Lauren has been a dedicated educator for 20 years, having taught not only astronomy but also chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, environmental science, and algebra. Outside the classroom, she has done over 1000 hours of voluntary astronomical outreach, sharing her love of the stars with others. Her goal is to share her passion for science and understanding with all those around her.
“In addition to teaching in a formal school setting, I really enjoy the educational outreach done by the local astronomy clubs in the last two cities where I’ve lived. We set up telescopes and binoculars at various school and community events to allow people to see things with their own eyes that they ordinarily can only see in photographs. It doesn’t matter whether you’re age 8 or 80, seeing the craters on the moon or Saturn’s rings through a telescope is a memorable experience.
"I took one of my telescopes out to an elementary school’s “Science Night” one evening, and I had a line of 50 or so people the entire night. One 4th grade girl was the most memorable. After looking through my scope, she told me, “Miss, I am SO going to be an astronomer when I grow up!” I like to think that little girl is now a young woman in her grad school program now, telling the same story.”
What inspires you?
From a professional standpoint, the universe inspires me. The sheer vastness of space and how truly insignificant we are in terms of the size of the universe compared to ourselves is mind-boggling. Even so, from our tiny speck of a planet, we have developed tools to help us observe this magnificent expanse and try to understand our place within it. Though there are so many things we don’t understand (and so much that we will never know about how the universe has developed and changed over time), there is so much we DO know. Across the history of humankind, people have used their skills of observation and ability to question to find out so much. This is related to a more personal element that inspires me: the perseverance of individuals. Whether in relation to astronomical exploration or another subject entirely, people who never give up are truly inspirational to me. The stories of those people who refuse to stop pursuing their goals, whether it is a physical/mental/or emotional goal, those who keep going in spite of adversity helped to motivate me. No matter what obstacle I have, I know that there are others who have faced greater challenges than I. I know that if others can overcome and persevere, I can too!
What did you want to be when you were younger?
I never had specific career goals as a kid, but in college, I started out as an engineering major. Keep in mind that the internet didn’t exist when I was young, and there was very little to it even when I was in high school. I didn’t really know a lot about the career options available to me. I just knew that math and science-y people often became engineers, so I started out as a mechanical engineering major. I liked building things and fixing things, so I thought that might fit with my skills and interests. My parents had an old Pachinko machine when I was a kid (for those who don’t know, Pachinko was a mechanical game, originating in Japan, where you’d flick a lever and a little ball would go bouncing around the mechanisms, kind of like a pinball game). It didn’t work, though. When I was maybe 12 years old, I decided that I was going to fix it. I took a couple of screwdrivers, removed the covers on the back, and set out trying to figure out how it should work and what the problem was. I think my parents probably wondered what I was doing and thought I was crazy, but they didn’t discourage me. It took a few days, but I fixed it! They were pretty amazed, but I didn’t understand why they were so shocked. Hey, if somebody put it together, why shouldn’t I be able to fix it? I guess that’s always been my mindset…if somebody else can do it, I can too.
Which subjects did you enjoy at school?
Science was always my favorite, particularly astronomy. Each year when we would get our new science books, I’d always flip immediately to the space section and read about the planets, particularly Saturn. As I got into high school, I began to really like math as well. I liked trying to figure things out, problem-solving.
What would you like to tell your younger self?
I think my younger self heard all she needed to hear from my dad…he always told me, “Study hard, do well, make your parents proud.” I must have heard it 1,000 times over the years. So I did. I think perhaps that’s why the perseverance of others has always impressed me; that’s what I was always told was expected. Doing the minimum was never an option. You don’t have to be perfect, but you have to do the best with what you have. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. I guess I would also have to tell my younger self, though, to not take everything quite so seriously. I know that at times I have been such a hard worker, trying to do the best that I could, that maybe I spent too much time on things that were maybe not so important in the grand scheme of things. I can say, though, that I don’t have any regrets at all about not trying hard enough; anything that I have failed to achieve in my life hasn’t ever been for lack of hard work and trying. I try to impress upon my students that mentality; always do the best you can. Maybe you can’t make an A, but if you can make the B rather than the C, do what you can do to make that happen, and you won’t ever look back to wish you had done something differently.
Why did you choose STEM?
STEM subjects were the only things in school that ever appealed to me. Though I know now that there’s a lot more to the arts/humanities/history subjects than just memorization, that’s what I thought it was at the time. There wasn’t any challenge there for me; I needed something that I could struggle with. I liked it when math and particularly chemistry books had the answers in the back. I’d work a problem and check the answer. Hm…why am I off by a factor of two? I’d go back, going through step by step, trying to find my mistake. I’ve done the “I figured it out” happy dance more than I’d care to admit…even today.
How important is it for you to stand out?
I don’t think it’s important to stand out just for the sake of standing out. Though everyone likes recognition for what they’ve accomplished, to me, what is most important is what that award or acknowledgment stands for. I know that I always give 100%; I wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t. On one hand, that is enough for me on a personal level. When I am recognized, though, for what I do, I am pleased inasmuch as I appreciate that others notice the work I put in. As a teacher, we are not particularly financially rewarded for all the extra work we do above and beyond the job requirements. I have, though, won teaching awards (campus teacher of the year and district teacher of the year, both back when I was teaching high school, and outstanding new faculty member at the college level), and those awards mean so much to me because I see them as validation that I really am making an impact with all of the work I do.
What difficulties did you face in the industry, as a woman?
I’m not sure that I’ve faced difficulties per se, though it has always been apparent to me that as a woman, I’ve been in the minority in terms of numbers. In my graduate space studies program, there were fewer women in the program than men, but it didn’t feel like a huge difference. It is noteworthy, though, that none of my instructors were women (though there are women instructors in the program now). In my undergraduate engineering program back in the 90s, it was a much different story. Not only were none of my instructors females, I was one of only 3 women in most of my classes. I was certainly aware of the fact that I was an oddity in that respect, but I didn’t feel that I was either particularly helped or hindered by this difference, so it never bothered me. There was only one situation in which it was ever even addressed aloud. In my drafting and AutoCAD class, we had 8 days to work on our final project. I completed the project partway into day 3. The professor taught two sections of the same course, one to engineering majors and one to non-engineering majors. He informed me after the conclusion of the project that there were students in the other section of the course who were complaining about not having enough time to complete the project. He told them, ‘One of the students in my other class finished on day 3, so it can’t really be that hard.’ They continued to complain, ‘But he’s an engineer!”, to which he replied, ‘No, she’s an engineer.” At the time, I thought this was not only hilarious but it also made me quite proud. In retrospect, I suppose it’s a little condescending, implying that if I can be successful as “just” a woman, that they as men ought to be able to do it. Still, I choose to think of it as my own little battle to show these young men that women are every bit as capable as men of working in STEM subjects, if not more so in some respects.
What advice would you give to the next generation of female scientists?
Persevere! Though there are a lot of important women scientists in our past, I didn’t know about them as I started on my career path. In spite of not having a lot of role models in my chosen fields, I never doubted my own ability. I knew I had the skills to do the work, and I just needed to apply myself with enough effort to get to where I wanted to be. In the more modern age of social media, don’t hesitate to connect with other women in your subject area if you can benefit from their support.
I started out as a middle school science and math teacher. Over the years, I taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science as well as 8th grade math and algebra. I really loved my time in middle school, but after 11 years, I was ready for a new challenge. I moved up to the high school level, where I taught at an alternative school for at-risk students. There were only two of us in the science department, so we each taught a huge variety of courses. Over the 7 years I taught high school, I taught the following courses: Earth and Space science, anatomy, biology, chemistry, integrated physics & chemistry, environmental science. Many semesters I didn’t teach a duplicate course, teaching 6 different classes over the course of the day. Though that was a much more dynamic and challenging environment that I enjoyed a lot, I decided I wanted to focus on my most favored area of astronomy. I decided to go back to graduate school to enable me to teach astronomy at the college level, which I have done for the last 3 years. There are fewer women than men in our physical science department, and I’m happy to serve as an example to the young women in our college to show them that women can be just as successful in the hard sciences as men.
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