Not long ago, I was in Starbucks on NASA Road 1 mentoring an amazing young lady – Anna – who was in Clear Lake for an internship at Axiom Space Company. She told me about her interest in working at NASA, I offered to refer her to NASA hiring managers for interviews. She lamented how few women are in STEM and proudly told me she is the first female president of the University of Texas Rocketry club. An older lady came over to our table and looked at me with a tear in her eye and said, “thank you for being here mentoring this young lady.” She then looked at Anna and said “And thank you for being here to be mentored. It is good to see women encouraging women to pursue high impact fields.”
For the last 20 years, I have been training high performers, teams, and organizations to achieve highly technical “impossible” goals. As a trainer and leader in the military, business world, and at NASA, I discovered the secret sauce to mission success is enabling the acquisition of the right training, experience, and network of people. As early as our first breath, humans seek to learn, experience and connect with people. We are born scientists and risk-takers which enables us to learn to walk, discover, and create. It is a biological human desire to explore, build, and shape our world to be the place we want to live. In the last hundred years, an increasing number of women are choosing careers in high impact fields that can strategically improve human life. However, we would be remiss to forget that in the 8,000 years of human history, many women have not had the opportunity of education, career opportunities, social networks, and sometimes basic citizenship rights. This history has the potential of stunting the ability for some women to view themselves as capable of leading our companies, communities, and governments, as well as serving as our innovators in the STEM careers that have the potential of making the largest impact on bettering life.
Thirty years ago, the technology for Blue Chip Scholars did not yet exist and there were likely not enough women in STEM and senior leadership to provide mentorship. Today, we are prototyping the Blue Chip Scholars program. Scholars track the skills and experience they acquire in their schools, local activities, and online using a BCS points system, while concurrently developing networks in their local community as well as globally with Blue Chip Scholars and Mentors. Scholars can list Blue Chip Awards on their resumes for life – similar to the Eagle Scout Award. Blue Chip Scholars are developing grit and championing each other through the journey of becoming our future leaders and innovators while making lifelong friendships.
If you are interested in supporting or joining Blue Chip Scholars, please email BlueChipScholars@gmail.com
Sincerely,Jessica A. Newman, MBA
Combat veteran | NASA scientist | Wife | Mother | Teacher at heart
Blue Chip Scholars, Founder