April 2020, when my world turned upside down. The first two years of my student experience at UW-Madison supported the ego of my “ultimate” plan. Ever since I was in high school, I had this “ultimate” plan which was: graduate high school, graduate college, become an engineer, break the generational cycle of trauma in my family. Seems easy enough right? Well going through this plan I noticed how tiring this mindset was. I started to lose motivation because the pressure of being the first to make it weighed in on every mistake I made in college. This flaw fed into my insecurities like an assembly line. In my Sophomore year, I really did not know if I was happy anymore with what I was doing. I was the only Black girl in most of my classes in my course load and I was one of the only students that came from a low-income household in my engineering classes. Also, I was facing microaggressions in my extracurriculars. When you keep weighing in on the only it becomes lonely. I was at a standstill in my life not knowing how to break this cycle of insecurity, generational trauma, and fear of finding my identity. Then in April of 2020, in the middle of my fourth semester, I contracted COVID-19. I have never feared anything more before. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t work. As I spent months recovering from my COVID symptoms I realized three crucial things. One, how important my health is and without my health I have nothing. After being in hospitals frequently since COVID, I gained the awareness that I am human. A human who requires attention to my wellbeing and mental health. I started to meditate every day slowly but surely, gaining more awareness of who I am and what I want to accomplish. I even started to mold my physical health back to its original state by walking outside more and slowly taking in all of the scenery. Two, how important and valid my feelings are. I thought back to all of the traumas I faced on campus and decided I wanted to make a difference. In a few month’s time, I ran a diversity and inclusion initiative for dancers in my dance team and on campus. This initiative highlighted the anti-Blackness and exclusion that I faced on-campus years before COVID-19. My initiative was graciously welcomed and the action items are still being developed to this day. Three, I learned how to forgive myself while accepting my thought process. In my college career, I came to an acceptance that I will never reach this unrealistic idea of perfection because that is not what’s meant for me. I redefined my scope of what perfection is and it came with all of the flaws I carried, the decisions I made to become an engineer, and the extracurriculars that I joined. Once I started to forgive myself for not holding up someone else’s standard of perfection I began to feel like I was living my life. I spent more time with my family and friends, put more effort into my hobbies such as dance, and even took time to relax and just enjoy the life I am living. I truly believe that in the future I will take this lesson learned and apply it to my work-life balance, my aspirations, and my relationships with other people. Instead of solely focusing on work and commodifying myself, I will see myself as a dynamic human being that has priorities other than just working. I will no longer limit my aspirations to just one of my interests but open my horizons to all of them. Lastly, I will practice humility and grace with others as well as being empathetic. Through this experience that was harmful to my life, I learned what was really important and how to live every minute of life itself.

The conversations of a 16-year-old girl on a Friday night usually don’t involve robots talking to each other. That was exactly my project. At 16, I interned at New York University and researched the collaborative localization of commercial robotics with Augmented reality. Yes, this is a mouthful but it is also my passion. I worked on this project for the entirety of my summer for my Junior year of High School. Even though I was the youngest person in the lab, I made sure to learn what I can and show off the skills that I have learned. As an engineer, it was very important for me to communicate with my mentor and others in the lab about how we should go about certain problems that arise in our experiment. For example, we learned the best way to design the robots was to 3D-print them. One of my tasks throughout the summer was to design and 3D-print the chassis of our mini-robots which communicated to the main computer. I learned how to use Auto-CAD software quickly so that I can implement it throughout the project. I then assembled the delicate pieces to the best of my ability with various tools. Not to mention, I helped create unique fiducial markers (similar to QR codes) to help each of the four robots “recognize” each other to complete a task. The ultimate goal of this project was to have the robots communicate with each other to efficiently perform a task. Specifically, if there were 4 robots all in a square from each other and the main computer tasked the 4 robots to bring the soda can closest to them to the trash bin. The 4 robots would read each other’s sensors to see if they are closest to the can. If they are then they will all come to an “agreement” that the robot closest to it shall pick up the can and put it in the bin. When I was not working at NYU, I was running and organizing my high school’s first-ever robotics team. Through this experience is when I learned what the morality of being an engineer is like and how to make crucial decisions. I was one of the initial founders of the First Tech Challenge and the U.S. Navy Seaperch team. Unfortunately, my high school refused to fund our team because we were not deemed as essential as the performing arts students. Even though we faced various obstacles, I made sure that my team was unified and all worked towards a common goal. I created fundraisers to help cover the costs of participating in a First Tech Challenge team, made sure every idea was accounted for and experimented with, and helped build the robots as well. This experience exemplified what it was like to be an engineer. Specifically, it made me realize that engineers do not always have all the resources they want but they must be resourceful to make projects work. It also helped me realize how important it is to understand how to collaborate with others to make the most efficient idea. As I was in the team, many times my teammates would have so many ideas that we would lose focus, but as our President and Head engineer, I made sure that we stayed goal-oriented. Now that I am 19-years-old, I see how these experiences shaped me into who I am for my college career. Last semester while I myself had COVID-19, I worked on a project to create makeshift ventilators out of electrical components. I used electronic mapping design software, an Arduino, electrical components, and a breadboard to design these preliminary components that measured the beats per minute and simulated breathing through a photoresistor. This project helped me realize how relevant and essential engineering truly is in the world today. As I was designing the electrical components for this ventilator I realized that maybe others that felt like I did during COVID-19 would benefit from a machine like this. Being an engineer is not just about building it requires patience, sympathy, and an idea of the “bigger picture”. These experiences molded me into who I am today and why I work so hard to be a woman of color studying engineering at my Predominantly white institution. Overall, these were the best experiences of my life.

My name is Ebonie Reavis, I am from Brooklyn, NY, and I am a third-year scholar attending the University of Wisconsin- Madison majoring in electrical engineering with a minor in entrepreneurship. I was raised in Coney Island which is a relatively impoverished - Black populated neighborhood. In Coney Island, due to gentrification, most of our community resources were cut, the local schools are underfunded and there are minimal efforts to unite and uplift the community. Specifically, there are no programs in my community focusing on higher education or even STEM fields. As a little girl, my community and family imposed expectations about my personality. I was told to be polite, not advocate for myself, and worst of all to not speak my mind. I discovered that as a Black Woman those are the most important parts of my academics, career choices, and everyday life. Thus, I found my interest in electrical engineering by trailblazing and leading others. I was the President and Head engineer of my high school’s robotics team in which we participated in First Tech Challenge, the U.S. Navy Seaperch, and multiple other events. It inspired me to become an engineer and continue to lead, create, and build for my career. This year alone, I have dealt with domestic violence, having COVID-19, and other personal issues. It has been extremely difficult through these situations to be able to keep up with school, work, and social life. Through each of those traumatic experiences, I have learned the harsh truths about how Black Women are treated in America. My access to basic healthcare, education, and domestic violence resources was extremely limited because of my socioeconomic status. It has done damage to my confidence and self-esteem and I want to change that. Every day, I hope that my dreams come to fruition and I am able to become the strong Black woman I imagine myself to be in the future. Attending my university is a lot more to me than just securing a bag after I graduate. It will allow me to break years of generational academic oppression within my family, be taken seriously about my electrical designs, and build up my self-esteem. One of my favorite courses at UW-Madison was ECE 210 which was called introduction to electrical engineering. While I was taking this course I, unfortunately, had COVID-19 which made the course even more challenging. Although there were a lot of obstacles for me to overcome in this class, I have learned a lot about electrical design, micro python, and the use of microcontrollers. This experience helped me solidify my passion for electrical engineering. Even though I am an engineering major, I still have an interest in business management, entrepreneurship, and budgeting. Over the past school year in an entrepreneurship course I took, I have created a test lean start-up which operated for only 3-hours and made over $300 profit with careful budgeting and evaluating costs/revenue streams. I currently work as an IT: Field service assistant at UW-Madison in which I learned both technical and interpersonal skills. Specifically, this experience familiarized me with remote IT support, reimaging computer frameworks, and customer service. Other than my academics, I am apart of various organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers(NSBE), KASPER dance crew, and the engineering outreach initiative. These organizations help me to become a well-rounded student. For example, in NSBE, I am able to connect with other engineers of color and share our support for each other. In KASPER dance crew, I am able to learn about other cultures through dance and assist in organizing events. My future career goal is to be a project manager and eventually a CTO of a company/non-profit. I have a passion for organizing projects especially when they deal with technology. I feel that technology is our gateway to become more united as people and educate each other about our experiences. Other than my career, I see myself practicing philanthropy to help others in my disadvantaged community and others who have similar identities as me. I would like to thank you for this wonderful opportunity. With this opportunity, I will be able to help pay for my cost of attendance at UW-Madison, break the generational cycle of academic oppression in my family, and continue to pursue my career and personal goals.

The conversations of a 16-year-old girl on a Friday night usually don’t involve robots talking to each other. That was exactly my project. At 16, I interned at New York University and researched the collaborative localization of commercial robotics with Augmented reality. Yes, this is a mouthful but it is also my passion. I worked on this project for the entirety of my summer for my Junior year of High School. Even though I was the youngest person in the lab, I made sure to learn what I can and show off the skills that I have learned. As an engineer, it was very important for me to communicate with my mentor and others in the lab about how we should go about certain problems that arise in our experiment. For example, we learned the best way to design the robots was to 3D-print them. One of my tasks throughout the summer was to design and 3D-print the chassis of our mini-robots which communicated to the main computer. I learned how to use Auto-CAD software quickly so that I can implement it throughout the project. I then assembled the delicate pieces to the best of my ability with various tools. Not to mention, I helped create unique fiducial markers (similar to QR codes) to help each of the four robots “recognize” each other to complete a task. The ultimate goal of this project was to have the robots communicate with each other to efficiently perform a task. Specifically, if there were 4 robots all in a square from each other and the main computer tasked the 4 robots to bring the soda can closest to them to the trash bin. The 4 robots would read each other’s sensors to see if they are closest to the can. If they are then they will all come to an “agreement” that the robot closest to it shall pick up the can and put it in the bin. When I was not working at NYU, I was running and organizing my high school’s first-ever robotics team. Through this experience is when I learned what the morality of being an engineer is like and how to make crucial decisions. I was one of the initial founders of the First Tech Challenge and the U.S. Navy Seaperch team. Unfortunately, my high school refused to fund our team because we were not deemed as essential as the performing arts students. Even though we faced various obstacles, I made sure that my team was unified and all worked towards a common goal. I created fundraisers to help cover the costs of participating in a First Tech Challenge team, made sure every idea was accounted for and experimented with, and helped build the robots as well. This experience exemplified what it was like to be an engineer. Specifically, it made me realize that engineers do not always have all the resources they want but they must be resourceful to make projects work. It also helped me realize how important it is to understand how to collaborate with others to make the most efficient idea. As I was in the team, many times my teammates would have so many ideas that we would lose focus, but as our President and Head engineer, I made sure that we stayed goal-oriented. Now that I am 19-years-old, I see how these experiences shaped me into who I am for my college career. Last semester while I myself had COVID-19, I worked on a project to create makeshift ventilators out of electrical components. I used electronic mapping design software, an Arduino, electrical components, and a breadboard to design these preliminary components that measured the beats per minute and simulated breathing through a photoresistor. This project helped me realize how relevant and essential engineering truly is in the world today. As I was designing the electrical components for this ventilator I realized that maybe others that felt like I did during COVID-19 would benefit from a machine like this. Being an engineer is not just about building it requires patience, sympathy, and an idea of the “bigger picture”. These experiences molded me into who I am today and why I work so hard to be a woman of color studying engineering at my Predominantly white institution. Overall, these were the best experiences of my life.