A Call to Leadership - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 13

methods, managing the nitrogen cycle, providing access to clean water, and
restoring and improving urban infrastructure. These are challenges that I am
confident STEM professionals working with each other and various profession-
als can solve. Some other challenges on the global to-do list are listed as fol-
lows: advance health informatics, engineer better medicines, reverse-engineer
the brain, prevent nuclear terror, secure cyberspace, enhance virtual reality,
advance personalized learning, and engineer the tools for scientific discovery.
These puzzles aren't going to solve themselves, and I invite you to take part in
the exciting possibilities that await our future STEM professionals.
In order to take full advantage of the opportunities before us, we must
change the way leadership and business are done. We need to think globally and
collaboratively. Modern-day technology allows us access to considerably more
information, and we can utilize this to reach out to our increasingly global com-
munity. The global economy is struggling and in need of innovation in every
nation. In order to alleviate the technological, economic, and innovative prob-
lems of the world, national and international STEM professionals must establish
research efforts that are focused not on “individual reputation” but on address-
ing global needs. People are suffering in many parts of the world - women, men,
and children alike - and I truly believe with all my heart that this suffering can
be ameliorated or eliminated through collaborative leadership and innovation.
LEAD TODAY
Leading is about believing and being passionate in what you believe. In our own
personal lives we have seen how our likes and dislikes influence our behav-
ior and our actions. In the same manner, our passion and our belief in some-
thing will determine the extent to which we are willing to commit ourselves
to working for it. Working towards changing “what is” to “what should be”
requires decisive action and an ability to step forward and take control. This is
the beginning of leadership.
Start now. Take it one day at a time but start today. Understand that leading
is a long-term process, and there is no age limit for starting on the leadership
path; however, we must start now. Sure, the younger you are the more time you
have, but you can acquire knowledge at any age and this knowledge can open
many doors for you, including those to leadership. If you have doubts about this
consider the story of Nola Ochs, as reported in USA Today [20] :
Like most students at Fort Hays State University, Nola Ochs plans to spend some time
reading and studying during this week's fall break. But she'll take time out on Wednesday
to celebrate her 95th birthday.
Ochs is living at Wooster Hall on campus while pursuing her general studies degree at the
university. She has about 15 hours of classes left to get her degree. If she gets it, Ochs will
be the Guinness Book of World Records' oldest college graduate.