Computing Educators Oral History Project:

"This is something ... that I learned about recently and boy did it hit home. It's called the Imposter Syndrome... I am definitely an imposter at this job. I've been an imposter my whole life and when you look at the checklist of who are potential imposters, I can check many of them. I'm a first generation professional. My parents were blue collar. I'm in a field that is heavily dominated by men. I'm a huge imposter. I remember when I was accepted to Kalamazoo College and actually went to Kalamazoo College a little voice inside my head said that I was a test case. 'Let's take this idiot girl from the backwoods and put her in this environment that was very intellectually stimulating with a lot of smart people and let's see what happens.' I really felt this ... I knew intellectually obviously that this wasn't the case. I think it is really good to know about the imposter syndrome because then you can start dealing with it and learning to be more confident. So, yes, confidence has always been something I've had to struggle with. I'm not nearly as successful as my record indicates." Link to this audio snippet in new window

"I feel like I have just been racing up the tenure track ladder and then up to full professor, and getting lots of money and having lots of students and writing lots of papers and I feel like I have been in this race to succeed.. So for the last year I have scaled back a little bit, trying to figure out, where do I want to be? First of all I am switching research directions once again. I am going to head into using sensor networks for the health community ... I have to see potential impact, especially as our population is aging, and the whole baby boomers are becoming senior citizens. I think that could have a huge impact. So I'm switching my research career. . I think I will do less just trying to get the money and more what do I want to work on." Link to this audio snippet in new window