 While earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Hampton University and a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Virginia Tech, Floyd noticed very few female students of color among her classmates. When she asked friends why they thought this might be the case, someone actually told her, “Girls don’t do math.”
That comment helped Floyd realize a new direction for her life. Rather than enter a potentially lucrative career as an actuary and spend her days calculating the financial consequences of risk, Floyd decided to earn a second master’s degree, in education. “I felt the need to promote an interest in math and science among female students, particularly among minority students,” she says.
Odds are, even girls interested in math and science will give up on those disciplines around middle school age. Fortunately, there are programs like Maryland MESA (Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement), and people like Floyd, its new director. “I’ve always been someone who wanted to beat the odds,” she says.
Floyd joined APL in June 2006 to lead MESA, which prepares K-12 students for academic and professional careers in mathematics, engineering, science, and technology, and encourages the participation and success of minorities and females in these fields.
Today Maryland MESA includes more than 100 schools throughout the state, supporting 2,000-plus students—more than 50 percent of whom are girls.
Eight offices around Maryland support the central office at APL, which is staffed by Floyd and M. Cumor, MESA operations director since 2003. “I couldn’t do this job effectively without Cumor,” says Floyd.
Before coming to the Lab, Floyd has spent ten years in the classroom and as a gifted and talented math specialist for the Anne Arundel County School System. She saw the opportunity to direct Maryland MESA as more in line with her life’s goals. “I wanted my life to be about changing the lives of young people,” she explains.
“She’s been a breath of fresh air for the program, not that it was stagnant before, but Floyd is looking to make MESA stronger in certain areas,” says Cumor.
One area of the program Floyd would like to strengthen is its partnerships with institutions of higher learning and industry. “There’s real value in having applied experience in high school,” she says. “We’d like to make our students more aware of the scholarship opportunities in higher education and to internship opportunities within industry.”
Already partnered with the University of Maryland Center for Minorities in Science and Engineering, Maryland MESA recently entered into a new partnership with Villanova University. Several 11th and 12th grade MESA students traveled to Pennsylvania in February for a tour of Villanova’s College of Engineering.
Floyd says she’s also interested in increasing MESA students’ participation in opportunities here at the Lab. She mentions the two-week “space camp” (officially the Maryland State Department of Education Summer Center for Space Science), offered to middle school students, and the mentoring and internships for high school students as among their options. “Ideally, MESA students could help feed the pipeline here at APL” says Floyd. “After MESA, students could participate in the ATLAS or College Summer Internship programs, and ultimately become full-time APLers!”
She’s also working on partnerships with Lab sponsors, including the Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, which recently organized a Young Engineers’ day for Montgomery County MESA students.
MESA’s impact on students’ lives can be seen in the success of its former participants, featured in the alumni section of the program’s web site: www.jhuapl.edu/mesa. Alumnus J. Martin, now a lead systems engineer for General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, was recognized as a Modern Day Technology Leader during the 2007 Black Engineer of the Year Awards. She attributes her career success to her participation in MESA from the 6th grade through high school graduation.
Floyd would like MESA to one day provide as many opportunities for teachers as the program does for students. In November 2006, APL hosted Hands-On Optics training sessions for MESA educators (see Jan. 2007 Diversity Dynamics) and Floyd hopes to offer professional development opportunities introducing teachers to engineering concepts as well as the use of technologies such as MatLab and AutoCAD (computer aided design).
“The most exciting thing to see is the growing national interest in the work that programs like MESA do,” says Floyd. “There is such an overwhelming regional and national need for a more skilled technical workforce. I’m excited that MESA has the potential to contribute. It’s exciting to know that organizations such as APL support that.”
After several months, Floyd is settling into life at APL. She was initially surprised by the number of people outside of the education field who are interested in supporting MESA’s activities. Of working at the Lab, Floyd says, “It has been a good place, an environment where people stay a long time. I see myself staying.” |
