interests in those four fields. Jackson credits the Meyerhoff initiative with giving her the opportunity — and scholarship resources — to pursue her dream to become a professional engineer. She is one of 81 Ph.D.s the program has produced and recalls as an aspiring college student the Meyerhoff’s “selection weekend” for giving her a new per- spective about opportunities in STEM fields. “There were just really smart black kids there,” she said. “I was always used to being the one (African American in her high school STEM classes). It was just an amazing kind of atmosphere. It was intimidating, but at the same time it was like so invigorating. I had just never been in a place where you had so many people who were like me and who just were interested in doing well and achieving and were interested in math and science.”
Hrabowski says the Meyerhoff program was designed to remove some of the attitudes about STEM education and give
those like Jackson a fighting chance. “Too often in America, in all kinds of institutions, we who are already in math and science will send the message without realizing it to a student that I’ve got mine and you got to get yours,” Hrabowski said. “That’s not right the attitude. We have to be saying we are here to learn together. I am here to support you. We want you to learn to support each other as students, and it is possible for all of you to succeed.” If there is a legacy, Jackson wants minority students to know they can achieve accomplishments in math and science as she has. Jackson works personally with young students to help build up the next generation. “We need to let them know that this stuff (engineering) is cool,” she said. “This stuff is interesting. Engineering spans everything we do, when we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep at night. We build spacecraft (at Goddard). What is not cool about that?”
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