Marianne Strobel talked to Amy Wheelus, vice president of architecture and strategic planning at AT&T, about her journey as a woman in the world of STEM, a field traditionally dominated by men. Amy began her post-high school education at a junior college, a path which she recommended to others to help with preparation for life at a university. “I think that Our community college systems, or junior college systems, are great facilitators and enablers for people to help, you know, whether you’re needing to fill a gap in your skillset, you’re needing to mature a little bit, or you just really don’t know what you want to go do, it gives you some more time to try to figure that out. It gives you time in a smaller environment to help you be more successful,” Amy said. While things may be changing for the better in some measure these days, Amy’s time in the STEM program at Georgia Tech found her immersed in a disproportionately male-leaning classroom. “…most of my classes were two-thirds men and a third women. The ratio at Georgia Tech was eight-to-one, and that’s greatly changed over time and I’m very happy at the progress we’re making in putting more women in and graduating more women in STEM fields, but it was very much a man’s world,” she said. Marianne asked Amy for any advice she could give to other young women currently on their own journeys in STEM education. “I think the number one thing that women especially need to remember is you can do what you put your mind to. Don’t look at a job and think ‘well I don’t know if I can do that.’ Or don’t look at a list of requirements for a job and, because there’s one on there maybe you don’t have the right skillset for, dismiss that as not a possibility,” Amy said. “We’ve heard it, we hear it, there’s research that proves it that women have a tendency to only go after jobs where they feel like they check every box on the page, and men don’t have that same tendency. I think that’s one of the areas where I would advocate that we need to be more like men. I don’t advocate that in a lot of space. I think we need to be women. We need to be women and showcase our uniqueness and our diversity and that will make all of us better. But in this particular area, you gotta be confident. You gotta go after those jobs that maybe stretch jobs. Because what’s the worst that will happen?”