I am not sure if you have watched this video posted by FIRST on YT. Check out the link below -
It’s very nicely done but I feel some type of way when she had a daughter after her career. Do they really have to end it with Paula getting married/having kids? What if she wanted to work all her life in her career path as an engineer? What if she does not want any children?
PS. I am not expressing hate, it’s just something I noticed and wanted to share. Amazing video and editing btw.
There’s nothing there to imply that she gave up her career. I know plenty of people, both men and women, who continue to do great work in technical fields while raising children. One of my aunts had a full career in teaching and educational administration while raising a daughter, and another as a nurse while raising twin daughters. Since late 2000, I have been raising three kids as a single parent from the ages of 2-6 to the ages of 19-22 while working as an acoustic oceanographer. Two of the five supervisors in the acoustics department are women who have raised children to adulthood; one of them has two more in elementary school.
Not an invalid point. I guess I’d give the characters in the video the benefit of the doubt, that the child thing was well contemplated and not deemed an obstacle to a career.
GeeTwo has good personal examples of folks who have done the children+career thing together. From my own life, my mother had a great technical career, but willfully gave it up because she believed being with her children was more important. Not saying this is the path everyone needs to take, but some do take it with joy!
When I explain to others what the true value of FIRST programs is, I always present it as skill-building. Yes, it’s done through STEM. Yes, alumni do commonly pursue STEM careers. But, at its core, FIRST is about working on a team of professionals, and using those associated skills for the betterment of the world. Whether that’s in a STEM career, non-mathy career, or even in raising a family full-time, the skills are still valuable.
I think FIRST was trying to go for the continuity aspect of things. The same way we see Paula’s mother at the beginning of the video, Paula is now the mother of her own child.
I saw this other new FIRST video the other day when it appear in my YouTube subscriptions and I think it’s great.
We need more videos like these, including the one in the original post.
I agree with other posters in that nothing in the video indicates that she gave up her career to have a child. That is a very old, outdated stereotype that you have imposed on the person in the story.
Maybe her husband gave up his career, put it on hold, or changed what he did to be able to stay at home with the children. For a number of years I cut back my work and rearranged my schedule so that I could stay at home with the kids during the day while my wife continued to work in her “technical career”. I know several other men who made similar choices in their desire to do what is right for their family.
+1! All three of my children are pursuing their dreams. 2xSTEM, 1xcommunications (American Sign Language signer). I’m proud of them all, and each will tell you that they had fun and learned valuable life lessons during their years with 3946.
Again, I have a rather close example. In addition to the seven government employees, my branch has one full-time contract employee. He put his career on hold when his son was born. His wife makes even more than he does, so he’s the one who stayed home - and he’s happy that he did. Now that his son is in school, he has returned to the workforce. He is a gifted and driven IT professional - a great system administrator and at least a good programmer (we haven’t put him to the test for me to say any better), and in a few years he has learned more ocean acoustics than I ever could have expected.
OBTW, I never realized just how many counter-traditional life stories were hooked up with mine until this thread (plenty more than I’ve listed here). They all seem so normal to me.
Assuming you are referencing:
“She’ll show her daughter how to follow in her footsteps”
I think FIRST is trying to make a point that their impact lasts for generations. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this.
They are saying FIRST makes innovators and people who want to change the world. Those same people will carry what FIRST has taught them their entire lives and hopefully, if they want children*, they can share it with them.
*Not to say that anyone should feel like they must have children. Just, if someone does have a kid, they will hopefully pass their passion on.
Y’all, this is most likely a troll;
I think it’s best to just ignore this.
FIRST: F***or I***nspiration and ***R***ecognition of ***S***cience and ***T***echnology
This video is just that - if you read more into this, it is on you.
Winner!