondering
is that’s what’s happened to these young
girls who are excelling in these
subjects they’re they like them but
they’re not supposed to be smart in
these STEM subjects are they be
encouraged or are there saying no you
can’t do that no I don’t I don’t believe
you
what’s what’s going on so I thought how
do we break that curse of invisibility
what can you do so for me it took an
internal realization that I matter what
I say say matters what I do matter I
know what I know and I stopped jumping
through those hoops
I dared people to see me and I began to
be bold in the knowledge that I had so
those are the three things that I have
here on the screen that I said you can
do to break the curse the first one is
be bold it is okay there are millions of
young women young ladies older women who
are proficient in the STEM careers
science technology engineering and math
and you can be cute you can be athletic
you can be smart
you can be all these things you don’t
have to be in that one box be bold
they’re people to see you there are
people to challenge you be so visible
that if they’re forced to see you want
to be you and want to be where you are
embrace embrace your passion especially
is in the STEM careers like I skip
saying it’s okay embrace especially the
subjects just was not supposed to be
good in I did enough to support others
comfort for a long time and I can tell
you you will not be happy
supporting someone else’s comfort
embrace where you are and finally no
fear being invisible allows you to hide
don’t don’t be afraid so
I mentioned before the Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man book two quotes and here’s
the second one I was searching for
myself and asking everyone
sent myself questions in which I and
only I could answer it took me a long
time to come to the realization which
seems like everybody else has been born
with that I am nobody but myself
so invisibility is a choice choose to be
seen choose to be heard
choose your stem career if this your
stem career choose to be thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
good evening so look at me see me tell
me what do you see
[Music]
[Laughter]
participation yes I am a triple e an
educator and entrepreneur and engineer
I’m a mathematician I’m an analyst I’m a
manager to a team of cyber security
engineers
I am Nesby one of Nesbo’s DFW hidden
figures I am a congressional Award
recipient u.s. congressional war
recipient I am all of these things but
when I asked you to see me is that what
you see so I went to college and I had
to read this book it was called
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison maybe you
know about it now don’t ask me anything
I could not tell you the details of that
book because it was so long ago when I
read it but two distinct quotes stood
out to me and the first one is this one
I am invisible understand simply because
people refuse to see me when they
approach me they see my surroundings
themselves or figments of their
imagination indeed anything and
everything except for me so it’s the
second day of class and I am a professor
of this higher-level math
and a lot of students didn’t believe
that I could be the actual professor of
this class I was young in my early 20s
at the time after he de cámara
african-american and female and I was
counseling a student and so I could see
out of the corner of my eye a student
waiting to talk to the professor so when
I finished talking to student ID through
counseling he walks away and the waiting
student does not walk to me he walks to
the student that I’ve been talking to
and proceeded to ask him questions about
the class and so I found it funny and I
just stood to the side and just kind of
smiled but this interchange went on for
maybe five minutes and then the student
I had been counselor said you know dude
I’m not the professor she is the
professor of the class you need to be
asking those questions of her and then
you should have seen the look on this
guy’s face he could not believe that I
was actually the professor of this math
class he thought it was a joke but now I
look back on that incident and I wonder
why didn’t I correct him when he
initially approached why did I allow
that interchange to go on for as long as
it did I was engulfed at that time in
this curse of invisibility
I found the situation funny
I found it humorous and I laughed at it
then but had I known that that error
would manifest itself throughout my
career as an educator and entrepreneur
and an engineer I would have taken it a
little bit more serious because I know I
could analyze that code I know I could
solve that problem I know I could do all
those things but I always felt
throughout my career as I had to perform
some type of trick I had to yell to be
seen
trying constantly to remain visible so
you know about this movie
it came out last year over the summer
it’s hidden figures and when it first
came out I don’t know why I was
hesitating I didn’t go see it but a lot
of people in my circle a lot of my
friends a lot of my family a lot of my
peers a lot of my co-workers they all
would tell me the same thing they saw
this movie and it reminded them of me I
would get im’s
on social media I would get texts just
all around saying this movie reminds me
of you so I don’t know why I waited so
long to go see the movie but I’ll get
truly I want to saw it and you know what
that movie reminded me of myself and I
cried through the entire thing because
Miss Catherine Miss Dorothy and Miss
Mary all those things that they had gone
through all their slights all of the
times of being invisible I had also
experienced and it just it just teared
me up
and so cried through the whole movie and
get to the credits I’m in the car and I
stopped crying and I got mad and I was
mad at myself because I asked myself why
didn’t I know about these women why
didn’t I know about their contributions
they were invisible to me and that
frustrated me because I felt that I
should have known so I started looking
up some statistics and these are women
in stem and I was curious to know how
many women are in stem now science
technology engineering and math how many
are in this stem careers so this is a
2015 statistic from the National Science
Foundation and as you can see there is a
small percentage of women in 2015 that
are taken apart in these STEM careers
and don’t even add women of color then
the percentage drops significantly and
so I begin thinking again so I know
these women
when did it start are they feeling
invisible this
artists young girls were they feeling
invisible in their STEM subjects and so
I found another statistic from the Girl
Scouts and 57% of girls won’t even
consider a career in the STEM fields so
I’m wondering why is that why is it that
so many people young girls specifically
why aren’t they considering careers in
stem so I bought back on another
incident in my life and this is goes
back to the seventh grade
it’s a seventh grade biology class and
so I’ve been preparing for this biology
test and I studied really really hard I
studied really hard and I ended up
making a hundred on that biology test
and I was proud yes I was proud of that
hundred I was proud and but back then
young girls we weren’t supposed to be
smart especially in the subjects where I
excelled were math and the sciences it
was okay for us to be cute but it wasn’t
okay for us to be smart and so I’ve made
that hundred but the teacher didn’t
believe I deserved that hundred they
thought I cheated so they made me take
the test again and you know what guess
what I made another hundred and so I
thought in my mind I’m like every time
you give me this test I’d studied for it
I am gonna make a 100 that’s the first
thought but then the second thought was
why bother if my intelligence is always
going to be challenged if I’m always
going to be challenged every time why
even do it so you know what I did I made
myself invisible I did just enough to
get a good grade but I stopped doing
more to stand out and so I’m wondering
is that’s what’s happened to these young
girls who are excelling in these
subjects they’re they like them but
they’re not supposed to be smart in
these STEM subjects are they be
encouraged or are there saying no you
can’t do that no I don’t I don’t believe
you
what’s what’s going on so I thought how
do we break that curse of invisibility
what can you do so for me it took an
internal realization that I matter what
I say say matters what I do matter I
know what I know and I stopped jumping
through those hoops
I dared people to see me and I began to
be bold in the knowledge that I had so
those are the three things that I have
here on the screen that I said you can
do to break the curse the first one is
be bold it is okay there are millions of
young women young ladies older women who
are proficient in the STEM careers
science technology engineering and math
and you can be cute you can be athletic
you can be smart
you can be all these things you don’t
have to be in that one box be bold
they’re people to see you there are
people to challenge you be so visible
that if they’re forced to see you want
to be you and want to be where you are
embrace embrace your passion especially
is in the STEM careers like I skip
saying it’s okay embrace especially the
subjects just was not supposed to be
good in I did enough to support others
comfort for a long time and I can tell
you you will not be happy
supporting someone else’s comfort
embrace where you are and finally no
fear being invisible allows you to hide
don’t don’t be afraid so
I mentioned before the Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man book two quotes and here’s
the second one I was searching for
myself and asking everyone
sent myself questions in which I and
only I could answer it took me a long
time to come to the realization which
seems like everybody else has been born
with that I am nobody but myself
so invisibility is a choice choose to be
seen choose to be heard
choose your stem career if this your
stem career choose to be thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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