This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Women in STEM with Emily Hockey.

Women in STEM with Emily Hockey

You will love this interview with our friend, Dr. Emily Hockey, as she tells about becoming an astro-chemist and shares tips with young people on going into the STEM fields!

Dr. Emily Hockey’s story

Emily came into our friendship circle through 7Sister Kym’s twins, Kendall and Carly. As many of you know from previews interview with the girls, they played ice hockey through high school and college. Emily was on their University of Delaware team.

(Check out these interviews with Kendall on How Homeschoolers Find Success in College and Carly discussing Homeschooler’s Tips for College.)

The freshman cohort of the UD women’s hockey team was close. They studied, practiced hockey, and relaxed together. Emily and the twins became good friends.

Kym remembers when the twins visited from college and told her that there was a girl on their hockey team whose last name is “Hockey”! How fun! Soon, Emily had simply become one of Kym’s family, and through Kym, to us 7Sisters!

The girls have all graduated now and are busy with their careers but all are still good friends. In fact, in a few weeks, Emily will be in Kendall’s wedding.

Today, Dr. Emily Hockey holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry. (Her doctoral research was in laboratory Astro Chemistry.)

Emily’s childhood

Emily grew up in around the Washington DC area. She loved visiting the Smithsonian museums, especially the Air and Space Museum. She loved the rocket ships and the pictures of earth from space.

Her father worked for the EPA, so Emily was surrounded by the sciences. By the time she got to high school, Emily knew that she was going go into some sort of science as her career.

During her junior year of high school, I took Honors Chemistry and I had the most wonderful teacher ever. She was not everybody’s cup of tea, but she was Emily’s cup of tea. She was one of those teachers who would comment if Emily got a 98 on the test, “You can do better”. In Emily’s case, this was not discouraging. In fact, she thought, “Somebody sees something that I had never saw… that I can do this.”

During her senior year of high school, Emily took AP Chemistry. This teacher also inspired her that, “You can do this!”

This phrase has become a guiding thought for her:

You can do this!

Emily’s tips for homeschooler interested in STEM for college

Emily’s father encouraged her to take lots of sciences during her homeschool high school years. This paid off! Emily advises young women who might be interested in STEM:

• Make sure there are lots science credits on the transcript (core sciences and electives, if possible)
• Study the sciences at higher levels of rigor, such as Honors or AP
• Take all of your exams such as the SATs and/or ACTs
• Spend time volunteering
• Don’t forget to include extracurriculars

Be resilient and look for good to happen

When Emily applied to college, she did not get into her top school. She felt heartbroken. However, she was accepted into University of Delaware. At UD, she received a scholarship because she was a good student, volunteered, did extracurriculars, and had played hockey in high school.

When Emily was not accepted at her preferred college, her parents helped her remember to believe in herself and bounce back from the disappointment. They helped her to stay open to the idea that good things will happen for her at University of Delaware, where she was accepted. This was true! At UD, Emily could continue playing hockey, met Kendall and Carlie and LOTS of new friends, and had a wonderful education.

Interestingly, when Emily graduated and was applying to graduate programs, she was accepted to University of Maryland (which had been her preferred college for undergrad.) So, she got to attend her dream school after all.

Emily learned an important fact about timing through this!

In the end, that just wasn’t the time that I was gonna go to that school.

Do not believe all the pressure-givers

Emily, just like lots of teens these days, are often pressured to believe that they need to go to the top school or else life is a total disaster and nothing good will ever happen again!

Fortunately, Emily has the kind of parents that said, “That just wasn’t your school.”

Then, they helped her trust that when she went to UD something good would happen… and it did.

Good advisors at University of Delaware

One of the important aspects to look for in a college (especially for young women thinking about STEM majors) is good advisors. Emily had great advisors in her program. In fact, Emily ended up with the same advisor that her father had had when he was there, years ago! (When he first saw Emily, he laughed and said, “A hockey! I need to retire. There are too many of you!).

Good advisors spend time with their students. Emily’s advisor got to know her and could give her advice like, “I really think you should go this route.” Or he would ask, “What do you want to do later in life? Maybe we should go with this route.”

Keep a meaningful lifestyle during college

Emily found that she was healthiest when she kept a balance of activities and friends all through college. This included:

• Playing hockey (which gave her a team of twenty good friends, including the twins)
• Continuing to volunteer
• A few other extracurriculars
• Making friends with other students in her major

These things helped encourage her when classes get really hard and she did not have her parents right there for encouragement.

Of course, Emily reminds college students not to spread themselves too thin, but being busy is a good thing.

Be flexible with graduate programs

When it was time to apply to graduate programs, Emily had learned to keep her options open. She was interested in STEM, however, she knew there are few openings in the sciences, so she should be open to exploring the specific degree. Emily was accepted at the University of Maryland to study with a young female astrochemist. Her program was looking for graduate students who had a more well-rounded lifestyle and Emily fit the bill.

That’s how Emily narrowed her degree to astrochemistry!

Resilience, always resilience

Because it was a new program, Emily had the honor of helping her new PhD advisor build their lab from the ground up. You can see the Dodson Lab and watch a video about the ongoing research there with this page and video from University of Maryland.

Then COVID happened which forced them to experience delays. However, her advisor modeled resilience and was able to move much of their research online. When they were able to work in the lab in person, Emily worked with an instrument called a matrix isolation spectrometer. It was comprised of a cryogenic vacuum chamber.

Emily helped design and an instrument that could reach 10 degrees Kelvin (-460 degrees Fahrenheit). ultra high vacuum pressure. She could deposit gas samples into the instrument and freeze them. Next, she could shoot a laser at it and obtain molecular information.

These instruments are important because the help scientist learn about the molecules in space. Space temperatures go down to  -400 Fahrenheit degrees. So Emily would simulate those conditions in the lab and “do chemistry” to try to gain an understanding of what is actually happening in space. She and her fellow scientists would ask, “When all of these observers detect a new molecule in space, can we help provide information?”

Graduate school opens doors for adventures

Emily had some exciting opportunities during grad school. She was able to spend time at University of California at Berkeley and work at a national lab on one of their specialized instruments. She also did some experiments at NASA Goddard because one of my committee members worked on James Webb Space Telescope.

In the end, Emily’s dissertation research involved all these instruments. Incidentally, Vicki loves to hear the names of dissertations, so she asked Emily. The name of her dissertation is:

Matrix Isolation and Gas-based Kinetics of Astro Chemically Relevant Species.

Working on a fellowship with Air Force Research Laboratory

Today, Emily is in Florida, working in a fellowship (post-graduate research) with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Women in STEM

It is not as unusual to have women in STEM majors and with STEM careers these days. However, in fields like chemistry, physics,  astrophysics, and astrochemistry, Dr. Emily Hockey is still in the minority. However, her PhD advisor was a female and had made it her mission to help women grow interest in STEM careers. This worked because Emily’s PhD cohort was majority women.

Emily still runs into some awkward moments. (For instance, at a conference, a male scientist told her that she was too pretty to be a scientist.)

However, she know that this did not mean that she was “less”. She had learned from her advisors and her parents to believe in herself.

Today, at Emily’s current job there are twenty-four scientists with PhDs and only three of those are women. However, she has learned to say to herself:

I just have to show them that I got the same degree that you did. I did the work. I’ve got the brains.

Impostor syndrome

Almost everyone has imposter syndrome at some point in their careers. Especially women in STEM because there are just now many women in the field. With impostor syndrome, our brains begin to doubt and start to ask, “Am I good enough to do this?

It is important to remember healthy self-talk, “I am good enough and, yes, I earned this.”

It is also important to have people who believe in you and encourage you.

Encouragers

Today, Emily works with scientists in the field who have been at this job for twenty-plus years. These scientists are excited to see the new generation come in and hear what we have to say. She has found that they are respectful, encouraging, and they really push the new generation. So, while there are fewer women in the field than men, things are going well.

Emily’s Advice to young people interested in STEM

If you are starting high school and you are excited about STEM, just keep going. There’s so much stuff online now that you can go get resources; you can read books.

Learn what you can about this generations scientists. Ask questions. Check out this non-profit that works with high schools to encourage women in stem through mentorship opportunities!

You will be standing on the shoulders of those who came before you!

Join Vicki, Kym, and Dr. Emily Hockey for encouragement for young women interested in STEM!

Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing, and thank you Dr. Emily Hockey for your time with us!

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