IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2023 - 8

people and how they felt about it when
it was happening. "
Although she would not say she has
Smith (left) and Reinhart at WIE Forum East 2022 in Providence, Rhode Island.
IEEE has helped her grow through the
types of opportunities that she isn't
exposed to professionally. It has been
good to her personally as well. " I felt
really good about what I accomplished
with the Forum this year, " she says.
" There were a lot of things that came up,
and of course I didn't handle them all perfectly
because it's hard to lead a team and
to deal with so many personalities, but
I felt very propped up. I felt a real sisterhood
and that I could accept some of the
accolades that people were giving me. I also
finally ran for director-elect, and I could
accept that I was making people happy
because they'd been asking me to do it for
a while but I didn't think I was ready. "
She goes on to share that, " When my
husband passed away in 2019, it was so hard
to deal with. Now I'm newly remarried to
someone with whom I was friends for a long
time and that's a really good thing in my
life. I'm in my 50s and it's taken me so long
to recognize some of these points, but I'm
still growing, obviously. "
This connects to Smith's experience,
in that she has found that one of the ways
to manage her feelings of imposterism
is through service. For her, that means
volunteering to do science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
outreach with kids. " Getting involved
with mentoring, outreach, tutoring, or
8
anything where you can help someone
else learn to do something they did not
know before is something that helps your
own psyche, " she explains. " For you that
reads as, 'I just helped this person, they
got an A on their test, maybe that means
I do know math.' " That is because one of
the ways imposterism creeps up is by
allowing someone to put the
" blame " of something having
been achieved on
factors other than
themselves; however,
when the excuses
are removed ( " it was
not just luck, or timing,
or ... " ), there is
no choice but to be
proud of the outcome.
A key point of Smith's
speech on imposter syndrome
is sharing enough of
her own story to connect with others.
" It's a very vulnerable briefing for me;
I get into a lot of personal detail, and I
think that has really resonated with the
audience. I want people to know that
this is a real thing, you're not alone,
and you can overcome it. " This is the
content that she needed. " Other talks
and forums are empowering, but they
didn't help me in the areas I needed the
most help: real-life stories from real-life
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE JUNE 2023
completely overcome it, she has made
great strides thanks to her volunteerism
with kids and WALL-E. No, not the
movie character, but the robotic replica
that she and her husband built close
to a decade ago. " When I'm in front of
a group of kids with WALL-E, those
six-year-olds are not thinking that I
don't know what I'm doing, they've
got their eyes open wide just absorbing
everything I'm telling them and loving
it, " she describes. " It goes a long way in
assuring me that I am doing what I'm
supposed to be doing because look at
these kids! They are running down the
hallway to hug a robot; a robot that I
built and I brought to them. "
" Imposter
syndrome is not
new but in spite of
everyone talking about
it, I had never seen an
official presentation
on it before Julie's
speech. "
Pushing Through the Fear
The current WALL-E robot replica is actually
a second version that Smith and
her husband made. Their experiments
began before they were married, when
they decided to build a robotic arm for
fun. The original robot could do a few
things, like hold a soda can, but was made
of plexiglass and didn't look like much,
so it was just a cool thing to
have around the house.
" We must have recently
watched WALL-E because
then I said,
'Let's build WALL-E!'
He's cute and recognizable,
so we
could take him out
to show kids and let
them play with him, "
Smith recalls. WALL-E
version one was made of
foam core, smaller than he is
now, but still cute enough to serve as the
greeter at their wedding.
Version two is also really fun at parties.
He can move his arms, legs, and eyes;
dance and play music, has a laser, and
more. " We had to sacrifice some parts of
functionality so that he would be immediately
recognizable, " explains Smith, clarifying
that unlike the movie character, her
WALL-E does not compact trash. Still,
she adds skills when she can, as the kids
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2023

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