Theresa Maldonado, dean of the College of Engineering Dean at the University of Texas-El Paso, serves as a role model for Hispanic students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The recent photo shows Maldonado pictured with engineering students and UTEP President Diana Natalicio. UTEP enrolls a majority of Hispanic students.
The article “Theresa Maldonado – The University of Texas at El Paso | From Optics to Opportunity” was written by Jim Cavan of Vision Magazine. Below are excerpts and quotes.
In 1976, during her freshman year at Georgia’s Macon Junior College, Theresa Maldonado sat down for a meeting with her math professor. She can still picture the classroom, where the window was and how the light hit the floor at her feet. Mostly, though, she remembers the sinking feeling.
“The message was, ‘Women don’t belong in mathematics,’” Maldonado recalls. “I knew that was the prevailing attitude in the ‘70s, but to hear it like that? It was deflating. But I didn’t let it stop me.”
By the following year, Maldonado had so thoroughly busted her class’ grading curve—despite her full course load and 30-hour off-campus job—that this same professor brought her in for another conference. This time, he had another matter to discuss: getting Maldonado into the prestigious Georgia Institute of Technology.
“He finally conceded that, ‘Hmm, maybe she should try engineering,’” Maldonado recounts with a laugh. “Let’s just say the emotions that day were a bit different.”
When Maldonado was awarded the coveted Presidential Young Investigator grant from the National Science Foundation in 1991, she wrote a letter to her professor thanking him for his help years earlier. In his reply, the professor thanked her in turn—mostly for not listening to him.
Now, as the dean of engineering at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)—the first Hispanic woman to hold the title—Maldonado is doing her part to empower the next generation of Latino engineers. Albeit with a slightly more progressive approach. More importantly, the role gave her a unique window into the challenges faced by today’s Hispanic engineering students.
“We’re taking a hard look at the demographic shifts in engineering, and in the country more broadly,” Maldonado explains. “The big question we have to be asking is, ‘How are we preparing students—and that includes Hispanic students—for a 21st century economy?’”
The power of empowerment
While their graduation rates and enrollment have both increased, Hispanics still make up just six percent of the total STEM workforce—even as STEM employment has risen 79 percent since 1990.Moreover, according to a 2012 study conducted by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, although Hispanic students are just as likely as whites to major in STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering, math—they’re significantly less likely to earn a degree or certificate in a STEM field.
“When you’re teaching this huge engineering class of over 100 students, it’s easy to forget you might have first-generation students,” Maldonado says. “Even if it’s just a few hours a week, taking that time to meet with our Hispanic students—to really encourage them in their pursuit of engineering—is so important.”
In addition to pushing UTEP faculty to pursue more mentoring opportunities, Maldonado is engaging the school’s engineering alums to create more internships for Hispanic students. She’s advocated for numerous national organizations, having been a member of both the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES) since the 1990s, both of which feature formidable student chapters.
“The Hispanic demographic is exploding,” Maldonado says. “STEM is exploding. We have to figure out how to blend those trends.”
Encouraged by her parents, Maldonado developed a knack for math and science—despite the occasional teacher trying to dissuade her. After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1982, Maldonado accepted a position at the famed AT&T Bell Laboratories, where she helped develop optical fiber-based technologies for the telecommunications industry. But it was in optics Maldonado found her true calling, beginning with a PhD from Georgia Tech in 1990, with which she launched her academic career.
“To know you were theorizing on things that could yield real, beneficial knowledge and inventions: that was really empowering,” says Maldonado, who explored how certain chemicals and materials, assembled in unique ways in the lab, react to light.
“We’ve made a lot of progress, both in terms of women in engineering and Hispanics in engineering, and it’s important we not lose sight of that,” Maldonado says. “But there’s still so much work to be done. I’m beyond excited to help this university play its part.”
This story was originally published here: https://www.thevision-mag.com/case-studies/theresa-maldonado-university-of-texas-at-el-paso/
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