What does 22-year-old Tiera Guinn have in common with the real women behind “Hidden Figures”: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson? She’s going to be one of the Black women who helped NASA send people to space. Guinn currently works as a Rocket Structural Design and Analysis Engineer for a Space Launch System Boeing that is being built for NASA, which is projected to send people and a payload to Mars in the next couple of years. Working on designing and analyzing parts of the rocket, Guinn shared that the project will create one of the biggest and most powerful rockets in history.
Because Guinn’s mother, an accountant, spotted her mathematical talent early on, Guinn started building her math skills at a young age and was placed in an educational environment that would nurture her passion for math and science. A passion that would lead her to commuting an hour everyday to get to high school and, now, soon graduate from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a 5.0 GPA. If Guinn could offer any advice to young girls that look like her, who want to pursue a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) she would tell them:
“You have to look forward to your dream and you can’t let anybody get in the way of it. No matter how tough it may be, no matter how many tears you might cry, you have to keep pushing. And you have to understand that nothing comes easy. Keeping your eyes on the prize, you can succeed.”
Way to go, Tiera! Thank you for being an inspiration and showing us all that the sky is not the limit.