African Americans

"It never gets too old. I am just so pleased that I was able to make a contribution. When I was working, I never imagined that the GPS would be used in the civilian world. I love seeing all the ways that it can be used and I probably have no idea how vastly used it is."

"It has history to discover, outlets for shopping, good food and a quiet atmosphere."

"I was awarded a National Physical Science Consortium fellowship to pursue graduate studies in mathematics and earned my M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. After graduate school, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Environmental Protection Agency in the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina."

"I always had an affinity for mathematics. As a child I was always interested in studying patterns, working on puzzles, and solving logic problems; and I was very intrigued by the various ways in which mathematics showed up in everyday life. While in junior high school"

"I am most proud of being a mentor. Throughout my career, I have spent a great deal of time working with students who need additional supports outside of the classroom. I work with them to master good study habits; set goals and create action plans; manage time, stress, and life circumstances; and prepare for their future careers. It gives me great joy to know that I have mentees who have become successful teachers, doctors, and researchers; but more importantly have gone on to mentor others in need of support."

"Personally, I am most proud of taking a leap of faith, leaving a tenured faculty position, to relocate to the DC-area to be near and help care for my aging parents. It has been the best decision of my life."

"After completing the my undergraduate studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, I went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to earn my doctorate. In 2008, I was one of the first two African-American women to earn a doctoral degree in Mathematics from UNL."

"That motivated me to do well in school so that I could get a scholarship and go to college. I had a great support system and many mentors along the way who kept me motivated."

"I aspired to do something outside of farm work and I knew that having a good education would be the key."

"While I was in middle school, I went to Algebra with an adequate math foundation and without Pre-Algebra although I barely passed the entrance exam. Within a few weeks, I began to struggle. While I was trying to understand just how letters belonged in mathematics, my Algebra teacher Mrs. Gwendolyn Scott found a way to “motivate” me."

"My current research focuses on oscillation criteria for certain linear and nonlinear second order dynamic equations. While I am also interested in applications of time scales to biology, economics, and statistics, I have a keen interest in increasing the number women, especially those underrepresented, in STEM and improving the undergraduate preparation of mathematics majors."

"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."

"When one HBCU wins, we all win."

"The goal is not just to teach them how to get a job, but to create jobs and reinvest in our communities."

"When you buy inclusion and acceptance with conformity, the price bankrupts us spiritually. My greatest wealth is not financial. It is peace of mind."

"We made it clear that we were different. We said that we would not take liquor and cigarettes, which was kind of an interesting position for a small [advertising] agency to come out with – starting out by saying who we weren’t interested in."

"It was during the days of the black revolution."

"There was never any reason for me to succeed. I had no business experience, I had no capital, I had absolutely nothing but a strong gut feeling that I had something to say in this business, and nobody was going to tell me how to do it."

"Nothing is more absurd. Power is sexless."

"The only thing you could train for if you were a black girl in the South, rural, poor, was a teacher or hairdresser, and a nurse."

"You can only do it when you don’t know you can’t do it."

"It became quite apparent to me that if I did not begin to control my own destiny, I was going to have it changed about every five minutes. So I took the time, energy, and expense to start my own agency."

"I think blacks have a different acceptance of reality than white people. We're more realistic."

"I couldn't spell, which was a job handicap."

"It was during the days of the black revolution, and they wanted me to do a ‘foam-in’ demonstration in the streets, with women running down the streets waving hair spray cans. I said I would never do that."

"Howard is a good husband and father. Around Thanksgiving, I mentioned that we had never been to Paris and suggested we go for New Year’s Eve. I don’t think I was even all that serious, but Howard got to work planning the trip and that’s where we brought our New Year’s in together. That was done out of love and I know it. I’m very blessed."

"Graduating with a massive amount of debt is especially detrimental in the teaching profession. With salaries the way they are, it can take 10-plus years of aggressive payment to eliminate that debt. The Apple Core Initiative offers a $3,000 scholarship to help offset costs for teacher candidates who may go into the areas where we need them the most, which are also the areas that pay the least. We’ve also created multiple paths to matriculate through the education major. We have all four years planned out — including study abroad — but we’ve made it flexible. Students who change their major or concentration need to be able to do that without slowing down."

"Howard and I have had issues where we disagreed but we never thought about one of us leaving. We’ve never even talked about that. I’m in this for life."

"All relationships require compromise. Howard is a traditional male and he very much believes I need to cook and I need to do this and that. Well, I also believe that if you get home first you need to start dinner and you need to put the dishes in the dishwasher (LOL)! Sometimes women have to work on molding that. Household duties have to be a shared responsibility in a busy household, but I make sure our home is the way he likes it. Howard doesn’t ask for much. He’s pretty easy. He likes a clean, organized house. He likes for me to be available to do things with him when it’s important to him. He would like for me to spend less time working and more time relaxing but it’s really hard for me to do that in the middle of so much stuff that I have on my plate. He loves to travel, and I love to travel. Howard is spontaneous so sometimes I try to surprise him with spontaneity and that works for us. It’s all about how you view it and when you realize that the end result is respect, admiration, love, a long term commitment and affection and all of those things that are wonderful about relationships---you don’t mind the compromise."

"My sister figured that out second semester, senior year — after student teaching. That’s why I think we need a restructuring of the entire program, so they’re getting teaching experience from the very beginning and can see if it’s something they really, truly want to do. Now, I went through four years as a political science major, thinking I wanted to go to law school. But my sorority started a tutoring center in Hendley Homes, and a fourth-grader told me after he passed his first multiplication test all year, “Didn’t you say you want to be a lawyer?” I said, “Yes! I’m going to law school in a couple months!” He said, “You shouldn’t do that. You’d be a better a teacher."

"We’re the profession that makes all others. If a parent tells me they don’t want their child to go into teaching, I have to ask, “Why?” They give excuses about the money, about how hard teachers work, and it’s true, it’s not glamorous. But the benefits outweigh all the negatives. Seeing a student from 20 years ago tell you all the great things in their life — I spent 25 years in the classroom, elementary school and middle school, before transitioning to the College of Education at USC, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything."

"I was often gone, but Howard never gave me any reason to doubt his loyalty and his commitment to me. I guess I would have been a little more scrutinizing and less secure in my position if he had. The foundation of any strong relationship, especially a marriage, is trust. The moment that trust is shaken by an indiscretion it would be very difficult to rebuild that trust again. I don’t have time to run a man down and try to figure out who he’s talking to. I’ve got too much to do."

"But then you run the risk of not being able to provide for a family for a number of years. I do see what you mean in terms of how college is structured versus how high school is structured. Maybe, though, we need to rethink how high school is structured. If we start there, when they get here maybe they’ll be ready to start down a career path."

"For me, it meant as much to be with my kids when they were growing up as it does for me to be with Howard now that they’re grown. Every experience we had with our kids was a rare and rich learning experience. To me, the difference between success and failure for children has a lot to do with the extent of their exposure to things that are different, to things that they wouldn’t normally be accustomed to. So many children are limited by their environment and for us, it was worth it for us to invest in time away that allowed us to stay in hotels, that allowed us to go to the Smithsonian Institute and other places that provided teachable moments with our children. It was difficult when we had to get up in the mornings and get three little babies ready to go and take them to daycare and three different schools when they got older. We were clerk of the course on the swim team and then we had to go to the tennis matches. But you know what? It’s those exposures that made our childrens’ lives very rich and created moments they will never forget."

"You can’t go too far in one direction without balancing it on the other side. I might work until 10 o’clock at night all week long but when it’s a holiday we relax or we may decide we want to take off and spend a week or a weekend somewhere. Just as hard as you work you must relax and play and take time for yourself and your family. We had to balance what we did at home with work, a very active spiritual life and a very involved community life. I was on several boards. In fact I chaired the board of directors of Girls, Inc. for about 10 years while my kids were growing up. I’ve been very active in my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. Now, while my kids were really young I did take some time off. I embargoed work with the sorority because it can be so intense. You cannot be a bench-warmer if you are a good committed person because somehow people find you and want you to chair something (LOL)."

"We had a very strong extended family to help us raise our children. I had a pretty intense corporate job and I was traveling all over the world when I worked for Holiday Inn. Howard’s job was anchored here. Plus, my mother and his mother lived here. In addition to that, when we had an opportunity to get together we took the kids with us and the grandmothers. We literally made it a family affair. It was a beautiful thing. Even for those who are married and don’t have strong extended family sometimes your friends don’t mind keeping the kids so you can have some me time."

"I used to run so much stuff. When I was in corporate I ran a department. When I’m at church I tend to be a leader. What I recognize is that men have this thing called EGO and they need to feel that they are not only desirable but they’re needed. I think the extent to which women are strategic and smart and savvy in how we make him feel those things is really important. So many times we feel we have to tell men how things are going to be done. Well that might be fine if it’s not someone that you intend to build a life with because if you really love somebody then you understand and get into their head and give them what they need to keep them strong and to pump their ego and to make sure they feel valued. Everybody has a desire to feel valued."

"Being able to experience what you think you want to do as early as possible is critical."

"Always let your man think an idea or a decision is his, but you know it was really yours (LOL)! Always make the man feel like he is the man. Some young women don’t understand the value of that. What I have come to realize is if you want something, plant a seed, pepper it with comments and let it grow. Then one day he’ll come to you with an idea that you knew was yours all along. Just say great idea! Where’d you get that from! If you’re smart, wise and mature you’ll understand. (LOL) That works in business too."

"I didn't know her, didn't know personally. She was not a friend of mine.”"

"She screenshot a picture from my personal Facebook page,"

"She used her state cell phone to send that picture to her colleagues on their state cell phones, telling them: ‘Look who this is. Look who her husband is. Her husband is Mark Robinson.”"

"“I was doing this way before anybody knew his name"

"We felt like we were being targeted from the beginning"

"Some of you may or may not be aware that my husband is the Lt. Governor of North Carolina and is currently running for governor of North Carolina"

"With that being said, my life has gotten extremely busy over the last few years and those obligations no longer allow me the time to be a sponsoring organization.”"

"You have to have someone who understands that both of you are working. If you are in an entrepreneurial business you are not working traditional business hours. You are working whatever hours the business dictates. Some people are married to individuals who want that hot meal on the table when they get home, the clothes ironed every morning and want you there just so they can look at you goo-goo eyed. That is not the life Howard and I live. We miss each other coming and going a lot of times. You have to have an individual or a partner who shares your perspective and understands the demands that are placed upon you."

"Some of the biggest discussions you have when you first get married and throughout your marriage is about money and inevitably somebody is a spender and somebody is a saver. When we first got married Howard was a musician, it was pretty easy for him to go out and buy a clarinet or a saxophone and I would be thinking with the money we were going to do something else with? Or he’d say, “I bought that big screen TV for the house.” We had to have a talk because he was not supposed make decisions like that independent of me. Both of our incomes contributed to the net of our household. So, if one of us wants to buy something that is a significant expenditure that is a discussion point. We also discussed something else. I said I did not want us to be absorbed in each other. We are two individuals, we work well together, but we don’t repeat each other. We both respect what each other is doing. We need time away from each other doing our own things and we need time together. We decided early on to take two trips a year. We took one family trip with the kids and one with just us. So much happens over the course of a year when you have three kids that are very close (in age) together. You spend your life running around getting them involved and engaging them, and it’s easy for you to get lost in them and not have any time for yourself. We made some very good decisions, and we put the issues on the table early so it was no surprise moving forward. It was plain, simple hard work and we did it together."

"When I heard about doctors in Italy having to ration ventilators and then the incredibly likely possibility that that is going to happen here, my first thought was so many Black people are going to die."

"Keep busy. Put family first, but treat everybody like family. Save your money, but give the credit to a higher power."