African Americans

"My current projects focused on graduate student and faculty development, belonging, and intersectionality directly align with the Jonsson School’s and UTD’s strategic initiatives. Additionally, I am also applying the insights from this work to our organizational and programmatic changes at UT Dallas."

"We also have a responsibility to look at alternative ways to assess what students are learning and the impact of our programs. This vision is clear in my mind, and it drives my decision making about running the department and what I think our role can and should be."

"So that’s one of the reasons why I think I really fell in love with math, and why I enjoyed it, and why I try to help my students and everybody else around me see its power."

"It really is like, man, if you can be math literate — I don’t care if you’re an artist, if you’re a nurse, if you’re a janitor — math literacy is going to help you push forward in your life and just open up so many opportunities."

"I’ve learned through some of my research that Black girls want to be able to have more of a family, relaxed environment — to be able to laugh and be social — while at the same time doing their math work."

"That was because I just had something in me where I learned how to network and interact with people very, very early. And I just began to observe how folks [who had] what I thought was more power, I just observed to see how they moved in the world and began to engage them."

"When I was a younger student, I was that kid who was able to do school. I knew how to talk to the right people and figure out what classes and things that I needed. That’s not because I had a legacy family that all went to college."

"I enjoyed math because of its power to help me understand things. Not to just sit in the library and do a long problem; it wasn’t about that for me."

"I was first introduced to the idea of questioning the status quo in the education of engineers by Richard Felder in the early 1990s. From then on, I started to realize that we don’t have to teach the way we were taught, just because it’s always been done that way."

"In particular, I study mathematical predictions for aneurysm prevention and treatment. My specialties are ordinary and partial differential equations and numerical analysis. Oddly, I also love some areas of core mathematics. I love linear and abstract algebra and real and complex analysis."

"By seventh grade I knew that I would major in mathematics as a college student. What I did not know was there were so many areas of mathematics to study. I am an applied mathematician who uses mathematics to solve equations that model physical phenomena in the medical field."

"Since the age of 13, I have had to manage a chronic disease called Myasthenia Gravis (MG). MG is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease that causes weakness in the skeletal muscles. It manifests in difficulty with breathing, droopy eyelids, double vision, trouble speaking and swallowing and weakness in the arms and legs. I had every symptom and the disease was so debilitating that I could not attend school in tenth grade."

"I developed a duodenal ulcer from the medication and I eventually became unable to walk without a walker. But God! I eventually regained most of my strength, returned to finish high school on time, and I started college on August 27, 1983 (my 18th birthday). Although I still have to manage the MG and now a new illness (Fibromyalgia), I have been able to achieve all of my goals to date."

"I remember my love of mathematics emerging in first grade when I was excited by math facts and bored with coloring."

"In my opinion, this approach to teaching differently should, in a nutshell, use research to inform practice. We know so much about how to educate students, how students learn, how to best teach, and we are doing a disservice if we are not constantly changing how we teach, how programs are constructed, and how people are trained. We are missing an opportunity if we rely solely on the research without a real, fundamental commitment to the practice."

"I think it’s imperative for engineering educators to not only constantly beat the drum about what happens in the engineering classroom, but to also create experiences to increase literacy among the non-engineers."

"If it means being smart and being a good programmer, then "I have no problem being a nerd."

"I started programming games on my TI-89 calculator in middle school or early high school, but I never thought of it as “coding.” I just thought of it as a way to create cool games to play with."

"Another experience that stands out to me was learning how to multiply by watching School House Rock videos! “Three is a magic number” is still a favorite of mine. You could say that public television and educational videos were my thing when I was a kid."

"When I was a young child, I loved the show “Square One”. This was shown on PBS and focused on showcasing abstract mathematical concepts. It showed different vignettes including “Mathman” which was a Pacman-type game, and Mathnet, a detective show like Dragnet."

"Inspired by my parents’ belief in education as a pathway to liberation, meaning and purpose, I’ve dedicated my life to helping others obtain college degrees and upward mobility."

"To see the dedication and commitment to excellence, it exceeded my already high expectations."

"Internally: A while back I decided that I am not in competition with anyone but who I was yesterday. I try to reflect on everything in order to grow. I am very proud of where I am now and excited for the future."

"Externally: Last year I bought a house on my own. I never thought I would be a homeowner and I am so proud of myself for not letting my doubts keep me from realizing this dream. I also co-founded a publishing company, 619 Wreath LLC, with my friend Miloš Savić… and we wrote a book titled “Radical Grace: Essays and Conversations on Teaching”. These are things that make me feel like such a grown-up!"

"First of all, do you love it? Are you sure? Because if you don’t, [it can be] hard and discouraging. [But] it’s not hard to keep doing things you love."

"being able to have complete power with these apps I develop is very fulfilling."

"A year ago this answer would be different, but this past year I have been recognized nationally and locally for my teaching, research, and service as a mathematician. I am very proud of all of the things I have been able to start or participate in. I am grateful to all the great people I do impactful things with. I appreciate that I am increasing the rate of change in this field, positive second derivative."

"There was not a set of books, I couldn’t join a program, or take a class in any of this stuff so we built our own tools. We came up with our own systems for identifying vulnerability and building resiliency and it grew into an industry."

"I have seen a lot of organizations where security is set up to be the ‘no machine."

"My success is not possible without chancellors, presidents and leaders I’ve learned from, and each institution’s commitment to scholarship, innovation, academic excellence, community engagement and providing opportunities for all—which is exactly what inspired me to seek out this opportunity to lead Rutgers-Newark."

"It is really easy to say no, it’s very easy to reduce risk if the answer is always no, but it’s not very helpful to the business."

"With modeling, you never have control over anything."

"And church and my spiritual life — my relationship with God has always been very important to me and that has not only shaped me to be able to respond to the situations I found myself in at different times, but also has led me and guided me in certain directions."

"And then, augmenting that, I would say school because I always loved school. For formal and informal learning, school has always been a space that shaped me with different experiences."

"I would say that, before I even knew what computer science or electrical engineering, what those terms even meant — long before that, one of the very earliest moments or period of time that got me excited about technology, were the Apollo space missions."

"Joint hosts on the negroes’ invitation would be Nisei, American Indians and other Americans whose physical characteristics make them detectable. I have heard of no such observance during Brotherhood week."

"Americans of Chinese ancestry share in disproportionate measure the apprehension of other non-Whites with regard to the summary treatment of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Tightening of residential restrictions against them, for instance, in the neighborhood surrounding San Francisco’s ‘Chinatown’ gives basis for their fears."

"I’d say definitely yes. There, there are quite a few experiences that I would say shaped me first and foremost. I would say my family because within my family, we had so many different experiences and so many opportunities for informal learning that just deposited all kinds of skills and knowledge within me that I didn’t even know I would need later on in life."

"Those were going on when I was, when I was 9, 10, 11 years old, and I was just riveted by the TV whenever they would show that control room with all those computers and all those people sitting there monitoring and managing these space missions. And Apollo 11 — that was the thing. The first lunar landing was just amazing. And that got me very excited about technology."

"To visit evacuation [evacuated] neighborhoods and talk with neighbors of the ‘evil, treacherous, fifth column menaces’ who are being summarily moved away, who have been adjudged guilty without any trial at which to claim innocence was to acknowledge an event with all earmarks of a legalized community lynching."

"Ever since the evacuation of Americans of Japanese ancestry and Japanese along the Pacific Coast was proposed, I have pointed out that the issue was one of race and on that basis affected anyone who was physically distinguishable as ‘colored’"

"“Friends, this is how Hitler made little Nazis: by reaching the children and youth through stories and pictures, he taught them to fear and hate certain groups"

"Through friends and newspapers I have maintained a fairly close contact with the evacuee-victims of our lack of confidence in American education and government agencies. On Christmas Eve it was my pleasure to have as a houseguest an old friend who is teaching in the relocation center at Poston. I hasten to suggest that Mr. Leffingwell could find among the Japanese and Nisei internees some real characters whose story, recounted by him in picture, would set before his small readers an example of courage, sensitivity, forgiveness and humility such as would set his cartoon aside from the petty humdrum of its fellows."

"I did more of the pulling apart than putting together but yes, and my family was very patient with me and, in fact, encouraged me to take the things apart and figure out what was in there, and experiment and explore."

"Perhaps you will lose your life.’ ‘Well, my life"

"I spend it."

"Never turn down a lucrative business opportunity."

"I am of course excited to be included among the group and look forward to whoever the first woman is and the women who follow as part of the Artemis program to continue our studies of the moon, continue to descend down to the surface in a lander and hopefully to build a lunar base there on the moon and continue our journey from the Gateway orbiting laboratory."

"I was very fortunate to have been able to study engineering and to find my way to NASA, to join the NASA astronaut class of 1996."

"She moved my seat, gave me extra work, and required a parental signature on all graded assessments. Since Cs were not acceptable grades and guaranteed at least 6 weeks of punishment, I was going to spend my entire eighth grade year punished because I was making Ds and Fs. Mrs. Scott’s “motivation” helped me discover my interest in math."