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Tips for women headed back to school after a break - sometimes a long one!

How do we turn today’s girls and young women into tomorrow’s leaders? What is the correlation between leadership roles and education? WHY is it important that our female youth be preparing to lead in the future?

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have a visual disability which prohibits me from driving a car, I am a single mom of a five and a three-year-old… and, fortunately, I’m also a physicist. I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, dreaming of someday marrying a high school sweetheart and staying home to raise my children. My life turned out very differently than I had planned. In elementary and middle school, I was often teased for my disability and/or my appearance (blond hair and blue eyes was a minority). Due to my low vision, I had to sit in the front of my class. That coupled with unkindness from those around me, forced me to pay attention to my teachers and allowed me to take interest in doing well in school. In high school, it was hard not being able to see well enough to drive, but the hardest part was when all the kids younger than I was started getting their driver’s licenses. In high school, I dated only one young man, who eventually broke up with me because of my religion. I took biology and chemistry. Then I met and fell in love...