Our FIRST Journey

FIRST is for Inclusion: Maithili Kumar - Section 4

It seems about time to maybe address the elephant in the room. I was, at most times, one of the few girls on the team. Therefore, I would argue that I had a unique experience. When I originally joined the team, there were roughly 17 people on/related to the team, and I was one of the 3 girls. To begin, I had never really worked with a group of mostly guys. Whether it was group projects, friend groups, or extracurriculars, I was always surrounded by girls. That meant that for me, regardless of the personalities of the others, I was already not as comfortable as I would have been on a team of all girls. And for me, that heavily influenced how willing I was to ask questions and contribute to the team.

I was already somewhat shy, and I was terrified of people thinking I was dumb or judging me. To some extent, I still have the same fears. But I realized that without asking questions and putting yourself out there, you won't be able to learn quite as much. Sometimes, you have to take risks and ignore what other people think in order to help yourself. When I look at the rest of the team, I see people who boldly throw their ideas out. Even if they're wrong and people laugh at them, they never stop asking questions and contributing. If they can do it, so can I and so can you. Confidence! (Also, being on a team with people with backgrounds different than mine taught me way more than I would have learned if I was comfortably working on a team of all girls).

The other main point I want to make is that the combination of being a minority in a group and being the one with the least experience can be very difficult to navigate. It can at times feel like you aren't as smart or as good as other people simply because you are different or have less experience. For me, the solution should have been to work hard to gain the experience, since that was within my control (more about that in the next section).