By Stacey Delvecchio, Additive Manufacturing Product Manager at Caterpillar and former SWE President
Tell your story…you never know who is listening
If you’ve been watching any Sunday morning news shows, you’ve probably seen my face pop up in a Chevron TV commercial promoting ‘thank your mentor’. As a 30-year Caterpillar employee, you might be wondering how I ended up in a Chevron commercial. The answer to that is simple; they read a profile I have on Engineer Girl which sparked a discussion with them. In other words, I told my story, and someone listened.
Chevron was looking to sponsor a campaign to thank our STEM role models. My story includes numerous role models throughout my years as an engineer, but my high school math teacher, Mr. Buddie, is one of my constants. I didn’t think of him as a role model at the time, but Mr. Buddie made me feel like I belonged. In my high school calculus courses, which had a lot more males than females, there was not one class where I didn’t feel like I should be there. Mr. Buddie encouraged me, he called on the males and females equally, and he expected a lot out of all his students. Mr. Buddie created a truly inclusive environment over 35 years ago, before anyone was really talking about inclusion.
In the commercial on YouTube, you get a quick glimpse of Mr. Buddie 36 seconds into the video. While several versions of the Chevron commercial don’t include my ‘Thanks Mr. Buddie’ shout out, there’s at least one that does. And I sure do hope he sees it. Thanks to Chevron for listening. It gave me a special opportunity to thank a very special role model.
See more on ThankYourRoleModel.com.
