Kaya Thomas: A Newfound Path Inspired by Past Ambitions
In this guest column, my daughter Kaya, who’s now in graduate school, looks back to an aspiration that she developed in high school, which now, a decade later, she’s returning to. Her leadership journey holds many lessons, from visionary self-determination, the disappointments and pivots along the way, being okay with uncertainty, to, ultimately, staying true to oneself.
When I share my journey of how I started my career in software, I usually begin in my first year at Dartmouth College, when I took my first computer science course. Rarely have I had the opportunity to share what my goals were as a high school student before matriculating into college. Few know that my journey into computer science was actually a pivot from my initial plan to study environmental engineering. Now, almost a decade later, I've come full circle pursuing my Master's in Civil and Environmental Engineering in a dual degree MBA program at MIT called Leaders for Global Operations. As I'm transitioning into my next career journey, I've been reflecting a lot on my first pivot and how this past decade will inform how I move forward.
Kaya Thomas Wilson
My interest in environmentalism began 13 years ago when I watched an episode of Jamie Oliver’s show, Food Revolution. For a group of elementary school kids, he demonstrated how chicken nuggets were made. I was shocked and disgusted by what I saw, so I went to my parents and declared—with all the fervor of a 14 year old girl—that I was a vegetarian from that moment forward, even if it meant cooking my own meals.
I devoured everything I could read about vegetarianism, which led to me learning about factory farming, food systems, food deserts (now food apartheid), and environmental justice. I was inspired by ecofeminism and learning about women environmental activists around the world, such as Dr. Vandana Shiva and those closer to home like Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx. For my 16th birthday, I asked all my friends and family to donate to charity: water instead of giving me presents. I helped co-lead the charity: water club at my high school and spoke on a podium for Green Day at an event led by the mayor of New Rochelle. Also, I took environmental science classes and on my college applications declared that I would become an Environmental Engineering major. I had no idea what a career looked like centered around environmentalism, but I felt that once I got to college, I would figure it out.
A few weeks into my first college term, I had a meeting with my academic advisor, a professor in the Environmental Engineering department. It did not go well. Rather than inspiring confidence in my aspiration to be an engineer and helping me map out an academic journey to fit my interests, he berated me, saying that I selected the wrong classes for my first term and that if I didn't get stricter with my course selection, I'd never be able to finish the engineering degree in time. My own interests in food systems and urban environmentalism didn't fit into the department's focus on pollution, geological measurement technologies, and alternative energies. If my advisor had cared enough, maybe he could have recommended that I check out the Environmental Studies department, which, in hindsight, probably would have been a better fit for me.
I remember leaving that meeting feeling lost. I felt an urgent need to do something different, to change my major and to stay as far away from Environmental Engineering as possible. That may sound rash, but remember: I was an 18 year old teenager. After my first term was over, I spent my winter break back home researching what I could do next. I wanted to stay in a STEM field. I always loved science and math growing up; I enjoyed problem solving and learning about technology and invention. That's when I stumbled upon a TED talk that propelled me into the world of software engineering. I was already discouraged about environmental engineering and didn't see a career path in the areas I was interested in, so when I heard about the urgent need for computer science majors, it seemed like a pretty good idea to explore.
Nearly ten years later, I'm grateful I didn't give up on STEM completely. I created an app that has helped thousands of people find diverse books for young people. I built a career employed at startups such as Slack and Calm, where I did work I was proud of. I've been able to write for numerous publications, sharing my insights on the industry, and to speak at conferences all over the world. I'm proud of all I've achieved so far and so grateful for all the people who helped me along the way.
When the pandemic began, it was the one of the first occasions in a very long time that I had the opportunity to slow down. I was blazing through my career at hyperspeed without taking much time to think about what I really wanted. I began to ponder deeply about what contributions I wanted to make in a world that I felt was falling apart. Although I love programming and was very good at what I was doing, was that all that could I do? I wanted to be more than a software engineer and to fully utilize all the talents and skills I knew I had. So I applied to grad school. And did something that would have scared the 18-year old me who walked out of that advisor's meeting; I selected Civil and Environmental Engineering as my engineering discipline in a dual degree MBA program.
When I tell folks I'm in a dual degree program, many assume that my engineering discipline is Electric Engineering & Computer Science, given my past decade focused on software engineering. Deciding to go to graduate school was an opportunity for me to reclaim what I gave up during my first year in college. The environmentalism, now more commonly known as the sustainability movement, has grown exponentially in the last decade. As the effects of climate change and declining planetary health have become ever more clear, the efforts to curb our damage to the environment have increased, although not nearly enough. When I think about the contributions I hope to make in the next stage of my career journey, I endeavor to secure a future for myself and all the generations coming after me. Exactly what that looks like for me is still TBD, but in the meantime I am excited to continue my graduate school journey, learning about approaches and methodologies to tackle incredibly difficult problems like our food system and supply chains, from both an engineering and business perspective.
Even if my title doesn't end up saying "engineer," going forward I'll always be one. By definition an engineer is a "professional who invents, designs, analyzes and builds." I will continue to figure out how we can invent, design and build a better future while ensuring that we analyze the ways in which those ideas impact communities and our planet.
By Kaya Thomas Wilson