THE HURON EMERY | ISSUE 2: NOVEMBER ELIASON| FROM PAGE ONE “I thought that working with computers would be good, because you just sit there and do your own thing,” Eliason said. “As I progressed in my studies, I just started to crave being around people, and just started to get a passion for being around people, and having a passion for education and wanting to teach instead of just producing things on a computer.” Eliason switched his major to math, with a minor in computer science, and graducate a semester later. Eliason completed his student teaching position as a full-time sub for acting at Huron. Teachers are typically not allowed to teach where they attended as a student because those young teachers may not be respected.
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However, this was not the case for Eliason. “I think it worked to my advantage because of the comfort of knowing what I was getting into and not coming in completely blind,” Eliason said. “The response on the I had a pretty good reputation coming in as a student. They trusted me, and they accepted me as a colleague.” Over the following few years, Eliason transitioned in and out of various computer science and math positions until he eventually became, and remained, a full-time math teacher. “He’s just been a really steady presence in the math department,” Collins said. “He took on a lot of duties, like he’d bring big jugs of water, and he tle things like that. He would step up and do jobs like that.” Eliason has taught almost every math course available at 1990’s Huron, but he has a clear favorite.
2010’s
HS SENIOR: 1982 culus AC,” Eliason said in response to the question. “I enjoy it because it’s where the math really starts to become start to put it into real life applications.” As a teacher, Eliason aimed to make the classroom as laid back as possible. “That’s why I started doing the joke of the day and tried to make learning more fun to try and build relationships with kids, as much as they could,” Eliason said. “It’s 30 plus kids in each room and have a curriculum to get through.” To connect with students outside of the classroom, Eliason was the club sponsor for Mu Alpha Theta and the announcer for football and basketball games. “I tried to do extra things so I could see kids in a Eliason said.
1990’s
2010’s
Despite the many roles he took on at Huron, his impact on society does not end there. “It really started about six years ago when my wife and I started feeling that we needed to be foster parents,” Eliason said. “We started looking into that because we felt like there was a tremendous need, and that we were being to do that as a family, to take in young kids who needed a loving home and we would take care of them.” Eliason’s experience fostering eight children, and adopting one of them after made him think more about his life after Huron. “God was saying, ‘Okay. I want to see if I can trust you with these kids and fostering to see if you are willing to take these kids in,” Eliason said. “And then after that, now we’re gonna move on to the next level of you pursuing becoming a pastor.’”
Over the past two years, Eliason took classes and the summer, he was selected to become a pastor at his church, and submitted his retirement shortly after. “A lot of people thought my retirement had to do with COVID and the new way of teaching was, but it had nothing to do with any of that,” Eliason said. “It was purely that I personally felt that it was time to change directions and pursue becoming a pastor.” While Eliason misses Huron, he looks forward to starting a new chapter in his life and being the best pastor that he can be. “Huron is an amazing school,” Eliason said. “And while there were certainly absolute pleasure. I love my job and leaving it was a hard decision to make. I had to retire. I’m moving on to something bigger and better.”
Bridging the gap: it is time to usher a new frontier for women in STEM ANITA GAENKO STAFF WRITER Of the 60 undergraduates in her class at the Indian Institute of Technology, there were only four women. And that was on the high side. Professor Surya Mallapragada trained to be a chemical engineer and is now doing work related to materials for biomedical applications. She also teaches courses in chemical and biological engineering and is the Associate Vice President for Research at Iowa State University. But she, like so many others, is subject to the STEM gap. The STEM gap is amount of men and women in Science, Technology, EnWomen make up only 28 percent of the STEM workforce. According to Mallapragada, part of the reason for the disparity is simply con“Admission to t h e India n In-
stitute of Technology was based on an entrance exam,” Mallapragada said. “It was a very selective process, and I think that a lot of women were n o t feeling c o n fident enough a b o u t it. I knew s e v e r a l c l a s s ma t e s in high school who were female who could have taken the exam, but they just thought, ‘Oh, I’m not gonna make it. I’m not even going to try.’” Her advice to girls in
you think ‘Oh, maybe I’m not meant to be here.’ That’s pretty commonly seen in young women. Con-
we all need to send a message to not stereotype people.” During her undergraduate work at IIT, Mallapragada formed a tight bond with the other three women in her chemical engineering class. “Just in terms of study groups and other simication. lar things, it was “When I was sur- easier for the male rounded by only s t u women, I didn’t dents than it doubt my conwas for us, but in 2016, we’d formed much,” Mala tight knit lapragada group, and we’re still of STEM graduates friends to this day,” Mallwere female apragada said. T h i n g s changed for the said. “When I better once she went to gradwent to a co-ed uate school. environment, I “It wasn’t as much of suddenly started an issue,” Mallapragada said. doubting myself. “There were more women
On average, a woman in STEM earns
89 cents for every dollar a man earns
“Don’t doubt your abilities,” Mallapragada said. “Because there’s this whole imposter syndrome, even if you do well,
Luckily, I had the ten years of being in an all-girls environment that I think helped build
Women are more likely to leave STEM jobs
are something that we need to really consciously guard against.” Mallapragada went to an all-girls school for most of her primary edu-
31%
than we had during my undergrad years. It was a good experience.” She doesn’t attribute the still persistent STEM gap “There
have
been
Mallapragada said. “The National Science Foundation has put so m u c h funding into programs to come up with STEM activities focused on women. Unfortunately, the needle hasn’t moved too much in the last ten years, so I think it’s down at a more local level.” The best way to bridge the STEM gap? Provide a positive environment. “It has to do with the place they work and study,” she said. “It has to be inviting
Women make up only
28% of the STEM workforce
Statistics from builtbyme. com - 8 Statistics and facts about women in STEM
