There's No Single Path Into STEM

And when you look back to earlier on in your career, are there any words of advice or words of advice you would give to somebody who's in a very similar predicament to you and are starting off their career?

I would say be very inquisitive.

You know, being from Ghana, we were kind of taught not to speak up too much.

Right.

But then I came to this part of the world and you have to ask questions.

You have to put yourself out there.

And so I think just being inquisitive and not being too shy to voice your opinion or to ask a question is, that's been one of the most important things that I've learned in my journey.

And so if I could speak to someone who's just starting out, I'll say be very inquisitive and try not to box yourself into one thing, because I had this whole idea of what my professional career would look like.

I would graduate, I'll work in a plastics processing company, and then I'll work my way up and then Now I'm like, okay, there's so many different angles my profession could go into.

I can go into program management.

I can go into another industry, medical devices, for example.

I can do so much.

I don't need to box myself into the title plastics engineer, right? And even moving into management doesn't mean...

you are less of an engineer, right? And so these are things that I'm learning, you know, being, having worked, you know, about seven years now.

And so I think if I'm speaking with someone, I'll say, don't box yourself in, be very open to what's out there and then also be very inquisitive.