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Career Pathways Interview: Reecie Stagnolia

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:48:45 -0500

We recently sat down with Reecie Stagnolia, a leader in adult education and former Executive Director of Kentucky Skills U, to talk about his personal career pathway and his insights on adult education. Check out the video below to hear what he had to say:

Celebrating Black History Month: Eight Trailblazers Who Shaped the World of Tech

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:52:49 -0500

February is a big month for education and celebration! In this article, we will be highlighting the stories of African Americans in tech-related careers that have inspired us. Keep reading to learn more!

Lewis Latimer (1848-1928)

Our first Career Pathways Spotlight for Black History Month + Career and Tech Education (CTE) Month is taking us back more than a century to explore the career path of Mr. Lewis Latimer. Mr. Latimer was a U.S. Navy Veteran who taught himself how to draft, which is drawing technical diagrams, after his service in the U.S. Civil War. Latimer drafted by hand with pen, paper, and rulers, but modern drafters use CAD (computer-aided design) technology to create very precise drawings of parts or prototypes. Mr. Latimer's persistence and practice led him to work with some of the greatest inventors in history, helping develop carbon filaments for light bulbs which changed the electricity industry forever.

Image alt text: After serving in the United States Navy, Lewis Latimer taught himself the skill of drafting (technical drawing), which led to his collaboration with Hiram Maxim and Thomas Edison at the U.S. Electric Lighting Company, ultimately inventing a method of producing light bulbs with carbon filaments that made them more practical and affordable for the public. Additionally, he drafted the first telephone drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's patent application.

Valerie Thomas (b.1943)

Our next Career Pathways Spotlight is on Valerie Thomas, who was discouraged from studying technology as a girl, but she didn't give up! And it's a good thing, too, because her career path took her from entry level data analysis at NASA to leading one of the most influential, longest-running US Space programs in history -- the Landsat program. The Landsat program gives continuous feedback about the Earth from space, including data on agriculture, climate, urbanization, drought, wildfire, biomass, and a whole host of other natural resource changes, and Valerie Thomas helped make it all possible! Later in her career, inspired by a carnival act, she also invented one of the very first 3D technologies: the Illusion Transmitter, which creates 3-dimensional renderings from 2-dimensional images and is still in use today.

Image alt text: Valerie L. Thomas took an interest in technology as a child after checking out a book from the library called "The Boy's First Book on Electronics." After graduating with high marks in math, she began working for NASA as a data analyst, eventually overseeing the Landsat Program and the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment. In 1980, she designed the first 3D technology called the Illusion Transmitter which NASA still uses to this day.

Frederick McKinley Jones (1893-1961)

For our third Career Pathways Spotlight, we step back a little farther in history again to the World Wars, where we find Mr. Frederick McKinley Jones, who before joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an electrician, was an auto mechanic and amateur race-car driver and builder! In France in World War I, it was said that Jones attached skis to his vehicle as a makeshift snowmobile to help transport medics and doctors during blizzards, but his biggest influence was not in getting the trucks out of the ice, but in getting the ice INTO the trucks!

After his military service, he returned home and dabbled in the cinema industry, inventing parts for film reels that made it possible to sync audio and video, paving the way for "talking pictures." During that time he taught himself HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) skills and invented the first portable refrigeration device that could be installed onto trucks and boats. His refrigerated trucks were used during WWII to transport food for troops and blood for transfusions, saving countless lives, and after the war, Jones's refrigerated trucks revolutionized the food and grocery industry. The whole frozen food industry has this mechanic to thank!

Image alt text: Frederick McKinley Jones began his career in tech as an auto mechanic. In World War I, he served in the US Army as an electrician. After that, he began inventing and teaching himself about HVAC systems. During WWII, Jones developed portable refrigeration units so that the US military could transport food and blood to troops with air conditioned trucks and ships, which saved many lives and ultimately resulted in a complete transformation of the grocery and shipping industries.

Patricia Bath (1942-2019)

Our next Career Pathways Spotlight takes us to the health sciences industry with Dr. Patricia Bath: ophthalmologist, inventor, researcher, and humanitarian. Dr. Bath started her career path in medical science as a teenager, when she volunteered for a cancer and nutrition study at Harlem Hospital and discovered a mathematical equation to predict cancer cell growth. After high school, she attended medical school and became the first African American to complete an ophthalmology residency. Back at Harlem Hospital, Dr. Bath collected data on blind patients and was the first to publish research acknowledging that black Americans experienced preventative blindness at a many times higher rate than white Americans.

As a result of her research, Dr. Bath dedicated her life and career to preventing blindness and advocating for eye care in communities who were lacking it, pioneering techniques like telemedicine and "community ophthalmology" so that people in rural or poor urban areas could have access to health education and free clinics. In 1986, she invented the Laserphaco Probe, a device that improved on the use of lasers to remove cataracts, becoming the first African American woman to hold a patent for a medical device. Dr. Bath's invention helped restore sight for patients who had been blind for decades.

Image alt text: Dr. Patricia Bath got her first taste of health science in high school when she volunteered for a cancer study with Harlem Hospital. Later she became the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology and was best known for her invention of the Laserphaco Probe, which improved the safety of cataract surgery, making Dr. Bath the first black woman to ever hold a medical patent in the US. Dr. Bath's device helped restore the sight of people who had been blind for more than 30 years. She dedicated her entire career to preventing and treating blindness.

James E. West (b.1931)

For our next Career Pathways Spotlight, we dive into the world of audio and communications technology with Dr. James E. West. As a boy, Dr. West was fascinated with radios, taking them apart and putting them back together again with his father. As a young adult, he studied science and worked during the summer as an intern with Bell Laboratories in the Acoustics Research Department. After graduation, he was hired full time at Bell Labs where he developed an inexpensive, highly sensitive, compact microphone. Today 90% of all modern microphones are based on his technology.

After retiring from Bell, Dr. West became a professor at Johns Hopkins where he has encouraged young people to seek careers in science, engineering, technology, and math. Over his career, he developed more than 250 patented inventions.

Image alt text: Dr. James West started his career path in electrical engineering by taking apart and putting back together old radios as a teenager. Now he holds more than 250 patents, including the one for his most famous invention: the foil electret microphone. Today, this type of condenser microphone is used in 90% of all audio transmitting devices, including the mics in phones, computers, and hearing aids! Additionally, Dr. West is a powerful advocate for diversity In STEM education.

Ursula M. Burns (b.1958)

What happens when you cross a passion for mechanics with a talent for business administration? You get a powerhouse of a career pathway, that's what! Ursula M. Burns, chairwoman of VEON and former CEO of Xerox, first learned about business sense and entrepreneurial grit from her single mother, who coordinated an in-home childcare center, laundry service, and house-cleaning business in order to put her daughter into private school.

After going to college for mechanical engineering at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, she took an internship with Xerox and started her climb to the top, working many jobs in the company along the way before becoming the first African American woman to be named CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. Under her leadership, Xerox was transformed from a printer company to a technology services giant. Currently, she serves on several boards (including Uber) and works with different government and private organizations to increase STEM education through legislative advocacy.

Image alt text: As a young woman, Ursula Burns excelled in math, so she went on to study mechanical engineering in college, and to help pay her tuition, she applied for an internship with Xerox. Years later, she worked her way from product development to administrative assistant to Senior Vice President to CEO, becoming the first African American woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She is credited with saving Xerox from bankruptcy by investing in new partnerships and technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud tech.

Mark E. Dean (b.1957)

Next up, electrical engineering and computer science giant: Dr. Mark Dean. Dr. Dean sparked an interest in engineering as a teenager when he and his father built a tractor from scratch! But instead of mechanical engineering, Dean decided to go in the direction of electrical engineering and computer science. After school, he began working for IBM and developed the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus, which is not a bus like the yellow school variety. Imagine the ISA bus as the vehicle for moving data from external devices like monitors, disk drives, and printers to a computer and back again. You've heard of a USB charger? Well, USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and the USB system is the evolution of Dean's and his colleagues' technology.

Later on, Dr. Dean helped develop the color PC monitor, and he ended up holding three of the original nine patents for the first IBM personal computer. Then in 1999, he and his team created the first one gigahertz computer processor chip, which could perform a billion calculations per second. This revolutionized computing. Dr. Dean went on to secure more than 20 patents and become the first African American to be named as an IBM Fellow. He is currently teaching for the University of Tennessee.

Image alt text: Dr. Mark Dean's first adventure into technology was building a tractor from scrap parts with his father. He later went to school for electrical engineering and computer science, landed a job with IBM (before It was cool), and eventually held 3 of the original 9 patents for the first Personal Computer (PC). His work led to the development of external device integration to PCs (e.g. being able to connect to a printer), color PC monitors, and the first gigahertz chip. He's now a professor and IBM Fellow.

Jessica O. Matthews (b.1988)

Our last Career Pathways Spotlight is certainly not the least! As a child, Jessica Matthews loved to tinker with things. By age 19 she was enrolled in an engineering class, where she invented a soccer ball that generates and stores energy while being kicked. A half hour of play would yield three hours of light from an LED lamp. Next she invented PULSE - a jump rope that generates and stores energy. Matthews founded Unchartered Power to explore motion-based renewable energy, landing her a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. From floor panels, speedbumps, and sidewalks, to subway turnstiles, strollers, and shopping carts, Unchartered Power is exploring ways to harvest clean, renewable energy from the moving pieces of our everyday lives.

And Matthews isn't stopping there. In 2016, she founded a non-profit called The Harlem Tech Fund, which aims to support startups and offers STEM, career, and technology training to 10,000+ Harlem residents. On their homepage, under the Vision heading, it reads: The tools of the New Harlem Renaissance will be the laptop, the soldering iron, and the 3D printer. That's what I call Black History in the making!

Image alt text: During her third year of college, Jessica Matthews invented Soccket: a soccer ball that stores energy as it's kicked. Thirty minutes of play with the ball generates enough electricity to power an LED light for three hours so that kids in areas with frequent blackouts would have access to light for reading. Matthews went on to found a company called Uncharted Power which specializes in designing motion-based, off-grid renewable energy with everyday objects like jump ropes and shopping carts.

We hope you enjoyed and were inspired by these career pathways spotlights focused on Black History Month and Career and Tech Education month. If you’d like to download a presentation slide deck of all the stories in this article, enter your email below for your free download.

*Note: All photographs and biographical information in this article were collected online from public domain sources such as Wikipedia and are intended to be used as a free resource for educational purposes only.

How to WIN with a Growth Mindset

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:12:00 -0500

For more than 30 years, people have been talking about “mindset” and what it means for personal development. American psychologist and author Carol Dweck coined the idea of “growth mindset” in the early 2000s, publishing the first book comparing a “growth mindset” to a “fixed mindset” in 2006 titled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Since then, the idea of cultivating a growth mindset has spread, and now, many employers look for signs of growth mindset in potential employees.

How do you know if you have a growth or fixed mindset? Keep reading to find out!

Basics of Mindset

Your mindset is simply a set of beliefs and attitudes that you hold. Some of these beliefs/attitudes may be ones that you were taught when you were a child or picked up from your culture. For example, a commonly held belief is that “old dogs can’t learn new tricks.” Does that sound like growth or fixed mindset to you? If you said “fixed” then you’re already catching on!

Other beliefs/attitudes may be ones that you consciously choose for yourself. An example of a chosen belief in popular culture is: “The only way out is through.” People who choose to believe this tend to face challenges head on rather than try to avoid them. That definitely sounds like a growth mindset, doesn’t it?

The first step in changing your mindset is to understand that you have the power to change your beliefs and attitudes. The second step is to examine your current beliefs and attitudes. Let’s explore how that looks in a few different areas of our professional lives so that you can develop a growth mindset in the workplace.

Intelligence

A fixed mindset believes that intelligence is fixed and limited. Someone with a fixed mindset might believe the old wives’ tale that one is born with the most number of brain cells they will ever have, and they only deplete with age (this is NOT true, by the way). Sometimes they believe that intelligence is completely baked in at the time of birth - you’re either born smart or born stupid. A common fixed mindset phrase about intelligence is: “You can’t fix stupid.”

By contrast, a growth mindset believes that intelligence is always changing. Someone with a growth mindset might say things like, “Anyone can learn,” or, “We all learn at our own pace.” They usually believe that intelligence is built through study and participation. They rarely think of themselves as “not smart enough” for a job or task, but instead choose to think of the brain as a muscle that grows stronger with practice and use.

Challenges

A fixed mindset views challenges as obstacles rather than opportunities. Someone with a fixed mindset may face a challenge and interpret it as a sign to give up. When they experience a challenge, they see it as a brick wall that can’t be climbed, so they don’t make any attempt to overcome it. Instead, they might make excuses for their inaction. For this reason, a fixed mindset will likely prevent someone from advancing in their career and meeting their goals.

On the other hand, a growth mindset believes that challenges are opportunities to improve and expand their skills. Someone with a growth mindset will experience a challenge and rather than becoming discouraged, they will evaluate their skills and abilities and determine what can be improved. They view challenges as hurdles that can be conquered with the proper training. You might hear a person with a growth mindset exclaim, “I love a challenge!”

Failure

A fixed mindset believes that failure indicates personal flaws or limitations. A person with a fixed mindset may stick to activities or tasks they know they are good at to avoid the chance of failing. Similar to their view of challenges, someone with a fixed mindset experiences failure and feels that they are not good at something and should just quit. They may feel that failure in one aspect of their life equates to failure and shortcomings in all aspects of their life.

A growth mindset, however, views failure as a temporary setback. Someone with a growth mindset may become discouraged, but they don’t allow their failures to define them. They believe in the common phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Just like their reaction to challenges, someone with a growth mindset uses failure as a learning opportunity. They learn from their mistakes and use this knowledge when they try again.

Feedback

A fixed mindset typically views feedback as a personal insult with no real purpose other than to make them feel bad. Someone with a fixed mindset dislikes getting feedback on their work or performance because they believe they cannot change, so criticism or suggestions are pointless. Instead of seeing feedback as a valuable source of knowledge and advice, they may feel that the person giving feedback is insulting them or trying to tear them down. Because of their fixed mindset, they will miss opportunities to learn and grow and could alienate themselves from people who can help them.

By contrast, the growth mindset sees feedback as a way to learn from others and gain new knowledge. Someone with a growth mindset understands the concept of constructive criticism: that even feedback that seems negative is helpful because it reveals areas that need improvement. While it’s true that not every piece of feedback will always be helpful, receiving feedback from others is a necessary part of the learning process and will ultimately make you better at whatever you do. A person with a growth mindset will often ask for feedback from other people they work with, asking questions like, “How can I improve in this area?”

Success

The fixed mindset believes that success is like a pie: if someone else takes a large slice, then there is less to share with the rest of the party. With that limiting belief, a person with a fixed mindset is often jealous or discouraged by other people finding success because they think that means fewer opportunities for themselves to succeed in the same industry. They may believe successful people are endowed with a greater amount of “luck” than less successful people. They think or say things like, “I would start a small business if there weren’t so many other people doing it too,” or, “I can’t succeed in this business because the market is already saturated.”

The growth mindset, on the other hand, believes that success is abundant and can be experienced by anyone who consistently provides value to others. With this perspective, a person with a growth mindset is often encouraged and inspired by other people finding success because they embrace the idea: “If someone else can do it, so can I!” They don’t view themselves as being in competition with others, but instead try to learn from others who are a few steps ahead of them in terms of skills or knowledge. Most importantly, they embrace the idea that success is a winding path of progress and setbacks, not a straight shot to the top. It has been said that Thomas Edison created a thousand unsuccessful light bulbs before creating the first successful model. The growth mindset recognizes that “overnight success” often happens after many, many nights of attempting with no success.

Get Your Mind Right!

Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” Many decades and studies later prove he was exactly correct. Mindset changes everything.

Here are some simple tips to change your mindset:

The Power of “Yet” - Many fixed mindset beliefs can be transformed by adding the word “yet.” For example, if you experience failure in a fixed mindset, your automatic response might be to think: “I can’t do this.” By adding “yet” to this phrase you change it immediately from fixed mindset to growth mindset: “I can’t do this yet.” Similarly, you can turn, “I don’t understand this,” into, “I don’t understand this yet.” The small three-letter word “yet” opens up the possibility of improvement and growth in the future.
Stop Absolute Thinking - You’ve probably heard the phrase “never say never,” and that is a helpful first step in stopping absolute thinking. Absolute thinking is when you frame things as never or always, black or white, can or can’t. For example, upon receiving feedback from a supervisor, a fixed mindset with absolute thinking might respond with, “My boss is always critical. I never do things well enough.” If this sounds like you, try taking out the absolute word and adding the word “today.” Then it becomes, “My boss is critical today. I didn’t do things well enough today,” leaving room to learn and grow tomorrow.
Resist the Spiral - Sometimes when we meet a challenge or failure, we are tempted to descend a downward spiral into self-defeat, where we recount all our other failures and make up reasons why we most likely will fail in the future. This is especially true of people with fixed mindsets. The fixed mindset believes that “luck runs out” and can very easily see failure as a sign to accept defeat and stop trying. To switch over to a growth mindset and resist the spiral of defeatism, focus on the quality of your efforts instead of the quality of your results. The easiest way to do this is to ask yourself, “Did I do my best?” Some days your “best” will be better than or not quite as good as other days, but by concentrating on what you can control (your choices) rather than what you can’t control (the outcomes, everything else), you can keep your self-talk in a space of growth.

Check out this infographic for a summary of all we’ve talked about today, and until next time, keep going and keep growing!

Essential Strategies for Creating Effective Career Pathways

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:26:58 -0500

Most of us have career goals—either general ideas about what we’d like to do or a concrete goal we’re trying to reach, but it can be challenging to come up with a plan for how you’ll get there. Before you can get started on your career pathway, you first need to identify the resources and strategies that will help you along the way. Below are three major steps you can take to build your career pathway and start working towards your goals.

Prioritize Career Development: The first step in creating your career pathway is mapping out where you’d like to be in three, five, and ten years. Once you have these goals outlined, begin thinking about the steps you’ll need to take to reach each checkpoint and the job skills you should develop to help you get there. Meet with a career counselor or advisor discuss your options, then use a career exploration tool, like WIN’s myStrategic Compass, to learn more about the careers and industries that interest you. Connect with people in that career field who can offer guidance and advice. Following these steps will help you develop a clear plan for what your career pathway will look like.
Discover Career Pathway Programs: When you’ve identified the career you want to pursue, find out the specific skills and qualifications needed to get hired. If further education is required for your chosen career, contact your local community college or technical school to learn about the programs they offer and the degrees or certifications you could earn by enrolling. You can also contact your local career center to find out what programs are available to help job seekers build their employability skills. Explore these options and seek out online courses that can help you expand your skill set.
Explore Work-based Learning: Internships, apprenticeships, and job-shadowing programs are all great ways to gain hands-on experience in your chosen career. Contact potential employers to find out if they offer any of these opportunities. Nonprofit organizations in your career field may also offer training programs. If you are currently employed and want to advance within your organization, ask your supervisor about professional development opportunities. If you are enrolled in a college or technical school, find out about available internships and other work-based learning experiences. There are many ways to gain practical work experience in your career field that will allow you to develop your skills and identify your future career goals.

Completing these steps can help you create a roadmap for your career and lay out a specific path to follow. It’s important to remember that building your career pathway and reaching your goals doesn’t have to be something you pursue on your own. Engaging with your community for guidance and utilizing the resources available to you will ensure that you not only create a clear and detailed career pathway, but that you have the skills and experience to successfully follow that pathway and achieve your goals.

Save or screenshot the graphics below so that you can start constructing your next career path today!

Defining Digital Literacy

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 14:37:56 -0500

What is digital literacy and why is it so important? Digital literacy is being able to identify the purpose and effective use of technological devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones, and digital processes, such as video calling, creating collaborative documents, and securing one’s digital footprint. In today's technology-driven world, knowledge and mastery of these common digital tools are imperative for gaining employment in nearly every industry.

WIN Learning’s Digital Literacy Basics focuses on the technology skills most often used in the workplace to ensure that all learners have the right foundation to get hired and succeed no matter their occupation. When jobseekers master these skills and develop the ability to not only use these digital tools but adapt to the rapid changes and improvements to technology, they become more effective employees and can offer significant value to prospective employers.

Check out our infographic to learn more about why digital literacy is a critical part of the modern workplace and how WIN’s new online course helps to address the digital skills gap.