Reflecting on my summer experience with INROADS
If you’ve spoken to me this summer, you would know that I’m a part of INROADS, which is a national organization that is dedicated to helping and developing underserved youth by placing them in corporate environments and supporting them throughout their experience. I learned about INROADS through Jose Santiago, the New York/New Jersey regional manager. He found me on LinkedIn. At first, I was thinking that it was probably some random person trying to get me to work for their company (don’t we all receive those messages????). After some research, I looked into INROADS online and realized it was a legitimate organization that I knew I wanted to be a part of. But in the midst of my Fall semester, I definitely didn’t have enough time to complete their application, attend a virtual prep session, or make time for a mock interview. I pushed their application to the side for a while to prioritize my academics.
In January, INROADS reached out to me again, this time, with a little more convincing that I should apply. “We’re going to forward your resume to Harris and Lockheed Martin, but we need you to complete a prep session and mock interview.” Done and done. By the end of January, I had three interviews, two offers, and had accepted one to work at Harris Corporation in Melbourne, Florida. Who would’ve known that one LinkedIn connection was going to get me a summer internship at a company like Harris?
Amongst announcing my affiliation with INROADS on social media, I’ve been able to connect with plenty of professionals and scholars that are also INROADS alum. I even found out that my own sister is an INROADS alum. The INROADS family is ACTUAL family! Even though I am a little bitter that my sister failed to inform me about the organization earlier in my college career...
Fast-forward, to my first day of work this summer, where I was able to connect with the 20 something other interns that Harris had hired through INROADS. Though I am one of three women, I was surrounded by Black and Latinx excellence - and that was enough for me. On my first day of work, I met some executives at Harris, like Jim Girard, who is also on the board of directors for INROADS, two INROADS alum that are now working at Harris, and the CEO of INROADS himself, Mr. Forest T Harper. Though it was a short panel discussion, by the end I felt that I would be supported at a company like Harris. I felt that Harris was looking to hire and retain people like me - not just short Latinas with curly hair, but students that are often overlooked for the Dylans and Michaels in the applicant pool. Students with just as much, if not more, potential than students who are the majority in STEM.
Side-bar: I need to stop saying/inferring I’m a sub-par candidate. At this point, I need to remind myself that I’m really not at a disadvantage anymore. By May 2018, I’ll have two bachelors of science degrees in science and engineering. Sure, I may be a minority in the STEM fields, but I surely am NOT disadvantaged. With a GPA above 3.0, plenty of work experience, and tons of extracurriculars, I am an outstanding candidate for jobs or a PhD program. I am not sub-par.
Fast-forward, again, to this weekend: the INROADS Leadership Development Institute (LDI). This weekend was definitely a lot more packed than I expected. At the beginning, I was a little annoyed about having to attend a mandatory conference - similar to how I feel when I have mandatory anything, but there always comes the moment, maybe in the beginning, sometimes in the middle, or maybe even at the end of an INROADS event where I realize that I’m there for a reason and that everything INROADS does for me is going to help me out in the long run.
It started out by waking up at 5AM to carpool to the airport with some of my fellow interns. We met up with another small group of interns at the airport and traveled together.
Side-bar: One thing that I really cannot thank INROADS enough for is for fostering such a strong community between the interns. Not only do I have a new group of friends/peers, but having this group of friends definitely helped to shape my experience this summer. Without INROADS, I don’t think I would’ve networked with as many interns at Harris and I would’ve had a rough time out here on my own. Maybe I would’ve met some more interns in my building, been more active in employee resource groups, or made some friends at CrossFit, but since I had my little “clique” thanks to INROADS, I really saved time on the search for community.
Upon landing in Atlanta for a connecting flight, we had a blast hauling ourselves over to another terminal with about -10 minutes to board our flight. On our flight, we saw some of the other interns we’ve met during the INROADS New Intern Orientation (NIO) and Intern Development Day (IDD). Again, more familiar faces making a social situation that could’ve been really anxiety-inducing a lot more calm and collected.
Upon landing in DC, we were greeted by an INROADS staff member and taken to our hotel for the conference. I definitely knew in my brain that about 500 interns from across the country were going to be there, but WOW was I surprised to see so many bright, young adults when I arrived. Instantly, I was shaking hands, smiling, and laughing along with some new INROADS family. It felt so natural and unforced to connect with other interns and even some INROADS staff members. I felt that I was amongst folks who were accepting, loving, supporting, and willing to help. It’s been awhile since I’ve felt something like this. It felt like home, even though my real home is approximately 1,457 miles away from where I’m sitting.
The first night was relatively calm. We had dinner and had an award ceremony for the interns that went above and beyond their INROADS internship. Some of these interns have committed themselves to community service outside of their internship, sent in a video about what being an INROADS intern means to them, or were just so outstanding that they received the “Intern of the Year” award. I was immensely proud of the folks that received awards that night. I’d even say that I was inspired by my fellow INROADers. If they could do what they’re doing, then what was stopping me from doing the same? I felt more committed to making myself better and to do more in my extracurriculars. I may not know what that means or how that will manifest just yet, but I’m excited to find out.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early for our first breakout session at 8:15AM. I knew I had to take advantage of the workshops/breakout sessions, because as one of the facilitators mentioned, this event was ~free~ for INROADS interns to attend. And as I’ve definitely ranted about in the past, other conferences cost an actual arm and a leg to attend. Without departmental support, support from OP or Point Foundation, I don’t think I would’ve been able to attend any of the conferences I’ve attended in the past. I could rant about how inaccessible and exclusive conferences are, especially ones for engineering, but I’ll save that for another blog post.
I was thankful for attending the INROADS LDI, because I was getting an above and beyond conference/networking experience for little to no cost.
The first breakout session I attended was with Ms. Natalia Rodriguez, who literally became a newfound inspiration for me by the end of the session. This fierce Latina has done it all, from putting herself out there to gain an internship she wanted, to obtaining the prestigious Helen Fellowship. Natalia taught us about our digital footprint, which is a buzzword we always hear when it comes to talking about our future plans. She also taught us how to create our own website and how to boost our websites so that way it comes up earlier in a google search. We also did this really short activity which involved us googling ourselves . Did you know you should google yourself at least once every two weeks? It’s very interesting what you’ll find, especially if you have an uncommon name or numerous achievements. (Or really bad things that you probably don’t want your future employer to notice… #yikes)
This workshop in particular had me thinking about how I want my digital footprint to look and how I could control my presence on the internet to the best of my ability. Something I brought up during the workshop was disclosing in a biography or online at all that I identify as LGBTQ or that I have an LGBTQ scholarship. If you dig deep enough, you’ll find my LGBTQ photo campaign or videos of my girlfriend and I on Refinery29. While I put my identity out on the internet, I’m still deciding if it’s something I want them to find out on their own or to be upfront about it. It’s basically a tug-o-war between wanting to be my complete self at work and wanting to make sure I’m not closing off myself to any companies. Most of the advice that’s been given to me is that I shouldn’t be working for a company that doesn’t support me. While I wholeheartedly agree with that statement, that “If you don’t want me over my sexual orientation, then you’re not worth my talent,” but I’m still worried about losing out on an opportunity because one person wouldn’t want to hire me due to my sexual orientation.
The next workshop, was a Mars Rover Challenge led by Ms. Nikki Gaskin-Capehart. Group leaders/CEOs were chosen from each table. I was the group leader/CEO (and the only woman group leader, I noticed) and different personalities were assigned to us. The competition consisted of many different tests, including creating a cost-efficient prototype, testing the prototype (speed and durability), and rating the leader. As you could probably guess, my team came in first place! I had the cooperative leadership role, since our table was the ‘green’ table. I had to make sure everyone had a role, all voices were being heard, all ideas were tried, and that I had appointed the folks with the most ability to take on certain tasks. I didn’t feel like I was entirely “acting” in this leadership role, because I identify with most of the qualities of a cooperative leader, but I sure did notice that a small part of me was acting.
For me, I feel that my leadership style is cooperative, with a small mix of traditional. Traditional leadership, in this setting, was defined as the source of power coming from one person, being “bossy,” and “telling” people what to do, rather than letting them do whatever. Now, before y’all give me a side-eye, let me explain. As an everyday person in STEM, I’m definitely going to face traditional leadership - this is until the millennials outnumber the baby boomers. I’d rather go into a workplace prepared for traditional leadership, even though I’m hoping it’ll be cooperative leadership. I’ve noticed in my high school, college, and even my current internship experience, that any time a woman asserts herself, she is deemed as “bossy,” “mean,” “stuck-up,” and “unattractive.” For me, I try to find myself at a perfect medium, which is being assertive. Being assertive is right in the middle on the passive to aggressive scale, or the place I usually skip right past as I slide my way over to aggression. Anyone that knows me knows that I am very outspoken and I don’t take crap from people, especially because I speak up when I feel uncomfortable or if someone is being racist/sexist/homphobic/etc. For this reason alone, I can sometimes be read as “bossy” and “mean,” even when I feel that I’m being as nice as I can, while also having a devil on my shoulder whispering to “drag” my coworker for the problematic thing they just said. I also refuse to apologize for everything and I don’t use words in e-mails such as “just,” because it suggests a type of inferiority from women.
In a way, I feel that my comfort in my gender identity, my confidence, and my academic/professional background can feel threatening to those around me. But I’ve finally learned that it’s not my problem - it’s theirs.
I’m going to skip ahead to talk about the True Colors 2.0 Workshop I attended in the late afternoon. As I’m sure most folks that know me and are familiar with True Colors, I am a proud orange person! This means that I’m dedicated to my work, risk-taking, spontaneous, and all the fun traits. I do know that being an orange doesn’t mean that I am stuck in my orange box and can’t have traits from other colors, but it does really help explain how others can effectively communicate with someone with my personality. I learned that when it comes to dealing with other “colors” (blue, green, gold), my communication style needs to adjust. We did this rather humorous activity, where we had to explain to another color how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We had to make directions for gold, so that meant, being very specific, detailed, and not missing a step.
As a reflection, I wanted to speak about the gold types, particularly the ones that were in the room. For me, I was the farthest thing away from gold, until it came to how I function and organize myself. I see myself as risk-taking, spontaneous, and a non-conformist. Personality-wise, I feel that gold folks in life are the people I clash with. Words like conservative and conformist are some of my least favorite, especially when talking about a workplace. As a woman of color, I feel that me just being in a STEM workplace is an act of nonconformity. Back in the day, women and people of color were a completely “new” thing in the workplace, similar to how women wearing pants were considered non-conformist. It surprises me that so many people of color found themselves as a “gold.” I wonder if it has something to do with how corporate America has deemed as the “standard” for professionalism and how that intertwines with respectability politics. Maybe it has to do with how they were raised. I have lots of questions and viewpoints, but again, this discussion will be a topic of another blog post!
Also, one person from the gold team commented that they would be the most successful group because they’d make the most money. It’s always been interesting for me to notice when people equate success with wealth. It’s even more interesting when people equate wealth with happiness. I know for me, I’m not going to chase the money - otherwise I’d be trying hard to get a full-time offer from my current company or searching for another company to pay me more. While I know I can survive and thrive in a corporate environment, I don’t necessarily think corporate America is where I’m supposed to be. Academia and higher education, I believe, is calling my name. INROADS has really made me question if I can feel fulfilled in a corporate environment, so, like the topic of respectability politics, I will definitely be making a blog post about this later.
We also had a number of breakout sessions, where the speakers were absolutely phenomenal. As I do remember each speaker and took elaborate notes, I wanted to reflect on something a fellow INROADer asked. He asked about how organizations like INROADS, that are created to help underserved students thrive, give a false sense of reality. Similar to attending an HBCU or HSI, being at an INROADS event feels like you’re surrounded by people “like you.” I’m always seeking to be around people like me, whether it is Latinx people, people of color, women, or LGBTQ people.
He elaborated on the fact that these organizations/institutions might give us a false sense of reality because we’re surrounded by like-minded individuals and then eventually have to head back into a workplace or environment that is predominately white, male, able-bodied, cisgender, straight, conservative, etc. I must say that while I heavily agree with his sentiment and understand where he was coming from, especially being a kid from the “NYU bubble,” but at the same time, I’ve never felt a false sense of reality when I’ve been surrounded by people “like me” succeeding.
For me, people of color (specifically Black and Latinx people), women, and LGBTQ success IS my reality.
These were just some of the biggest moments of reflection I wanted to share. I most definitely left this conference with a new mindset and more unregistered contacts than my phone could handle. I think for me, the most solid advice I received was from women in the workforce that told me to continue my education as far as I could. Lots of the women shared that they regretted not continuing their education and prioritizing other things like money or family. I felt a sense of ease, like I was able to catch my breath amongst the stress that is researching PhD programs, reaching out to potential advisors, and studying for the GRE.
To wrap this up, I wanted to mention how even though I am an extrovert and an ‘orange’ person, I have been struggling for quite some time to learn how to push myself out of my comfort zone to network, initiate conversation, and ask questions. I have to give myself kudos for pushing myself out of my comfort zone during the INROADS LDI. I was able to connect with so many amazing scholars and professionals. Without that push I gave myself to step outside of my comfort zone, I don’t think I would’ve had such an invaluable experience at the INROADS LDI.
At the end of the day, a closed mouth doesn’t get fed and I have nothing to lose by saying “hi,” asking to connect with someone, or requesting a follow-up. The worst thing someone could say is, “no.”
The best part of the experience, for me, was Friday evening when we were inducted into INROADS and officially became INROADS alum. As we all stood up, took our pledge, and received our pins, I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of pride. I was proud of myself, for achieving so much in my four years at NYU, securing a competitive internship, and for choosing to surround myself by excellence. I was proud of my fellow INROADers, for their dedication, excellence, and achievement. I felt proud to formally become a part of an organization that’s done so much for me in such a short amount of time. I cannot wait to continue giving back. That’s the INROADS way.
