I have come to enjoy reading about other people’s STEM career’s. Especially being so early into my own. I came across this book on Amazon about a black woman’s journey in STEM. It was really the seafaring theme of the cover and description that enticed me because I have a long held interest in the sea, more on that later. Here it is my thoughts on Joy Carter Minor’s Forward From The Sea.
At about 200 pages her book is one of the few that I have read cover to cover in one sitting. Ok, it was more like a sitting, then a laying, then a leaning, and a swinging, but all in one day. It was just that wonderous to me. This took me through several emotions, joy, fear, sorrow, anger, and uncertainty. I was especially drawn to the beginning parts about her journey in Djibouti. It is a very concise detail of her journey, and ambitions into and out of STEM and her collisions with racism in the military and corporate America.
There were several times where I thought she handled things “better” than I would. Particularly when dealing with certain non-black people that were either vexed at someone like her having such intellect and ambition and being in a leadership role, or being apathetic to her circumstances. Being in a field adjacent to the naval engineering industry, I only see hints of such an environment. But I’m not naïve either, I’m probably not entrenched enough in my profession to come across it yet. Still, I think reading accounts like hers will give me some insight when I do.
Reading of her endeavors to take the Hydrographic long course and later branching out into entrepreneurship, seemingly at the peak of her career, really spoke to the boldness needed to excel. The organization you work for will not set your path, its just another stepping stone, a really big one though. The way she tackled new tools and knowledge to further her pursuits also stood out to me. That’s how she was able to bounce back in her career. The events that she detailed that I thought of vividly, like in a movie, were her encountering that mysterious man in the desert, grinding it out alone in the server room, her family being surrounded by the KKK in their car, and sitting at that table with her haters at a symposium.
There wasn’t much hope for a racially equitable industry by the end of the book. However, on a individual level, I think she placed quite a few gems for us to use to excel further. In all, this was a great reading. Joy Carter Minor and the things she has done have already become something of esteem to me.
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