Help Across the Finish Line

Our email exchanges have empowered and motivated me to succeed and live a balanced life.

Both Christina Chung and Mary Fernandez had been paired twice before with other mentors and students when they were matched for the 2000-2001 academic year.

Christina was in the final year of her Ph.D. program in computer science at the University of California at Davis. Mary was in her fifth year with AT&T Labs, where she was hired upon finishing her computer science Ph.D. at Princeton in 1996. Mary is a Principal Technical Staff Member in large-scale programming research at the company’s Network Services Research Laboratory in Florham Park, New Jersey.

"When I was in graduate school, I had a mentor from AT&T, and he dragged me through it kicking and screaming," Mary says. "The process of finishing my Ph.D. was hard, and I had my first child during that time.

"There are lots of roadblocks to women finishing their Ph.D. - at that age, many women get married, some have children, and if there’s a conflict in a two-career household, some women put their husband’s careers before their own," she says. "The pipeline for women narrows, and I’ve wanted to help other women get through."

There are lots of roadblocks to women finishing their Ph.D. ...and I’ve wanted to help other women get through.

Friendly and real

Mary’s first two protégés had been at the beginning of their Ph.D. programs, and both left for differing reasons during the year she mentored them. By contrast, Christina was at the end, with different priorities, Mary says.

"Christina is very bright and assertive, a go-get-‘em kind of woman," Mary says. "By the time we were matched, she had made a list of things to talk about: the content of her thesis, how she should be job-hunting, what jobs to consider."

Christina knew what she wanted from this third mentoring experience, and Mary delivered it, she says.

"I was familiar with Mary’s name from the literature before MentorNet paired us, and I felt lucky when we were matched. Since she’s very recognized in the field, I didn’t think she’d be so friendly or real, and she is both," Christina says. "Because I’m late in my graduate school program, the issues that concerned me were job-hunting and the differences between industry and academic positions. I also wanted to explore how a recognized researcher approaches research and to hear her point of view on some professional topics. And I wanted to talk about issues related to gender in the workplace and to balancing a career with a personal life."

Life/work balance

On that last topic, the discussions were eye opening and heartening, Christina says.

"Mary was able to share with me her personal experience of balancing her life, and it boils down to hard work," Christina says. "Mary works hard at the office, and she works at home after her kids are in bed at night. I’m very surprised that people have so much energy to do that, and I’m happy to see women engineers succeed at home and at work. Here is a woman who is highly recognized professionally and has a happy home life. Just seeing that she can thrive encourages me."

Evaluating options

Christina enlisted Mary’s help throughout her job search, and Mary calls Christina "unusually sophisticated" in her approach to that.

"Most computer science students are trained in an academic environment, and they see teaching or industrial research with a heavy academic bent as the only venues for them. But Christina is savvy and shrewd about business and her possibilities in the work world," Mary says. "When we started e-mailing, she already had a good sense that there were lots of other things she could be doing - project management or playing an architect role in a start-up, for example. She wanted to know what I thought of those possibilities."

Christina had interviewed for a position at AT&T before she and Mary were matched through MentorNet, and they met face to face then. Later, Mary was able to talk with Christina about that interview, which helped her prepare for later job-hunting.

Upon graduation, Christina accepted a position as a software architect in the Emerging Technology Department at Verity Corporation in Sunnyvale, California. Although they e-mail each other with much less frequency than before, Christina says she continues to benefit from the encouragement that Mary offered throughout their year together.

"Mary looks at things from a long-term perspective, and she is a great role model for me," she (Christina) says. "Our e-mail exchanges have empowered and motivated me to succeed and live a balanced life."