The “Her Stories: Adventures in STEM” blog series is a collection of stories about 20 women in science and engineering fields, written by members of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Pre-College Engagement and Support (PCES) Committee.
These inspiring women have experienced a variety of life experiences and career paths, and these stories and accompanying artwork help to capture the vast diversity of our featured scientists and engineers.
We hope this series will show you how exciting engineering and science can be and help you realize that anyone can choose to become a scientist or an engineer.
Story by Hilary Fiorentino
Tabitha Crocker’s first dream was to become an astronaut! Her dream to become an engineer was sparked by a paper she wrote in the 10th grade.
Tabitha grew up in Alabama and was raised in a single-parent household. In her early years of schooling, she excelled in her English classes and loved to write, but she also had a budding interest in math and science.
Her teachers were confident in her English skills but had to discuss if she was ready to take higher-level math courses. Despite this subtle discouragement, Tabitha continued to pursue her interest in math and science.
For Tabitha, engineering was a way to apply her math and science skills and pursue an occupation that would provide her with financial stability. This was important to her given some financial struggles her family had experienced.
The first step to achieving Tabitha’s dream was to go to college and study engineering. She was the first person in her family to go to college, so she did not have a lot of guidance on how to apply to college, what major she should explore, and what to expect in this big life change. She also had to rely on financial aid to pay for her schooling.
Tabitha decided to attend the University of Alabama and study aerospace engineering. Engineering school turned out to be more difficult than she anticipated, and she struggled in many of her classes. Tabitha used her strengths in reading and writing to take English classes, which improved her grades and balanced out her engineering courses.
Then, in a span of just minutes, her whole world came crashing down around her. In April 2011, Alabama experienced a historic tornado event that sent waves of tornadoes ripping across the state. The city of Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, was not spared.
The tornado took everything from Tabitha; it destroyed everything she owned, ruined her grades, and left her with painful memories and a feeling of loss. She was grateful to have survived, but she was once again facing a setback and a twist in her journey.
After this natural disaster, she performed poorly in her end-of-semester finals, had to retake some classes over the summer, and continued to struggle into the fall semester, including failing all of her classes. Tabitha was hanging on by a thread, and she ultimately had to drop out of engineering and change her major to English to stay enrolled at the college.
Although this was a major setback to her goal of becoming an engineer, Tabitha kept pushing forward and was motivated to overcome her obstacles to become a college graduate.
While finishing her degree, Tabitha was still passionate about STEM subjects, so she pursued a minor in astrophysics. She was drawn to learn about the mysteries of dark matter, the formation of stars, and the magnificence of far-away galaxies. It was also in these astrophysics classes that she discovered her love of research.
Tabitha successfully graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts in English. After graduating, Tabitha worked full-time as a technical writer for a software company, but she never stopped dreaming of being an engineer. She was very motivated to prove to the people who doubted her that she could succeed. Engineering had become something much more than a paycheck.
Tabitha re-enrolled in college and eventually graduated with a degree in materials science and engineering. But even though Tabitha was now a research engineer, she never stopped aspiring to become an aerospace engineer.
While she was working full-time, attending seminars, passing welding and corrosion certification tests, and traveling to job sites around the U.S. to help contractors, she was also taking even more engineering classes. Tabitha went back to school at the University of Alabama and earned her master’s degree in aerospace engineering, a degree that she had always felt connected to. She had now completed her lifelong dream!
She was so passionate about this field of engineering that she decided to pursue a Ph.D. as well. Tabitha is currently working towards finishing this fourth degree while working as an aerospace engineer at Lockheed Martin.
Tabitha describes her journey to earning an engineering degree as nonlinear – more like a pretzel than a straight path. Tabitha kept pursuing her goals and never let the challenges she faced define her. Along the way, she realized there were many ways to accomplish a goal, and her dreams could always morph to encompass new passions. With this knowledge, she continues to challenge herself and redefine who she is.
Next, she wants to use her knowledge and Ph.D. to help humans explore deep space (or space beyond the orbit of the Moon). Tabitha encountered many twists, turns, stops, and starts along her journey, and she proved that she could overcome any obstacle, have more than one dream, and do whatever she sets her mind to!
The “Her Stories: Adventures in STEM” series is a collection of stories about 20 women in science and engineering fields, written by members of the SWE Pre-College Engagement and Support (PCES) Committee. Dive into the rest of the series here!
Know a pre-college kid interested in STEM? Join SWENext, the Society’s free program that allows students ages 5 through 18 to join the SWE engineering and technology community.
SWENexters enjoy numerous opportunities throughout the year to learn, network, and connect with peers, role models, and industry professionals. Plus, this diverse, welcoming, pre-college STEM community provides a safe place where kids can feel seen, heard, and validated. SWENext is open to all genders.
