Systems Engineer Life: I See the Whole Picture

What does it really mean to “see the whole picture” in STEM?

In this episode, Kara Branch sits down with Krystal Porter, Systems Engineer and technology leader, to break down what systems engineering actually looks like in the real world. From solving complex problems to connecting technology, strategy, and people, Krystal shares how systems engineers help organizations think bigger and operate smarter.

This conversation gives listeners a real “day in the life” look into systems engineering, including the technical and leadership skills required to succeed, how AI and emerging technologies are changing the workforce, and why critical thinking is essential in today’s STEM careers.

Krystal also shares her personal journey, lessons learned navigating technology spaces, and the importance of representation and visibility for women—especially Black women—in engineering and leadership roles.

If you’ve ever wondered how large systems, technologies, and teams all work together, this episode is for you.

🎧 Tune in for a powerful conversation about systems thinking, leadership, innovation, and seeing beyond just one piece of the puzzle.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome back to Black Girls New Engineer Podcast. I'm Cara Branch, founder and CEO of Black Girls New Engineer and Chemical Engineer. And today we're getting into a side of STEM that a lot of people don't fully understand, but is everywhere. This is a part of our Day in a Life series. And today we're talking about system engineering. The people who don't just build one thing, they connect everything. I'm joined by Crystal Porter, system engineer, technology leader, and someone who understands how technology, strategy, and people all come together to solve real world problems. This conversation is about more than just engineering, it's about leadership, innovation, critical thinking, and learning how to see the full picture. Let's get into it. So welcome, Crystal. I want to say back to the podcast because we've had great conversations in the past. But you are, oh my God. Outside of an innovator, you're most definitely an innovator. You are someone who is thriving in your career. You are a go-getter for sure. You are continuously elevating, right? With all your degrees, your collecting, we'll get into that and all the great things you just do outside of work and to in the community. You are just an amazing staple for us to have in our community. So I want to say welcome back. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Thank you for having me. Um, thank you. I love coming back. You know me. I love you. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

So Crystal and I have known each other for a very long time. Uh we met many, many years ago from working together. We have connected mostly because we wanted to connect. There wasn't that many of us, and so we found our way to make our own community. So it's always great catching up and talking about where you are now to inspire our listeners today. So I want to I want to have you reintroduce yourself that you have such an amazing background to our new listeners and also our past listeners who have heard our past episodes to let them know who you are and things you've done and where you are now before we get into what you do on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Great. Again, thanks for having me. And hello, everyone out there. I am so excited to give you an update on where I'm in today. So, as Cara said, I'm a systems engineer and I'm also a solutions architect working in the defense sector. And then in that sector, in this area, I focus on designing, integrating complex systems, and support mission critical operations. And because I'm a lifelong learner, I am also a doctoral researcher studying AI and healthcare systems at the University of Virginia. And at my core, so I specialize in connecting strategy, technology, and people to solve complex real-world problems.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, so all those things. So Crystal did not say, which I always like to put in her own, it's her military background, it's kind of where it started. So she has stuck with defense, have done a lot of great work in defense, but I kind of want the people to know like where that started for you.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yes. So how I got really into this space, I am a non-traditional engineer. So I did not start the path as a like someone that got their bachelor's in uh engineering discipline. I actually got my bachelor's in finance. And I also commissioned into the army as a second lieutenant from ROTC. And then from there, I went into areas of the military to do different things that that would equate with like engineering. So, like uh signal communications, a lot of things dealing with networks and systems. And then that propelled me into my civilian career, which was more focused on a lot of things in engineering from software, network administrator, from being site system engineering or system engineering, like all these different areas. I was just going into, like, oh, okay, all right, I'll do that. I like that. And that landed me to today where I'm at, where I was like, oh, maybe I should be a systems engineer, never knew about it, didn't follow the traditional path, participated in other organizations like in KOSI International System of Engineers, International Council, I'm sorry. And then there meeting other folks and even learning more, where system engineering is almost in every field that you can go into. And so, for one, for me, because I like learning, I was like, oh, system engineering is for me. Because then I can I can go into any sector and do system engineering, basically.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

No, I love that. So this is like a conversation we've been having a lot in my home because my my husband's more like your route, you know, the veteran went in and now he's heavy into tech, he's a full stack developer now. And so our daughter's been asking us as they're getting older to tell us the difference between engineering and military. They really want to know and have those conversations. So I want to say to my listeners, you can do both. Uh, military. Well, Delphia is a great route because they pay for your schooling.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

They do. And you get good skills from the military too. Like good leadership skills, you get good problem solving skills that will, if you're going into system engineering or any other career, that that helps. Good collaboration, good learning how to manage assets and things of that nature. And you're exposed to different locations, you're exposed to different environments. So, yeah, definitely. I I will plug the military for sure. It is great. You can get in, do what you need to do. You can be non-traditional in essence, like me. I did not do past 10 years. Some people do the 20 to retire. I did my time along the way. I became a cleared, a cleared employee, having a security clearance, and also in the military and career, too, as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

No, I love all those things. So for my girls who are in ROTC in high school, I had many friends who went to college with me because we had an ROTC program on campus. Like you can do both. You can and learn great leadership skills. So I love that. I love that about you.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

I did it too in high school. So I did RO J R O T T and I did ROTC. I was actually ROTC paid for school while I was in school. So they have scholarships, but they also have non-contracted cadet type scholarships too. And you have a commitment, as that's with anything. If you go on a scholarship and you're playing a sports or you're going to academic scholarship, those are all commitments, right? So my commitment was when I got out that I will give a certain amount of time to the military and be an officer and do all these great things that led up to today. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yeah. And it's nothing wrong with that. So it's it's really been great having the conversations that I've been having with so many amazing black women and hearing our stories because we have talked about more of the traditional route, but also the non-traditional route that still have got you there to your STEM career. And I love for our listeners who are many of them are at many different stages of their careers to hear your stages too. So let's talk about what a system engineer is. So, like when you're talking about like cloud architect and all those things, like I that's the world I've been living in for sure these past few weeks, because we've been doing a lot of behind-the-scene development. So let's talk about what a system engineer is.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

So I get asked this a lot, especially folks that are not aware of the space in the area. They don't work in defense contracting, right? Or they don't, they're not exposed to it, you know. A real point, real quick the astronaut that went to space, he actually had his master's in system engineering. Look at that. So back on track, system engineering is about making all the pieces of a complex system work together. So instead of focusing on one part, I look at the entire system like from above or whatever. I'm looking at the entire system. And the entire system is made of the technology, the people, and the processes that interact. So, and I look at it all to make sure it's delivering what it's supposed to be. So, a good example of that is that like a person who designs how a smart home works, not the smart home device, but how the design for the smart home works. So, not just the lights or the security or connecting to the audio, we're ensuring that everything connects and functions seamlessly through that smart home.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

So, I love all of that. So that is most definitely, oh my gosh, I've had so many great conversations. So, this is kind of like tying it all in together. We talked about the people aspect, we talk about the technology and looking at everything to see how they work together. Because a lot of times that stuff is missed. Sometimes people only focus on one part, and a lot of times the people part is left out. So it's good to hear that there are, you know, engineering focuses that make sure everything comes together and work properly so that those steps are not missed. And it's great to see that you are the representation for us within that space. So let's let's kind of go back a little bit. Like when you were a little girl, was this something you dreamed of being? Or tell us a little bit about like your exposure pathway so people can understand how you got here.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

I like this question because when I was a little girl, I never knew system engineering existed. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be an architect. I wanted to be an architect or a nurse. And somewhere along the lines, I I don't know what happened. I actually switched over business and things of that and wanted to speak multiple languages. But being exposure, not in a sense, I did not get exposure until very later on after graduating with my bachelor's. So when I started working both simultaneously, my career in the military and working in corporate America. That's how like I was exposed. I wish I was exposed sooner, like talking to your audience now, that would have been great because I know like this would have fit for me.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, so exposure is key, and no worry, because that's why this podcast is here. Many of us didn't have it, and we're trying to be the change for the future that's coming behind us. And so that is that's a critical piece. So I do want to talk about like for children who may be doing these types of things in their day-to-day, but don't know it's kind of a part of system engineering. Like, what are some of the the things that you can say a youth may love to do, right, that can tie into this career? I know that's such a tricky question.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

So I think, you know, if you look at it as skills, right? You know, if you like to communicate, if you like translating things that seem difficult for folks, but it's easy for you, you can translate something of a complex idea for a different audience. If you're great at explaining and teaching someone how to use something, how to get people from different backgrounds on the same page, if you're able to say, hey, I have could talk to the doctor, I can talk to the nurse, I could talk to the business person and understand all of them together, and then help them understand each other, then this is a space for you. And this is applicable in other industries as well. If you're able to do that strategic thinking, connecting the technical work to whatever the outcome would be. If you're let's say a technical foundation too, let's say if you're if you're understanding the systems, right? A lot of a lot of the audience may understand a lot with like something simple, even as a TikTok, you know, a video or a reel, right? And how to enhance that algorithm. You understand that, you understand that data, you understand the architecture of it, like all of this, if it's it scales up, you know, to to bigger. And then problem framing. So you could define the problem before solving it. If you're that person in your friend group or organization that you could understand and and frame the problem before solving it, this will this is for you. I will also say, out of all of those, communication is honestly just as critical as the technical skill in this field. You have to be able to communicate with all other parties so that you create this whole picture for folks. You're seeing how this all works. Because there are some people that are very silo and they're focused on the design of the phone. There are some people that are focused on the app for the phone. Well, for me, I'm focused on okay, how's the usability? How is the phone be in charge? How are we traveling with this? How big is it? You know, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah, I love like so. When you're talking about this, it reminds me of like my brain a little bit. So, like, if you're one of those people who is like you're given something and you have all those questions, right, about every part of it, and and you're not satisfied until you understand everything about it. I would say this role is for you. Because some people like to consider one thing, but some people want to know everything about something to fully understand it and to make sure it works properly. So that's your mind. This is something that you want to consider as a role, is it because it's such an important role for engineers to do. Yeah. So also, okay, on that note, let's talk a lot about because we talked about technology and we know the most emerging ones right now is AI for sure. How are you using like AI in your work today?

SPEAKER_02 14:50

So for me personally, using AI in my work today to automate certain tasks. Maybe there is an email, maybe there is a document that I just want cleaned up and like it's too tedious, the template and all that, and I'm just specifying that. But it also helps and assists in accelerating decision making and doing more predictive data-driven systems, right? So, like not only are not instead of reacting to a problem now, we can anticipate it. So I'm already anticipating some problems, but AI is assisting in that. AI is my, I'm the human in the loop, and AI is my assistant, right? And I'm focused with this on how AI can improve the system efficiency and outcomes. So, like, check something that maybe like I look, I didn't check, you know. And particularly, this is useful when you're in certain organizations or companies and large-scale operations. So you want it to be as an aid, not relying on it, not that it's doing your thinking, but as an aid to help accelerate a decision. Because again, system engineering doesn't sound like it's math, but it is math. I'll tell you that, because in AI, there's probability, there's optimization. So you're using those tools or having those tools assist you in that space.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

And I love that you you explained it this way, because you're really defining like humans, right? Driving AI instead of the other way around. A lot of times we're just a user, we talk about this a lot, the user of a tool. But like you're seeing it from a space of driving the tool from the human, which is so important because it's still a growing technology, and and you want to make sure it's spitting out the information that you need correctly. Um, and and have the understanding about it. I have uh it's it's uh, I want to say graduation season. I've been seeing a lot of stuff on the web. And one that kind of like stuck with me on today is that a school used it and it skipped a lot of people um during the calling of their graduation name. And so, like it's it makes errors, right? It's still a technology that's that's being trained, a lot of the models. And so I want the youth to understand I I yelled this from the mountaintop, it's a resource to you, yes, and how to use it effectively. Yes, a lot of people are using it with their emails, but we still have to have that human part of um, it's it's it's convenient, and that's what the technology is there for for that convenience, and and for sure is a great resource and tool, but you have to check it. Um, my first reaction was like, could you imagine you're a woman of many degrees? I'm a woman of many degrees sitting there on your degree day, and your presentation is supposed to highlight your name, and you didn't hand it in your card for them to call you for graduation, and it didn't do that. Like, you would be so upset because you didn't worked all these years. Yes, happened, and then the school had to apologize to the students to let them know that it could not walk a second time. Oh no, yeah, so that's a big devastation. So I wanted to use that example so that our listeners can understand the importance of AI literacy and how to use it. Oh, absolutely effective.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Absolutely, you know, like in with AI, I think, and I tell this a lot to like my colleagues, and I tell this to even family members, right? Like, hey, these are models behind this, and the models are trained on the information that is fed into it, and the models grow, but you have to be the human that validate and verify in system engineering. You are doing a lot of verification and validation of requirements. So if I put into AI to create this whatever image for me or PowerPoint, I've got to go back in and check that it did that or I didn't specify the parameters correctly and stuff. I think it's bad if you rely solely on AI to do the work for you, like because again, it is pretty predictive, it's doing assistance, it's doing data-driven. That data-driven is based on the information that so if you are not checking the work, like you have to show your work when you're doing math, right? So, like, make it show its work. You go back and you validate and check that.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yes. And I like to keep having this conversation because I want people to know that. And I'm happy that you mentioned your family too. Like you're having these conversations. That brings a lot to me. It's like, is my family even using this tool? So I'm gonna check too to make sure they're understanding this tool is available and how they should be using it effectively as well. But just for our community as a whole, us to stop copying and pasting, right? Correct, and reading, yes, to make sure we're checking to make sure this technology is performing the way we need it to perform.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Retain your critical thinking skills. Oh yes, oh yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

I I I use mine so often, but I want people to, yes, to understand the retain it. That's what sets us apart. That's what also makes sure that we're thriving in our roles and in life periods. So I agree with that 100%. So let's talk a little bit about like challenges that you have, like whether they're in your career, on your way to becoming a system engineer. Because I think it's important to talk about like some of the challenges that we face and also on the back end of that, kind of talk about how you overcame those challenges.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Oh, yeah. We can go like for days on this, but kind of keep it, you know, a little compact. So different challenges was again, right? So I didn't do the traditional path of engineer. So going through a non-traditional path, I did have to catch up eventually. I had to get my skills better, some skills in math, some skills in organization, a lot of things I had to speed up to get comfortable learning how to communicate clearly, to get comfortable with things that I didn't know of or asking, you know, that question. I had to get comfortable with, like, I go in the room and I'm the only person that looked like me, and then I'm the only female in the room. So having to be self aware but also confident, like I'm in this room, I know this stuff, or I am I am bringing forth the questions because I don't understand what you're presenting up there or stuff like that. And so getting Getting over those challenges took exposure. Getting over those challenges took really raising my hand, and I'm in a sea of a room where nobody looks like me, right? So now I'm gonna have all this focus on me. And I also had supportive family, supportive networks, being belonging to organizations and things like that. Some things were a rough start because fighting the either an image or fighting what was what as far as knowledge. And sometimes it took more than just going, I'm doing my work and demonstrating I'm doing my work. Like, no, I had to actually speak on like, no, this is what I contribute, this is what I said, this is what I do. Yeah. And I say, you know, like, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. And confidence comes from experience, and confidence comes from stepping up. The challenges are there, and with those challenges, they are going to position you well as you keep going into other challenges. So they're gonna stack, but you're gonna have this baseline because you initiated, you started, you raised your hand, you asked the question, yeah, you showed up.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah, yeah. And that's you know, a story we hear quite often. I love that you said be fearless, because we do tend to have to prove ourselves way more than some of our counterparts, unfortunately, in these spaces. And also the learning curve, especially like even as someone who has the engineering degree, you still have a lot to learn. Like we learn what we're given in school, we have that knowledge. But I always tell college students when you go into companies, they they love that you have your degree that you learned, but they really want to mold you into the person they want you to be for their company. And that's a whole nother learning curve. Um, especially sometimes when you're the only woman. I I've shared that same sentiment of being the only black woman in all of my roles for so long. That's how we connect that. We were like, we're gonna build our own community. Yeah. And it's um, it can feel lonely a lot of times in those spaces. And sometimes it could, you know, especially on day one and many, it could be years, you have a hard time making that transition in your role of building that confidence up to be the rock star. But I love that you said be fearless. I think as long as people learn that very early, then it will help you with that transition a lot better. Um, because once you get that learning curve under your feet, you're gonna build that confidence anyway. You're like, okay, I know this. I'm really clear on what I need to be doing here. And so that confidence will come and you'll feel it. You'll know, okay, I'm I'm shiny and I'm very aware of what I need to do here. You start trusting yourself more. Yeah, trust yourself, but people don't speak up as much for themselves, and it doesn't have to be in a bad way, it's just to kind of justify for your, you know, stand up for yourself a little bit to be fearless.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

It don't happen overnight, yeah. So what does business know? Yeah, it doesn't happen overnight, but like just little increments of something, just try it.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

I if I had to see how long it took me to kind of spread my wings as a butterfly in an industry. Oh my god, I feel like it took me a little about three years to really start finding my voice as far as like, okay, I got this, I got the groove. And for me to understand like my spot in my career. When I was sitting on C-suite, it took me about eight years to figure out my mindset, like, oh man, I belong here. And to start thinking about it from a different perspective, it took a long time. Unfortunately for us, we don't have as many mentors. I didn't have any on my way to this engineering pathway to really kind of give us that guidance we need. A lot of times we're trying to figure it out ourselves, yeah. Which is which is the part that makes it probably take very, very long. A lot of times we're the first ones in our family to do it.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

So we have to face those obstacles of really trying to create our own playbook for ourselves. So there's a lot of resources that we we locked and helped make us take it a lot longer. But us having this conversation is we hope that it doesn't take the youth behind us or entry-level workers to be able to do it a lot quicker than us for sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Yeah, I love that like there are occasionally folks will reach out to me, you know, on LinkedIn, other areas, work and stuff, be like, hey, I need a mentor. And I'm like, so okay, what are you looking for? And if I don't meet that criteria, then I'm going to try to connect you. I personally took it where whenever folks reach out to me, like you know, like I try to connect them, or if I could be in a seat of a mentor, not for a long period, but a period, and then do some connecting and just establishing that. So, like my social capital, extending that, especially early career, early career professionals, just getting them there and then navigating through the company structure, like explaining, you know, pay, explaining the opportunities that's there, connecting them through other resources and stuff. That's a give back or you know, giving back and assisting in that way. So you don't always have to be the mentor, but you could be extend your social capital to others.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Yeah, I love that you said that because I was gonna get into like the community part of how you're like giving back, right? To support people behind you. And mentoring is one of the top things that college students do seek. Um, but I love how you said, like, come prepared. A lot of times we are busy, but we want to help, right? Yeah, so you have to understand those fine-tuned questions, like what's your ax? But a lot of times people come to you and be like, Hey, can you mentor me? But they don't have that exact axe of what they want you to support them in. Exactly. Sometimes a mentorship can go on like for years, right? If you build that relationship, and sometimes we only have 30 minutes. Yeah, literally give you a session, right? Um, because we are tied into so many things and going through our own things in our in our uh our careers, or we're just seeking a mentor for where we are at this stage of our lives too, to continue to grow. So what help you grow, but do know that we're still growing and that you have to come with your your acts because time is limited, and to be clear and transparent right now. Black women, we're tired.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Listen, that is a conversation weekly being tired.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

We are um, we want to give back, but we're tired. A lot of us may be burnt out, that's a whole other conversation and stuff, but and we have a lot going on in the workplace because so many projects are typically thrown at us, and so we have a lot of projects under our belt. And we want to help, but we need to have a clear thing on what you need help with.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Yes, don't come prepared, come prepared now.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Like, I don't know, what do you think? No, we don't have time to think at this moment. We want to know clearly like what you want to be doing or that specific area that we're in.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

So if you have a real world example in that, so I got an award, it was from Beya, and then one friend encouraged me to reach out to the person I got the award name in, and I did, and I said to her, I would love to meet with you once a quarter or do check-ins with you and just talk and discuss. And I was like, your path was remarkable. I'm not necessarily looking for what I should do with my career, but just like a balance check and things that are going on. And to this day, that was 2021. We still talk, we meet, it's not the frequency of every quarter now, but there are definitely check-ins, and time is a resource, right? Because this is a former CEO, this is someone that sits on multiple corporations' boards, and so like just checking in and going, hey, this is the path doing this, and also there is a significant amount of wisdom and guidance from it saying, Don't forget to breathe. You're doing all that, but that's great. Tell me something good that's going on in your life, tell me something fun, like things like that. So, and again, back to what you said earlier, coming with that ask, right? So, come with that ask. Don't expect that you will get to meet with this person frequently and stuff. Like you have to designate and in your mind or write out a plan of what this person's purpose is. Do you want access to their network? Do you want them to help you through a process or procedure or something? You're making a decision, things like that. Do you are you looking to go into the career path they are on? Because not all mentors have to be in your career path either.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Yeah, no, I love that. That's a perfect example because I'm sure it's one of our listeners, like, okay, well, how do we do that? And like you giving that example is it's amazing. And then you showed it from a perspective of relationship building. A lot of times, some people may lead with like, I need a job, that's great, but you have to mold it to like some steps before that, because that's a big axe, and that's not easy uh for a lot of people to navigate and maneuver by by getting you a job. Like, we can help you look at your resume, we can help you kind of define what makes sense for that, right? But it's not always easy to help people land a job. So having like that relationship building, that relationship building part goes so much farther.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Building that rapport, it essentially matters. Yeah, I advise do not go straight into someone that you do not know inbox and say, Hey, I need a job. That doesn't fare well, right? Because you're asking them to extend their capital to get you or to recommend you for a position, and so they don't know you, and they don't not to say that you're not fully qualified and none of that, but they don't know you. So you if they offer something to you, an extension of their network, understand the risk that comes with that. Again, this is not to say that you are a risk, but I'm just saying understand that person's capital that they may or may not extend to you. So the first ask should I wouldn't recommend that if you're bold, okay, that's great, but don't expect much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Yeah, that's it. Because, like, I can say for my like example for myself, like from I mean so many people, but for college students' perspective, when I always when I have that great relationship with them and I know their work ethic, and I know how hard and how many things they've done in school, and I've watched them grow over the years. And people kind of if people kind of mean be like, hey, do you know someone for this? Nine times out of 10, I'm gonna sit up here and think about those people and be like there and recommend them. And so that's exactly what you're saying. Like, you have to have the rapport, you have to build that up with people. A lot of times, yeah, that it's it doesn't matter if it's an engineering role or I know for me, even working in high school, like recommending someone for a job, you want to make sure they're gonna stay there the course of the time, even an award, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Even even an award, even with just some small thing, like yes, you're thinking of that person in your mind that they are demonstrating they've done this, or you know this, and so you want to put forth the best person that you know your network for it, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

My number one asked is typically like literal recommendations for scholarships, and I love to write them. I'll write them, no problem. But it helps to know every everything about that person's journey. Um, and and it's always rewarding. Yeah, like you said, with an award or even though scholarship wins, I've watched a lot of young women I work with win. It's just like, man, it's rewarding for you, just as it is for them, because you want that for them. So that that relationship building, that report, all that matters. So I'm happy we have that conversation about mentoring, and I'm happy that you are offering support because we do need to be doing that for people that we know, especially our community, they can use that for sure at this time. So I want to talk a little bit about your life learner pathway. I say this because I I'd known you for a long time. So I've watched you continuously like climb the ladder. But I have to talk about this grad school, like not the grad school, but the your PhD program. We had to talk about this because that's hard. And I always love to see people from a technical side, like what why they chose to go and pursue their PhD. That's always important because I get a lot of people ask me, Well, do you think I should pursue this or should I not pursue this? Some people kind of relate PhDs to like more of a professor teaching pathway. So, like I always tell people you have to know how it aligns with yourself before you go and pursue whether it's a degree, whether it's a certification, whether it's just a skill you're adding. You have to know the alignment for yourself. So let's talk about that. Like, what helped you? Because you do a lot. Like, I didn't see that you be busy. And so I wait to know what happened for you to be like, I'm going to get my PhD. Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Oh my God, this is such a funny story. Because so high school, I definitely wrote down somewhere and I have the picture of it that hey, I was going to be XYZ, yada, yada, yada, and that I was gonna have a PhD. I forgot about that. I wrote that out so many years ago and it's manifesting into the future, right? And so it's so funny because I decided to go get my master's, right? And I was like, I'm gonna get this master's in engineering. I'm doing all this stuff in engineering, so let me go ahead and get this master's system engineering, get it out the way, right? And then the chair of the program I was in was like, so yeah, you know, you should consider a doctor. I was like, no way, like me, ha ha, that's so funny. Like, uh I'm so over it because I like a to the audience, I went back to school 20 years later to get my master's, so that was like a wake-up call in a lot of math, a lot of things. Like that was in being in class with like kids that were or adults that were 20 years younger than me. So I'm like, I don't know if this was the right thing for that master's. So my chair said to me, you know, you should go do your PhD. And I was like, I don't know about all that. He was like, I don't see why you have like a lot of these core requirements done that counts toward it. And I started like thinking, like, hmm, what would I do with that? Like, what would be my purpose? Because, like, do I want to put myself through school like that again and like really have some long days and nights? And I'm working full time too, right? Trying to still cater to my civilian career, still cater to all the things I'm involved with, STEM, system engineering, travel, all that stuff, right? And so I said, all right, I figured out my topic. I think this is what I want to go do, and not necessarily for the interest to be a professor or to teach, but my interest from it was what could I do to give back in the space of system engineering and to the communities that I'm affiliated with, that or I represent or that I give into, whether that's time or money, what could I do with what I know in this field and how could I bring more awareness and expand on that? So that's why I decided to do it.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

Yeah, that's a big decision. I have to say, because like PhDs are first, they're amazing, but it's a lot of writing. Yes, a lot of writing. Like I know grad school was a lot of writing, so I don't even want to know.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

This is like there is a weekly week meeting because right now I'm only in research hours, so it really is just writing. So there's weekly meetings with my advisor, there is collaboration efforts with my lab mates. So we work on a paper. Like we went and presented something in a paper in Canada in November, just my lab mate. There are other things like writing perspective pieces, and there's a ton of reading, so I've I've probably read more, especially health journals and being in classes with graduate nursings, so I can gain the perspective and ideas to continue the research because I'm doing the qualitative and quantitative research. And when I tell you, like it's like every week I'm like, oh, I decided to do this.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

It's uh it's a rewarding for sure, like rewarding. I actually hopefully this probably can help you. I don't know if this is the option at your school, but I used to be the one in our engineering department. I had I did a like environmental and like intern kind of role on campus. And that was my job to read all the research for the grad student and prepare a little synopsis every week about what each one was about of each article. I was reading a lot of articles, but I like the paper, so it was all right with me. And I would kind of like summarize it for him every week of so many articles, so he can kind of like fine-tune which ones he wanted to dig in more. Um, so maybe you can get you an undergraduate to help you with that. It's a lot of research. It was a pretty cool job. I probably like I did a lot of cool jobs at college, but that was probably one of my favorites, really working with the the students who were pursuing their their doctorates and helping them a little bit with that. So they'll find you an undergrad. The one is not helpful. Yeah, because you're gonna be reading a lot and writing a lot, and you want to save a lot of that time for writing, especially as you get into your dissertation and all that stuff to come.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

So much writing. I am submitting weekly something written to my academic advisor. So it's not only towards my dissertation path, but also for a scientific journal piece or a magazine or a perspective. It is definitely that. If anything, uh I am definitely learning a lot more on the technical side of writing these pieces for these peer-evaluated uh type or peer-reviewed type uh pieces or organizations.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

No, I love to see it. And and I'm and kudos to we're gonna call this not just your advisor return tour for like, hey, you already did some of the work. Why not keep going? Um, I think that's super important that somebody recognized that and actually told you that because a lot of times that's missing too. Yeah. And I am, you know, I'm gonna be chair for you on your journey for sure. Yeah, wow. I don't know how long that journey is gonna be. You're trying to think about doctorate programs because you always ask me, Are you gonna get your PhD? I'm like, oh, that is for the the the the beastie ones out there. That's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

But like you say, think about it. It is a task. I am I will not front and I will not tell people that it is easy.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

No, but you can do it, like yes, yeah, and you're doing it, so it's amazing to see that you're working full time and you do so many things outside of work that you're able to commit to that level of writing, and it comes with that passion too. Like, this is an opportunity, I feel like, will you be able to grab a subject you love and focus on that and continue to develop around that? So I am looking forward to seeing you graduate and see what you do with all your research.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

Oh, yes, I'm excited in the sense I dropped my earpiece, so sorry.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

Are you fine?

SPEAKER_02 43:42

I'm excited in the P in because I put so many things into national security and intelligence and defense and those different things, and then to go into a space that is not stronger, not area that I'm in having to. To learn and then, you know, system engineering, right? Connect these pieces and dots to basically make some type of recommendation or addendum to a framework and stuff and bring that piece, bring that piece into it, that whole that whole picture to some type of system. And we have AI. And so, how is AI inserted right now into healthcare? So I'm definitely excited.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

Yes, and it's so needed. I've met a lot of amazing people over the few months that are focusing heavy on AI and using it in healthcare. I think most definitely the time is now. So it is most definitely gonna be exciting to see what you come out of your program doing. So one more question before we wrap up, because you mentioned this, and normally I ask people like what advice you would give people that you know the future of STEM. But because you mentioned your project where you wrote stuff down to manifest where you are now. I want to say, can you share like a little short activity of kind of what you did to kind of give our listeners an activity to do where they can write some stuff down to manifest their path forward just like you did? Because it's it's coming to light now.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

So I would say start with this, right? It doesn't matter if it's like on a computer or your phone or a piece of paper in journal, right? And then just write something that you that you that you want to do. You may not see it clearly right now, right? So write it down and say, I'm gonna have my PhD. You can be elaborate. I am going to have my PhD 2027, this month, this day, whatever, and it's gonna be X, Y, and Z. The fact is the matter is that you manifest it, you put pen to paper or pens to keyboard to put this out there. So do that for yourself. It doesn't have to be some accolade, right? It doesn't have to be that you're gonna get this degree. Say you're gonna like you're gonna be you're gonna be something or you're going to do something, right? Because you've activated some things that are physical and spiritual in nature, right? We if I don't know if most people saw the Michael Jackson movie, he manifested quite a bit and wrote out a lot of stuff. I find particularly for me that many years ago I wrote in journals. I like had an electronic journal, I had a regular journal, or I have notes on my computer because maybe I have a little bit of something I'm on the scale because I'm always writing something out. And there are things that like are coming to fruition or have just because I've written out a list or I wrote out something that I wanted to do, and it's not all accomplishment. I wanted to go to France. Okay, I've been to France like maybe two or three times already, right? So, like just those different things, like I'm gonna travel the world, I'm gonna be fluid in the language. Okay, so I speak French, understand a little bit of Spanish. You want to like write your vision out, right? Write it out and hold it, okay? Don't think that it won't happen, it's going to happen. You don't know where on the timeline, but it's going to happen.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

Beautifully said, best advice. I love all the connections you made. It's always a pleasure to talk to you, Crystal. And I really thank you for like being on our podcast today. And I know so many of our listeners is gonna have so much great advice from you. And so I just want to thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Hey, thank you. I love coming back, so thank you for extending the invitation back. I love when we meet out when we're out here doing what we do. So that's really great. I love seeing, you know, I love seeing the different awards and the different growth of the organization that's going on because I I remember when we were colleagues and when you branched out and things like that. So it's really great to see this. So great to see with the students and the parents in the community that benefit from the growth that you're doing. So, and I thank you for having me as a guest here. I really appreciate that. And good luck to everyone. Somebody go be a system engineer, please.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

We're gonna get a lot of somebody because this is definitely a career that people need to go into. And thank you for thanking me. It's my pleasure to do this work, as many people know. So I really appreciate that. So, what I want people to take from this episode is this system engineering is about more than technology, it's about understanding how everything connects. Crystal reminded us that leadership in STEM is not just about technical skills, it's about vision, communication, and being able to think beyond just one piece of the puzzle. And for every girl listening, especially those who are curious, analytic. Oh boy, especially for those for who are curious, analytical, or always asking why. This is a space for you and STEM. Thank you, Crystal, for showing up. Lord, thank you, Crystal, for showing us what it really means to see the whole picture. And thank you for listening to the Black Girls Do Engineer podcast, where we're we build confidence, community, and futures in STEM. I'll see you in the next episode. To learn more about Black Girls New Engineer, visit us on our website at Blackgirlsdoengineer.org or email us directly at info at blackgirlsdoengineer.org.