Alana Smith

I attribute a lot of my success to my mom. She's been through everything through thick and thin, and she always told me she never told me that there was something I couldn't do. She always told me every single thing that I wanted, you can achieve it, every single time. I feel like the world is ending, and I feel like a failure has completely upturned my life. She's always there to tell me, well, you could soak in the despair, or you can get up and you can keep trying because this is not the end, and you can really grab whatever you want for your future. I know, despite everything changing in my life, my mom's always been there, and so I really appreciate her for that, because without her, I feel like I would not be as confident as I am today to achieve my goals.

The best career advice I've ever received came from a women's empowerment workshop I attended through Greater Step Scholars. They told us to not be afraid to take up space and to achieve as much as you want to achieve, and reach your goals, and reach for whatever you want. We were all working on our self-confidence and just knowing that whatever we want, we can go for it. That advice to don't be afraid to take up space and reach your highest goals really stuck with me. I remembered to myself, like, hey, you don't have to make yourself smaller, you don't have to try to get the smaller positions because that's what you feel like you deserve. You can reach your highest goals, you can reach what you want, and you apply for it, you work hard for it, and you know that you can get it.

I would say failure is not the end. We're going to fail a lot of times in whatever we're trying to pursue, and we're going to feel like it's not meant for us, or maybe we're not smart enough, or maybe we were never meant for this. But I say if you fail, just keep trying. If you want to switch whatever industry you're going in, or whatever you are interested in, it's okay, you can do that. You know, just because you failed doesn't mean you're less worthy, or you're not as smart, or you're not as competent. You can get whatever you want. You can achieve whatever you want to achieve.

From my perspective, there are a few challenges right now. Networking is hard to find in my direct community - there aren't a lot of people in the electrical engineering field nearby. Another challenge is the diversity factor. There's not a lot of African American women in the engineering field, and I'm trying to reach out to those women to see how did you make it, what connections did you look for, what opportunities were you able to achieve and get. The advantage that I have is that I'm starting early. I know what I want to do, and I have an idea, even if I don't know exactly what I want to do. Right now I'm looking for those opportunities, I'm reaching out to people, I'm connecting to people, so that I can gain those opportunities, so that I can look for internships and shadow work and all of that. So just starting early, that's an advantage that anybody can have.

For me, the most important values are compassion, responsibility, and intelligence. I also believe customer service is more than just a soft skill - it's about how you treat people, how you treat people when the cameras are off, when you're not at work, how you treat people in your day-to-day life, how you treat your family. Just being that person that someone can turn to if there's something wrong, someone can turn to if they have questions. Just being compassionate and responsible, as in you're given tasks, you're given responsibilities, and you fulfill those to the best of your ability.