Oh, hey 2025 👋
Calculated risks, transformative experiences, and all the possibilities the year has to offer
In 2022, I made a decision that, while terrifying, felt deeply necessary: I moved across the country to Colorado to teach undergraduate students at the United States Air Force Academy. It wasn’t a leap of faith so much as a choice driven by intuition—something deep inside told me this was the right move for both my personal and professional growth.
I’m not someone who takes risks lightly, and this wasn’t a decision I made on a whim. It was a calculated, deliberate step out of my comfort zone. I knew that leaving my established role as a DoD civilian to teach for the first time would challenge me in ways I’d never experienced before. And challenge me it did!
In my three semesters, I have taught topics that I just barely learned fifteen years ago in undergrad and haven’t touched since, and quite well if I do say so myself 😁 There may have been a lot of in-class googling with students, but we made it happen! In doing so, I showed myself that I can truly learn just about anything, and I showed my students that their leaders won’t always have the answers and that’s okay. I have also listened to cadet constructive (read: critical) feedback and made significant changes to the way I taught courses, even if it meant crazy working hours. In doing so, I showed myself that acting on feedback is a sign of strength, not weakness, and I showed them that leaders can embrace the perspectives of those they lead to foster better working environments for everyone.
Although I know these actions meaningfully impacted my students and me, just being a female instructor in this space carried its own significance. In my nine years of ECE schooling, I never had a female engineering professor. Standing in front of my cadets, I was proud to be the representation I had once needed. It was a reminder to them - and to myself - that we are ALL capable of hard things. Oh, and that technical leaders won’t always look a certain way 💁♀️
With my tenure at the Academy coming to a close in June 2025, I’m faced with a big question: what comes next? Should I return to the DoD civilian world I know so well? Explore academia further? Leave DoD work entirely? Or chart a new path by starting my own company?
If my time at the Academy has taught me anything, it's that growth often requires us to sit with discomfort. As I move into 2025 and my final semester at USAFA, I’m choosing to embrace the uncertainty, trust my intuition, and move forward with the same courage that brought me here. And if you’ve got any ideas for me or anyone you’d like to connect me with for job opportunities, let me know 😉 But seriously 😁
Let’s go 2025! Here’s to calculated risks, transformative experiences, and the possibilities of what’s to come.
