Sylvia Bozeman

"I didn't know they lay of the land," quips Bozeman. They wanted her to go back to school to finish her Ph.D. She just looked at them thinking, I have a husband and two small children, how am I going to go back to Vanderbilt four hours away?"

"My mother only finished the 12th grade but she was always excited about math."

"My math teacher, Mr. Frank Holly, would not let me stop doing math."

"That was the one course that didn't come easily, let's put it that way."

"I don't know how much I helped but he gave me credit on the paper. That was a boost to my ego and really got me going in math."

"Male faculty tend to be less sensitive to the ways in which women treat their studies."

"Women make a B on an exam and they are crushed, they think it's terrible. Men make a B and they think it's great."

"I grew up on a small farm in Camp Hill, Alabama, with my four siblings. My elementary school education took place in a one-room school house in my community. Although my love of mathematics was passed down from my mother, both of my parents instilled in me a love of learning and a concern for the education of others."

"I am very proud of all the students that I have taught, supervised in research or summer programs, or mentored over my 35-plus years as a faculty member at Spelman College, a place that supported me through enough different roles and opportunities that I enjoyed going to work every day."