Long before Dr. Pamela McCauley was honored as the Technologist of the Year at the 2019 Women of Color STEM Conference, she won a 1989 Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) for Student Leadership.

In the lead up to the 34th annual BEYA STEM Conference, which is produced by Career Communications Group, the same company that hosts the Women of Color STEM Conference, the Tech of the Year was invited to motivate more young women and girls to attend the BEYA STEM Conference in Washington DC.

Speaking as a guest on The Larry Young Show, the top Women of Color STEM award winner talked about how she became an engineer. Dr. McCauley said that looking up at starry skies during summer breaks with her grandmother in the country really began her love for science.

On one visit to her local library, finding out that she "could make a nice salary with a bachelor’s degree" motivated her to pursue engineering.

In 1993, she won the largest National Science Foundation graduate fellowship at the University of Oklahoma and also launched support groups for young women in STEM.

Why? asked radio host Larry Young.

"I’d been blessed to have supportive parents," she replied. "Despite the fact that I had my daughter when I was in high school, that I didn’t have any money, having encouragement from my father, and my mother–the most optimistic and supportive person you could ever imagine–that really made a difference for me," she said.

"But I realized there were lots of other young mothers who were just as smart as I was didn’t have that structure and that guidance. So I put Motivational Moms together in 1993. That organization was designed to encourage young mothers. We worked in Oklahoma City as a nonprofit for several years. And after we ended that organization I continued to do this because I’m passionate about helping young women, young people, period."

"Even with an associate degree. Fifty-two percent of STEM careers can be obtained with a two-year degree. And so there’s no reason for us to be wondering how we’re going to make it as young women, as young men, as young mothers. You don’t have to depend on anyone. You can get a STEM degree, and if you pursue an engineering degree the salaries are even higher to create that life that you want and your children deserve."

More recently, she was selected to lead the National Science Foundation i-Corps Program. The i-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory.

Here's what she will you be doing at the 2020 BEYA Conference

"At the 2020 Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) Conference, I will be doing whatever I can to support Dr. Tyrone Taborn and all those amazing folk at Career Communications Group. This conference has been such a significant part of my life. I first attended the second (BEYA) conference thirty-three years ago. And for me to walk into a place, being from Oklahoma where I saw so few African American engineers, to see such an amazing group of black engineers, who were real people who talked to me, encouraged me; it changed my life. It really did," she said.

"If anyone has a child in the (District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia) area, I would beg to bring them to this Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference. It’s life-changing to see people who look like you enjoying STEM careers and thriving., making a difference and changing the world. I will be speaking to some of the young folks and it’s just an honor to be part of Career Communications Group conferences BEYA and Women of Color in technology."