WEBVTT

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- I've had really an interest
in ships my whole life.

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When I was 14 I saw a
tugboat dock at Fell's Point

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and I was just really struck by the size

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and power of the vessel,
and that really, really

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intrigued me, caught my
interest on just working on

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something that was just
that big and powerful.

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As I was drawing the ships I
had put together a portfolio

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and so I looked in a magazine
and got the addresses

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of some of the naval
architecture firms and shipyards,

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and I was like maybe 18, 19 at the time,

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and one called me in for an interview,

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and it was M. Rosenblatt and Sons,

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who at that time were
the lead naval architects

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for the DD-963 Spruance-class destroyers.

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So, they hired me and I
was working on the CVV,

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which is a conventional-powered
aircraft carrier.

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(light, airy music)

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So, the challenge for me,
to encourage minorities and

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females to have an interest
in STEM, and also positive

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role models of females and
minorities that have made

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contributions to STEM.

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That's really how it started.

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What I've learned is number
one, building a ship out

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of Legos is exactly
how modern warships are

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designed and built today.

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When I was one of the
lead designers on the

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Arleigh Burke class, the units
went together into modules

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and when they were all
finished, they would literally

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join together, so that's a
lot like working with Legos.

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So it's not just STEM, but
it's taking STEM a step further

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to relate it to the individual.

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You know, for little girls
and little boys to say

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I can be an admiral when I grow up.

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You know, I can be a general,
I can be a pilot, you know.

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So it's not just about
the formulas and it's not

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just about experiments in the lab.

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But it's really getting kids
to believe in themselves,

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they, themselves, right
where they are, you know,

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that they can do it.

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And seeing the biographies
of other people who started

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where they are, you know,
it's an incredible thing.

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(light, airy music)