Kids and opportunities

Some good things and some sad things today.
Good news: I'm officially re-admitted to Purdue's Graduate School through their Professional Education / distance learning program.  Once I get the log in information, I can submit my Plan of Study, and the other next steps towards registering for classes.

Sad news: Sally Ride passed away today, of pancreatic cancer.  It should come as no surprise to anyone who's been following my blog, that she is one of my heroes.  She was not who inspired me to want to work for the space program - I'm fairly certain I saw the space shuttle before she made history.

But I have some faint childhood memories of telling people that I wanted to be an astronaut, and some people saying that girls couldn't do that.  Even though the first female astronauts were selected in 1978, I guess they didn't register until Sally Ride flew in 1983.  That, that told people that yes women can.  THAT put a stop to THOSE comments, so thoroughly that I can barely remember them.  And for that, I am profoundly grateful.

I want this blog to be inspirational, to be a positive thing.  But the truth is, traditions can be deeply rooted and hard to change.  Our SWE section in Houston decided to invite high school girls who were interested in STEM fields to a holiday party with college engineering majors and professional women.  One school system, the guidance counselor told the woman calling, "Oh, none of our girls are interested in that."  As if they didn't need to ask.  Because they just assumed that no girls would want to do that sort of thing.

Which always makes me wonder, how many opportunities did I simply miss, in elementary school or so, because the adults around me just assumed I wouldn't be interested?

Giving Arts a Chance: Senior year

We moved again, the summer between my junior and senior years.  My father's contract was not renewed, so he spent the summer looking for a new job.

I missed a lot of the job search.  My aunt & uncle in Oceanside, California were preparing to move, and needed someone to house-sit for a few weeks.  So for the price of a plane ticket, I spent the summer with them.


He found another job in South Bend.

Choosing a high school

As I reached 7th grade, I wasn't sure what my parent's plans were for high school.  I knew money was getting tighter as my parents went back to school, and they now had 4 of us in Catholic school.  I half expected them to switch me to the public schools after I graduated from St. Mary's.

My mother did that, she went to a Catholic primary school and then to Hamilton Southeastern High School.  One of her brothers was chosen to attend a Catholic high school.  I wonder, now, if that influenced her.  If Mom wanted me to have an opportunity that she was denied.  I know sometimes I want that for my son.

My parents asked for my input.  If I were to go to a Catholic school, where did I want to go?

More on choosing a major

A few months ago, I wrote a little bit about What to Study, but I want to come back to that topic for a bit.  In my plan of study for my first high school, I had intended to take a keyboarding class in my Junior year.  As I recall, that was a recent change, the course used to be just Typing.  When we moved to Indiana, and I found myself at the local public school for my Junior year, the closest they had to Keyboarding was a Computer Skills course.  So I took the Computer Skills course, and to this day I am glad that I did

Some thoughts on choosing a college.

Over the summer I began a series of posts about getting to college.  I wrote about planning your high school classes, thoughts on choosing a major, and college entrance exams.  Today I want to write about choosing a college or university to attend.