Natalie (’22) graduated with Distinction from Stanford University with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering and Honors in Education. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Sustainable Materials at MIT.

Writing Sample

I’m a seventh-generation American, descended from enslaved and free Black people. The pre-Civil War to the present-day history of my family has been orally passed down with a long history of activism. My family, especially the women, fought hard for the rights of people of color, including a right to education. This allowed me to be an ambitious visionary from a young age. For example, when I was 5 years old, I began to recognize the amount of air pollution in my state and decided I wanted to be an environmental engineer. Then, in middle school, I discovered my love for teaching. So, I combined my two passions into becoming an engineering professor, aspiring to not only to develop technologies to mitigate Climate Change but also empower diverse generations of students to bring their authentic selves to STEM and use STEM principles to identify and solve problems they care about, whether globally or in their local community.

If nutritious food builds a strong body, then good stories build a strong society. Stories are how we communicate meaning; they come in all forms: children’s books read aloud at bedtime, abstract symbols that convey the force of gravity, the way we process break-ups, pictures, writing, song and dance. These meanings connect us across vast and intricate systems to make the body of society. 

We all tell and consume stories; the art is in crafting them. As a storyteller, I weave between scientific papers of mitigating Climate Change and cultural and academic lessons that shape students into engineers. In engineering, my research creates stories of new green technologies that recycle plastic or eliminate greenhouse gasses from steel production. As an educator, I tell stories to inform and support wayfinding through the challenges of a STEM education. Storytelling is one of the ways I problem-solve and make meaning of and change in a complex world. Exploring one's relationship to stories, in and around us, deepens our ability to gain and give insight. When we discover, listen to, and tell stories, we grow in the authenticity that differentiates us and makes us shine brightly. As such, it is my goal to support students in finding their unique interests and voice to become masters of their own stories, especially during their education.