Who says Latinas can’t be engineering professors?

I don’t know how many times Maria and I have received looks of disbelief when we tell people that we’re Ph.D. students in engineering — we stopped counting years ago. While we are not offended by such disbelief, it does remind us how few females and how even fewer Latinas choose to study engineering. At the Ph.D. level, it is even rarer to find women. We had very few female engineering professors in our careers — and never a Latina. We still have hope, though, that there is at least one Latina engineering professor out there — she must just be in hiding.

I So what drove us to go after a Ph.D.?

Well, our answer to this question may be similar to what you get from any Ph.D. student. Most of us have worked in industry and found that corporate America is just not the place for us.

For me, as for many others, the experience fell short of my expectations. This has led both of us to think that maybe the perfect job would be as an engineering professor. It really comes down to being happy with our contributions to society and to our community at the end of the day and enjoying what we do.

Not that getting a Ph.D. is all peaches and cream — sometimes I have to remind myself that it is supposed to be challenging, and it’s been just that for all of us, with many hurdles along the way.

The difficulty is that for every hurdle in the process, there is always some self-doubt. Can I really do this? Do I really belong here? This, of course, seems to be more common amongst my female and Latina friends, as we aren't surrounded by people like ourselves. I still sometimes wonder if I'll really "make it" as a professor, but I remind myself that I've had a lot of success to this point and have a lot of people supporting me, both within and outside of the academic community. Maria finds that every year there is a new struggle, but it keeps her on her toes, growing as a person and an intellectual.

Fortunately, we are not alone; in fact we get great support from the Latino community — without it, we may not be writing this today. There is an instant bond amongst many of the Latinos in engineering at UC Berkeley, maybe it comes from just being "one of the few," but there is also a sincere sense of community, and everyone supports each other through all the academic hurdles as well as through personal milestones--we've thrown baby showers and wedding showers for each other. It is wonderful to not be alone, and actually, as senior students, having other people following our footsteps makes us think twice about giving up. Plus, sometimes it's just nice to know that when we want to go get some Peruvian or Nicaraguan food or hit a salsa club, we can instantly round up a decent-sized group.

Where do we see ourselves in 5 years?

In our crystal ball, we’ll both have long-finished our Ph.D.s, we’ll both be tenure-track professors, forging new ground in science, and spicing up some engineering classes.
Who says Latinas can't be engineering professors? We just haven’t hit the job market yet.