Emerson Exchange 365

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It is completely terrifying to be a junior in high school.  Instead of feeling like the whole world was my oyster, I was all torn up inside trying to decide what to be as a grown-up.  At my high school in a small Maine mill town, I was also trying to do it all.  Academically, I was preparing for SAT’s and taking the highest-level course load available.  Socially, I was a teenager (‘nuf said).  For extra-curricular activities, I was juggling my love of music (Show Choir, Marching Band, Jazz Band, and School Musical) with my love of writing (Editor of the Yearbook as well as the annual Literary Publication) with my love of math and science (Math Team, Engineering Design Team). 

I thought I might become a doctor, or maybe a lawyer, so I learned Latin.   I knew what being a teacher looked like, and I loved helping people, so I thought maybe Education would be a good course of study.  Or maybe Pharmacy, because I could merge my love of chemistry with helping people.  Or maybe…. Or maybe… Or maybe….  AAAAHHHH!

Thankfully, the Executive Director of the University of Maine Pulp and Paper Foundation, Stan Marshall, came to my small town, sat at my parents’ dining room table, and told me that I should attend a free residential summer camp for high school juniors at UMaine.  Having nothing to lose, I did just that.  I spent a week with an incredible group of peers, conducted experiments in different fields of engineering, toured different engineering departments, interacted with faculty, and had a ton of fun.  I left exhausted, happy, and I knew for certain that I wanted to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Maine.

What I didn’t know then, but would turn out to be true, was that I was going to end up with a full tuition scholarship to the University of Maine through the same Pulp and Paper Foundation that sponsored that summer engineering camp.  I met many of my future UMaine engineering classmates during that week at camp, and many of them are still friends and colleagues today.  Because of the uniqueness of UMaine’s program, I was able to complete two semesters of co-op experience at a Pulp and Paper mill and still graduate in four years.  Debt-free.  Into a job paying a higher annual salary than my parents had ever earned.

I spent fourteen years in the industry, working in three different mills.  I progressed from process engineer to shift supervisor to machine superintendent to “Finished Products Business Unit Manager,” responsible for four paper production lines and over 350 employees.  Somewhere between machine superintendent and business unit manager I became a mom to one beautiful baby girl, and two years later to a second. In the photo above they are ages 7 and 5 (and at Walt Disney World no less...). They are my heart.

Unconditional Love

There were so many people that worked to support me in those early years.  My parents – they are my rocks.  They not only raised me but are helping to raise my children.  They taught me that girls could do anything; it never occurred to me that I could not be an engineer.  My husband is also a Chemical Engineer whom I met at UMaine, and after a time we both ended up working at the same facility.  We worked side by side both at work and at home.  He pitched in to help me solve a work crisis when he knew that I needed to pick up our kids at daycare.  He understood when I got an emergency phone call in the middle of the night and had to race out the door to the mill at 2 am.  (Choose your life partners well, ladies and gents, for they will be your sanity forever!)  My coworkers and employees stepped up to split shifts, coordinate tasks, troubleshoot, think outside the box, and in general help me be successful at juggling all of it.  I could never have reached this point in my life without the many people who rallied around me to help!

Treasure the Present, Look to the Future

I vividly remember the day that one of the mill employees lost his beautiful daughter.  I went to the funeral, supporting both him and the many others in the small community that is a paper mill who were so destroyed by this tragedy.  As I sat in the church, I began a period of reflection that opened my eyes to the future.  I loved my time in paper mills; as an engineer there is nothing as satisfying as working through a problem and solving it!  I had accomplished technically, had developed as a leader, and was ready to move on to a different chapter.  I went home and hugged my little girls, ages 2 and 4 at the time, extra tight that night.  Given all of my many blessings, it was time for me to find a way to give back.  I kept this thought rumbling around in the back of my head and told no one until I figured out exactly what my next step would be.  Around this same time, my mother handed me a newspaper ad for the job of President of the UMaine Pulp and Paper Foundation and said, “This job would be perfect for you.”  So the stars aligned, and here I am, back in the seat where Stan Marshall once sat and handed me the scholarship check that made it possible for me to go to college on a full scholarship. 

Lessons Learned

I still have much to learn, but here are some things that I know to be true:

-Being an engineer allows you to write your own ticket.  You can work in a technical field or a non-technical one, as an individual contributor or in a leadership role, work in the same facility every day or travel to a new workplace each morning, stay in one job your entire career or embrace a fast climb up a career ladder.  Having an engineering degree means that you are in demand.  Your career is your own to shape, and your personal finances will not be an obstacle for you.  You start your adult life with little to no debt and a job with a fantastic starting salary and excellent benefits.  Money is not everything, that is also for certain, but there is a lot to be said for being able to buy a house, have children (if you want to), travel the world (if you want to), pay for whatever hobbies you’re passionate about, retire comfortably (when you want to), and all the while maintain a lifestyle that you choose.  

-It is so important to take the time to be grateful, and to thank people.  Life is so very short, and in the end what matters is that the people you love know that you appreciate them.  Make time for them, and say thank you in whatever way is meaningful to them.  My husband and I have started our own endowment fund at this Foundation that paid our college scholarships.  Yes, we have little kids and a mortgage and all kinds of other excuses that we could use to justify putting that off.  But the reality is that our life would not be what it is today without that incredible head start.  We are paying it forward now, so we can watch our scholarship grow as we watch our family grow right along with it.  And for me, I've found that coaching, mentoring, and making an impact in these students' lives brings me the highest level of personal job satisfaction.

-Being a woman in STEM is awesome.  It is so rewarding to study hard, work hard, achieve career goals, meet personal aspirations, and do it in a field that women have not historically been encouraged to join.  One of my favorite moments with my now 7-year-old daughter happened when we were talking one day about one of her school projects.  She was explaining her problem-solving strategy to me, and I laughed and said, “It’s no doubt that you’re the child of two engineers.”  She looked at me, stunned and wide-eyed, and said, “You mean Daddy is an engineer TOO?!?!”  [:D] No better life lesson for her than that she can dream anything, be anything, do anything…My heart is grateful.