Cayla Withers is a Southern Black American woman of faith and an aerospace engineering student at Stanford. In the second volume of her column, “Hidden Gems From a Black Girl Engineering Major,” she documents her Stanford experiences and drops “hidden gems” of wisdom on her way to graduating and fulfilling her lifelong dream.
Across the universe lie billions of stars. Of these stars, the sun is the brightest. Planet Earth races around this bright star at a velocity of about 67,000 miles per hour. And while it races, it begins dancing; its axis tilts, allowing light from the sun to shine upon different hemispheres of Earth. This gives birth to what we know as seasons.
Winter has always been my least favorite season. In my home state of North Carolina, I would endure cold temperatures, icy roads and harsh winds while I waited patiently for May’s flowers and summer’s sun. Though I had never liked winter, when I arrived at Stanford, it became the season when I made one of the most important decisions of my life — choosing what I wanted to major in and pursue as a career path.
It was the winter quarter of 2021 when I decided that I would pursue aerospace engineering (with a minor in African and African American studies). I remember running to my desk in my dorm room that day and opening my laptop, quickly navigating to Axess to choose the major I had always dreamed of. I knew I wanted to be an aerospace engineer after seeing the film “Hidden Figures” at 16, so it was a pretty easy choice. But the truth was that most people rarely stuck with the same major in college, and most people in the aerospace field don’t look like me. In the back of my mind, even though I knew I wanted to pursue aerospace engineering as a major in college, doubt began clouding this dream.
Would this major actually work out for me? Could I major in aerospace engineering even though I came from a school where I didn’t have much exposure to higher-level, STEM-focused classes? Would I have to change the major that I already told everyone I was going to pursue? There aren’t many Black women in aerospace engineering; could I really be one of them? I should just give up on this dream.
I struggled with these thoughts winter after winter at Stanford, unsure if I would truly be successful in this major I chose for myself.
As I moved through college, the self-doubt that had plagued my mind didn’t go away. I had difficulty balancing my health and coursework, before also encountering personal problems that sorely disrupted my life as a college student. After enduring so many of life’s challenges year by year, I didn’t think I could complete this major. At the time, no one around me really believed in me either. I wanted to give up and pursue something easier, but something inside me just couldn’t let go of that dream. Days got harder for me, and my mental health worsened. I knew I needed help, so I wouldn’t have to carry my burdens alone. So, I did something unconventional for me: I went to therapy.
When I first went to therapy, I was too afraid to open up. But eventually I did, and it truly changed my life. In therapy, I was finally able to challenge negative thoughts I had, get help with my goals and surround myself with a team of professionals who cared for and believed in me. Day by day, my belief in myself grew stronger, and the doubt that I had struggled with for so long began to disappear. Having supportive people who had faith in me and told me all about the greatness they saw in me really inspired me to believe in myself. Through working with my team in therapy, I was able to see that I was more intelligent than I knew, that I could do anything I put my mind to and that I would eventually go on to change the world. My team also helped me to understand that the only person who could stop me from pursuing my goals is me. Then the seasons of doubt that mimicked those harsh winter winds turned into beautiful days, full of hope, joy and gratitude, and I started to truly believe that I could be an aerospace engineer.
This is finally when I saw a magnificent garden sprout from the tears that I sowed in my earlier years of college. During the fall quarter of 2025, I worked toward designing and building my second high-power rocket. I tried an electrical engineering class, where I got to build an electrocardiogram, electrical circuits and games with Arduino. I tried things outside of my major, like sports broadcasting and rapping. I also knew that I was going to finish my major and be successful in the aerospace field. Most importantly, I had faith in myself that just couldn’t be moved.
Though I struggled with doubt through many different seasons in my life, the truth was that the winter would always change, and the seasons of doubt would eventually transition into seasons of faith and seasons where I finally believed in myself. Not one single tough season in my life lasted. And yes, the harsh winds and rain came. But the flowers, the rainbows and the dew of joy came after it. After experiencing many cold and dark seasons in my life, I am finally in seasons where I am sure of myself — where the career path I chose as an unsure 18-year-old is finally working out, where I see all the fruits of my labor and where the things I manifested and dreamed of are coming into fruition. Yes, winter must come again in the future. But this time, I am prepared for the cold. I won’t be overcome by those winds.
– The Rocket Queen <3