After serving in the US Air Force, I decided to get my Master's degree in Interaction Design and pursue a career in the Tech Industry.
The Constant Thread
Technology has always been intriguing to me, so it was a natural fit to transition into design.
Following in her footsteps:
My grandmother was one of the first women to join the Air Force in 1947. She wanted to join the Army to get away from a young suitor who kept trying to marry her. When she signed her name on the dotted line, they told her, "You're joining a new military branch called the Air Force."
What Did I Get Myself Into?
The moment I got to Lackland Air Force Base, I was screamed at and told to get into a shower room (no stalls=no privacy) with 50 other girls who were in the same predicament I was in. Talk about an introduction! We were in very close quarters, everyone with different backgrounds and immediate personality clashes like you wouldn't imagine. We all came from varied walks of life, but we all shared a common goal... to make a better life for ourselves and our families.
Through all of the trials and tribulations we endured together, the very moment we understood that we are all cut from the same cloth, was the very moment that we began to rise to the top and overcome challenges.
Back to the West Coast
The first orders I had received after BMT was to report for duty in Monterey, California. I never forget being "delivered" from SFO to Monterey on a government bus with other Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, thinking "This is AWESOME!!!" The Presidio was beautiful, there were tame deer roaming the slopes of Soldier's Field, and my room had a peek-a-boo ocean view. But over the next 47 weeks, I would be academically challenged beyond anything else I had gone through.
The Defense Language Institute is one of the world’s foremost language schools that can make you fluent quickly, whether you’re learning Arabic, Farsi, Pashto or Mandarin Chinese.
One day of studies there is equivalent to two weeks worth of material at a civilian college.
After 47 weeks, I graduated from the Persian Farsi school and in another 16 weeks, I graduated from the Afghan Dari program.
Transitioning Back to Civilian Life
Throughout the rest of my term, I fell in love with technology and it's capabilities while working in the Intelligence Community. Serving as a Liaison and Linguistic Team Lead at a Joint Duty Station with the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, I had opportunities to work with federal designers and engineers to improve intelligence products.
At that moment, I knew the exact path I wanted to pursue as I moved back to the west coast once again to attend a graduate program.
Life As a Grad Student
San Francisco. Oh, how I love San Francisco. It is a city so unique, diverse, and drastically different than the Deep South! And studying at California College of the Arts with so many creative individuals was a real treat that I drew so much inspiration from. It was there that I hailed my first Lyft ride, and drank my first can of sparkling mineral water. I even got a scooter to shorten my commute from the Ferry Building to the college.
Design Leadership Fit Like a Glove
One of the reasons I chose to study at California College of the Arts was their concentration on Design Leadership. Studying among IDEO vets like Kristian Simsarian and Haakon Faste, I was able to learn really effective ways to ideate and collaborate, while honing my prior leadership skills to fit in the context of design.
By focusing on empathy and a holistic sense of how to solve problems through design-thinking, I learned so much about what good design really means.
Design leadership is considering all aspects of the system (including the unintended consequences), championing for your product's users, polishing the team's output, and balancing the needs of the team, greater organization, and the customers.
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