A Pursuit of Passion, Building a Career in STEM with Cathleen Trevino

Whenever family members asked me what I was studying and I would tell them I'm studying to become a big mechanical engineer. That is when I started getting reactions and that's when I started noticing more of that gender gap and more how it just not as crucible it is for women to follow through with an engineering major One of the big things that I did notice. So my first year of college I was taking this. It was called an NEN, so mechanical and energy engineering one thousand, like the very first class that you take and there were a good mix of men and women, very good mix. It was pretty much equal. But as the years continued, maybe two years later, the amount of women in my classes totally decreased. It was maybe, like I don't know, like an 80 to 20 ratio sometimes. Sometimes I was maybe even the only girl in a lab class, the one of the smaller classes. So of course that's when I started noticing. Of course it happened. But yeah, beginning I was pretty oblivious, which I'm glad about because I feel like that's what helped me become so interested in it, because I wasn't really focused on the gender gap. I wasn't focused on that at all.

That is Miss Kathleen Trevino, who was introduced to me by my brother former co-host Renee Duron, and we had a super awesome conversation getting to know one another, and she did not hesitate to teach me something. So I learned about this new subculture called scene, which is maybe the opposite of EMOS, and you will get extra credit if you know the difference. In our conversation she mentioned that she was oblivious, but I think you're gonna find out as you listen that she is far from oblivious and she has a special heart for doggies, which you're gonna get to hear them rustling around in the back. And she also turns the tables on me and makes me spill my guts about my baby brother, renee. It was a pretty unique experience for me in that she asked me very penetrating questions, so it was almost like I was the one being interviewed. Anyhow, we talk about STEM, we talk about her passion for learning and passion for doing meaningful work, which I know resonates with the LNM family members out there. Before I let you go to hear the rest of the conversation, I wanna give a shout out to our LNM family member, ms Mida. Mida sent me this message. It was super awesome. We had just had a video call. She's amazing and Mida says some people suck your energy, while others give you that extra dose you need to keep going. I get energized by your content alone. Imagine getting airtime. Mida, thank you, and that is so meaningful to me because I often worry that my energy is too much and maybe floods or short circuits some people and yeah, that's what it's all about the LNM family. We are about sharing that energy and contributing and speaking into one another's lives. So why don't we let Ms Kathleen speak into your life? Here we go. I am here with a special friend, and I say special because she clearly has an immense and huge empathetic heart, because she's friends with Renee Y'all don't remember Renee? Renee's my baby brother, who helped me kick off the podcast way back in the day, and they work together. How you doing, ms Kathleen?

I'm doing good, thank you. How are you doing?

Oh man, I'm having fun. I'm in Dallas, I'm like in a hotel. So if it looks neat, it's not because my house is neat, it's because I'm in a hotel. When they clean, I don't have to do any cleaning.

Isn't that nice. Are you traveling for work?

Yes, I came to Dallas for I'm working with a group of awesome people tomorrow morning, but I like to come in the evening before because I don't like being rushing around or flag delays and all that stuff. I'll just come the evening before. That way I can get out there first thing in the morning and make something happen for them. So, kathleen, we already spilled the beans. You work with Renee and you help us understand what your work is.

Okay, so I'm an inspector engineer for SAWS. Basically, I work in the construction management department. We manage the construction portions of projects. There's different departments within SAWS. There is the design team and then they do the full design of the construction work and then we continue and we actually manage the construction work. So that's pretty much my job as an inspector engineer I inspect, manage the construction process of a project. So anytime anything comes up during work if an especial pipe was found and it wasn't in the plan, that's something like an RFI or a report for information would come in. That would come to me and we communicate with our consultants and we just figure out problems. So I figure out what to do in any situation. That's just one little example, but there's always something.

Yeah, I know I've been in construction since the 1900s, especially like because y'all are working with, y'all are opening up the ground and there's existing structures and existing services, it is never, ever, no matter how many red lines and ads builds there are, there's something that doesn't match or there's something that wasn't captured and it creates all kinds of trauma. So, yes, and how did you land where you're at, in the job that you're doing now?

Obviously, I landed the job because I applied for it. I interviewed and then I got the call that I got a job offer Awesome. But prior to that, I was working with a different company doing completely different work. I was a project engineer before this other company, but they were doing some layoffs and so I was one of the people that got laid off, unfortunately. So I did have a four month employment gap. I was just looking for jobs, interviewing. I was just really trying to find something that I thought that I would enjoy, and so I applied for the city, I applied for SOF, I applied for SARAS, san Antonio River Authority, all these places, cps just like trying to find something that felt more meaningful to me. So that's why the employment gap would go long. But, yeah, I ended up getting an interview with SOFs. I did pretty good. I thought that was actually the best interview that I had, which is probably why I ended up getting the job offer and, yeah, I decided to take it. I'm really glad that I did.

Okay, so you said you were looking for meaningful work. Where did that come from? Why was it meaningful stuff that you were looking to do?

I've always wanted something meaningful. When I first started college, I started this engineering degree but I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I've always been a pretty passionate person, but I realized that with engineering there's so many things that I could do that would mean something to me. So yeah, which is always time that I've always wanted to do something that brought me meaning that actually meant something to me. I'm not somebody who just wants to do something just to make money or anything like that. I just actually try to find enjoyment in the things that I have to do. When you work at your job, eight to five might be through Friday. That's a pretty big portion of your life, so I want to actually be able to enjoy it.

So some people might be thinking like wait a minute, but engineering kind of construction type stuff. How is that meaningful? How does that bring joy to Ms Kathleen's life?

Yeah, even going into this job, I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure what would be meaningful to me about it. All I knew with us all is the public utility. It's funded by the public. We serve the public. That, to me, is meaningful. Everybody needs to be meaningful. So we're in water. I just thought it was important work something that actually meant something to the city of San Antonio.

Thank you for the work that you do, because we all need it Now. So you mentioned you were at university, yet there was this four month off, and I applaud you for having the courage to hold on. I need to find something important, something meaningful, because a lot of us or it's easy to get caught up in I've got to pay my bills. I need money, Sure, but why did you select this engineering route?

So I've always really loved math and science. I was always my thing. In high school I was taking physics and I was just really good at it, I excelled. And my teacher one day he pulled me over to the end of class and he was just like, hey, have you ever considered doing? He specifically said have you ever considered majoring in environmental science? Or sorry, environmental engineering? And I was just like no, I hadn't considered that, because I had no idea what I wanted to go to college for. I had no idea at that time. The only thing that I knew was that I love math, and so I was like maybe I should just do something with math. Should I become a math teacher? I don't know. So when he said that to me, I was like, oh nice, like now I can actually, now I might actually have a clear path. And so that's when I started researching what engineering even was, because I didn't even know what engineering was. But, that's when I started researching it and I was like, okay, yeah, I do love this. And I saw the curriculum and everything and how much it sounds funny. But I was very math focused and so I saw how many math classes you have to take to even finish your degree and I loved that and I was like, okay, you know what, let me try it out. And so I went to college, started engineering. I went in with mechanical engineering because it was just so broad. I didn't really know what I wanted to do yet I wanted to have my options open, went in with mechanical and I ended up loving it and I just started excelling on my classes. I finished my degree and everything and I just loved it. I loved it so much.

Wow, Okay. So what's interesting is math caught your interest. Clearly I see you smiling, You're like getting excited, You're talking about math, all the math classes you got to take. And then you got into it and then discovered wow, I really enjoy this. Now I imagine that was a rare interest for a young high school girl or young lady going into university and engineering. What was that like?

I first I didn't really notice. I used to specifically talking about the gender gap in STEM fields.

Yeah, so, yeah, so gender gap in STEM field. And also, I've heard a lot of people say women are good at math and so in my head in an engineering track that there would be a low volume or a low, really disproportionate ratio of men to women coming up through that. Yeah, your family and friends. There's added pressure or concern from family and friends that may come along with that. Is that true?

Yeah, okay Again. So I've heard, when I was first going to college and I was first going to my degree, I did not notice the gap. I did not know that there was like this big gender gap in STEM. I don't know, I just was just oblivious. I just knew what I liked, I knew what I wanted to do and I went for it. But I did notice it during college as the years continued. I noticed it both outside of college, whenever family members asked me what I was studying and I would tell them I'm studying to become a big medical engineer. That is when I started getting reactions and that's when I started noticing more of that gender gap and more how just not as crucial it is for women to follow through with an engineering major One of the big things that I did notice. So my first year of college I was taking this it was called an NEN, so mechanical and energy engineering 1000, like the very first class that you take and there were a good mix of men and women, very good mix. It was pretty much equal. But as the years continued, maybe two years later, the amount of women in my classes totally decreased. It was maybe like I don't know like an 80 to 20 ratio sometimes. Sometimes I was maybe even the only girl in a lab class, but one of the smaller classes, so of course that's when I started noticing. Of course it happened. But yeah, beginning I was pretty oblivious, which I'm glad about, because I feel like that's what helped me become so interested in it, because I wasn't really focused on the gender gap. I wasn't focused on that at all. I'm actually really happy that I was moving into it.

Yeah, that's what comes across. You were focused on what you wanted to learn, not who was going to be in the damn class. And now, when you started knowing, when it started becoming obvious, to me there's some pretty significant what should we say? Grit or perseverance to not lose confidence being in a drastic environment. The grit and perseverance to continue as the conditions around you started transforming into specifically, we're talking about the gender thing. Where do you think you get your focus and your perseverance from?

I don't know. I guess just from being passionate, yeah, yeah, because I am really passionate about learning and I think that's just what helps me focus on, to me, in my opinion, for me, what's more important, okay.

So here's an interesting thing is what's coming across to me. Is you make a decision about something and that's the decision? Is that pretty much the deal?

There are times where I'm like. I don't know Should I do it or should I not do it, but whenever I do make a decision, I usually stick with it, because I'm just like I already made the decision.

Okay, so are you an only child? No, okay, so you got siblings.

I have three sisters.

And where are you on the hierarchy of your sisters? I'm the third, okay, and so what was that like coming up with three sisters?

Crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah, you would think that, since I just have a bunch of sisters, I would be maybe more girly. But man, it was pretty rough. You know how they say boys fight girls site, sister site and we physically fight. Oh okay, yeah, I don't really punching and things like that, like just throwing each other around and just doing sister things. Not anymore when we were kids. Now it's really nice. Now that we're all older it's nice because it just feels like I have friends, but they just feel like my friends. I can call them up. I'm really close with one of them in particular and so we literally talk almost every day. So yeah, when we were kids it was pretty crazy, but now it's really nice.

Settle down since then. So if I were to meet your sisters, how would they describe you?

Probably. They would probably say that I'm smart, a little slow, but funny and very like positive. They always tell me that I'm always really positive.

Oh, okay, so that's positive thing. Do you do that on purpose or is that like a natural state, natural focus.

I think it's just my natural state.

And so you've been with Sawz. What a couple of years now. No, I've only been there for eight months Eight months, okay, so super early. What do you see? Clearly You're doing things that you're passionate about, things that you care about. If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you try? I?

definitely have something in mind, but I can't think of that right now. Oh, is it too big? No, I just can't remember. But I do have a little bit of issue with the fear of failure, and so it does stop me from pursuing things that I may have pursued if I didn't have that fear.

I like, oh, we're going to dig into this. So when you think I feel you girl, because you ain't alone, there's tons of the LNM family members. We all wrestle with that fear of failure. And when I think about fear of failure for myself, I'm not really worried about got to fail that a lot of things a lot of times what I'm really what I think about is what is it that really blocks me up? For me, it's the judgment that people might have because I wasn't successful. So, in terms of your fear of failure, is it failing that you're afraid of, or is there something deeper in there that you'd really rather not experience?

It is a little bit of that as well. I hate saying it, but the title of being an Engineer does, because I've thought about pursuing other careers, okay, but the title of being an Engineer has made my family so happy and so I feel like in the back of my mind, unconsciously sometimes makes me not want to stray away from the engineering field. I'm trying to get away from that right now, like I just realized this not too long ago, and so I'm actually working on that. My parents are really proud of me, whether I'm an engineer or not, and so I've been just trying to keep that out of my mind and really understanding where the fear of failure really lies, like where the basis is, because I honestly don't believe that's the basis of it, but I definitely do have that in the back of my mind.

Oh goodness, this is good. So external pressures, right. The families, the expectations that people have for us and of us, that is a powerful gravity that pulls, I think, at everybody. So I promise I won't tell your parents. But what are the other kind of crazy ideas or careers that you flirted with considering? Being a teacher?

Okay, literally a math teacher Okay.

Yeah, what great.

So I actually applied to a couple of teaching positions, okay, during that employment gap. Yeah, I found out actually a few months ago that I got a few interviews but I really got the saw's job, so I didn't end up going through with the interviews. But I applied for both high school and elementary school Because I'm good with elementary school kids. I've worked with elementary school kids before and I enjoy that. But I enjoyed the level of intellect and height for high school students a little bit better, being able to teach like AP Calculus, for example. Okay, so why? not middle school because I remember how I was like in middle school and there's when you're in middle school, you just go through all of these phases. That's how it was for me. I don't know how it was for you, but I feel like in middle school that's where you're trying out like all these new phases. I had like my scene rather than emo. I had a scene phase, but then I started transitioning to more of a girly phase. So it was just I was all over the place and I'd rather and for me in middle school I was more focused on that than I was at school and so I Feel like that's how a lot of kids are in middle school. You're growing, your body's changing, your mind is changing, so many things are changing, and so a lot of times I feel like kids were just more focused on themselves. Focus on all these changes, focus on trying things to focus on figuring out who they are, rather than focusing on learning the next thing in geometry.

So you said emo and see what's seen. I've never heard. That's a new concept to me.

So seeing. I don't know what the exact definition is, but from what I know when I was, that age seen is just the kids that wore all the colors. The emo kids had all the black. Yes, you can, kids had all the color. Okay so I wore like the colored studded belts, the color jeans, things like that.

I'm gonna have to do some research on that just shows my age a little bit, huh. And middle school is that is the time and I mean you know, renee, but that was the time when me and him really connected, or at least I saw that I had a greater responsibility, not when I was in middle school, but when he was in middle school, because I could see him all of a sudden realizing or worrying about whether he was a nerd, whether he was cool, and just all of that like his social awareness Lit up and I was like man that sucked. I remember when I was there Then I was like wait a minute, I can help him. And then he saved my life. The fact that he was going through that and I had been through it Help me get clear about man, my bad experiences and Self-destructive decisions that I made back then. I could leverage them to actually serve somebody, and that somebody was for an A, my baby brother. So I totally get not wanting to do the middle school thing. What's your age gap, you and Renee? Oh, man, he's. He is 18 years younger than me.

Oh wow, Is that cool.

I Was expecting that oh yeah, I was a senior in high school when he was born. Wow, yeah, totally bad. I did not have it planned.

I wasn't having such a younger brother. Oh girl.

Hard. It here's here. It's awesome Because he's a really awesome guy. He's my hero. I look up to him, cuz for a lot of reasons he's like the most practical and thoughtful person I know, and you may experience them differently, but that's my experience of him. The interesting thing is there's three of us it's me, ernest and Renee's. The baby Ernest is like a year younger than me and Because of the age gap, it was cool because we could do really cool things. Right, I got to take them deep sea fishing and took them to Disneyland, and we done a lot of cool stuff because I could, and so we got to have like fun, brother fun. Now that it's a little weird because I was the Disciplinarian, so it's not strictly above Brotherly role or relationship that we have. It's also almost a paternal element to it, cuz. Like I said, he helped me get my head clear. Oh, I'll tell you a funny story. So an example of what I'm trying to describe. Yes, we're brothers and yes, we play around, and even now I'm the least mature of the three, but when he was coming up, I had to present myself as a responsible Adult, right, I needed to be a good example for him, and I think it was his 18th birthday I had. He likes to play poker, he's pretty good, and so we held a little poker tournament, hold them tournament with a bunch of my buddies and some of his buddies, and so we're playing and the guys my friends start telling stories about me, like all the wild stuff that I did when I was in high school and so forth, and I remember Renee, he's looking at me and he's who are you?

you're a loser.

I thought you like had your stuff together.

Oh man.

It was like the relax, so disappointed, oh man, which was awesome, right. So again, in terms of what it was like, he really helped me grow up. I had to really be intentional about the decisions I made, the lessons I was working to teach him, and I'd still get a little bit jealous because of the being like the authoritative figure there's. There's a level of goofiness that we won't do together. I get to see Ernest and him have that kind of really goofy, silly brother interaction and I'm not like there's a barrier that I can't, a threshold that I can't cross, because I'm always the one that kind of gets involved or gets called in when there's major problems, samic, any sense.

No, yeah, that makes I have a similar situation.

Oh, so you have three sisters, so what are the ages of your sisters?

Okay, so my older sister, who the one that I'm actually talking to? She is in her 30s, 35, okay. And then my older sister. She is only two years older than me, so she is 30, and then I'm 28, and then my younger sister is 23. Okay, I believe.

So pretty pretty for it. So what was that like? Do y'all give each other a hard time? Damn girl, you're old.

Yeah, I give my oldest sister a hard time and my older sister she's just her in 30 this past year, of course given her a hard time. We love to joke with each other, oh that's awesome. Yeah, but our little sister, we still call her the baby. She's still just a little baby, even though she's like in her 20s. Now she has her own job, she has her own place. She lives in a whole other state, but she's still like the little baby. Yeah, we still treat her like a little baby, oh, yeah.

Yeah, I know all about that. I always say I'll tell people I talked about René to a bunch of people and they're like, oh man, I can't wait to. And then they meet him.

They're like damn that dude's a giant.

I was like he's not a baby my head. When he was a little guy, like he would fit on my chest. I would put him to sleep. We both fall asleep on the couch. He'd fall asleep on my chest, so he was just a little creature back then. Now he's a freaking, gigantic creature, but he in my head he's still my baby brother. Yeah.

I know I feel like that never goes away.

Yeah, yeah, no, that it's awesome. Okay, so tight family, that's awesome. Where do the dogs come into play?

Oh, the puppies. So I got my dogs. I love my dogs, so I'm a cheeky. I had been wanting dogs forever. We both have dogs and family and I've always wanted a dog. But previously I always lived in a apartment and I had to go to work and had a dog and I was just always set on not having a dog until I have a house. That was always my priority, because when I have dogs I want to have a house so that I have a yard for them to run around in. That was just a priority for me. I wanted my dogs to be happy. That's just what I wanted. So Finally I moved into a house, literally a few, a couple months later, maybe I don't know yeah, literally three months into living in a house, I Finally adopted two dogs, but two mini Aussies. They're my babies. Can I tell you the story about how I got them? Tell me please. Okay. So my boyfriend and I we actually got the dogs together and so we decided on to get a mini Aussie. I really wanted an Aussie mix because I thought an Aussie would just be a little too crazy for me, but I just specifically wanted an Aussie. I'm sorry. I really wanted this specific dog breed. I did a lot of research on them and I was just like this is what I want. So we found a dog and we went to go pick her up. But when we got there I was looking at all the other dogs so it was just like a whole letter, right. And so they were all they're running around together and the one that we picked I hate saying that, but that is what it is. We picked her and she was getting a bath from the previous owners and All these ones were running around, and so I was just there like watching all of them run around. But there was this one little dog and she was like sitting out by herself like all calm. She looked a little sick, scared, a little nervous, and so I went over to her and I tried petting her, but at first she like backed away. But then I went back up to her and she let me pet her the second time and she was just so cute she just has these super cute little button eyes and I was just like, oh my gosh. And so I started asking questions about her and they told us that she's always been like that a little bit more. There she's a little quieter. And so I look at my boyfriend, and he was just like we'll take her as well, and so that's how I ended up with two dogs, all right.

Let's get the other one.

Yeah, but they're my babies, are two years old. They're about to be two years old next week. Okay, and yeah, they're my babies. I love them so much. I do a lot of stuff with them. I love hiking and so I bring them with me every time. I'll bring them the door. If I have to go to home, people or Lowe's or anything like that, I bring them with me.

I'm one of those. I treat my children so do you have like special clothes and booties for them?

No, I do expose them, but no, I don't dress them or anything.

Yeah but I think they're pretty special.

They just they're so smart and so it's so easy to treat them like kids. Unfortunately, sometimes they're a little spoiled by. I turn my best to train them. It's discipline and they're good dogs. They're really good dogs.

Yeah, yeah, you've trained them and taken care of them. And you said dogs, so dogs have always been a part of your life.

Yeah, dogs have always been a part of my life. I.

Now, you've mentioned the word passion a couple of times and that you're a passionate person. What other passions do you have that you cultivate and play around in? Oh man, yep, it's me again cutting you off. Right when we get to the juicy part, you're going to get a chance to hear all about how Miss Kathleen cultivates her passion on part two, which will be hitting the airwaves next week. You know, as I was listening to this in preparation for release, I couldn't help but think about all the younglings out there that aren't clear about the direction that they're headed and how Kathleen's story could maybe give them a little guidance, because you know they don't want to hear from their parents, but if they hear it from somebody else that understands their experience, they're more likely to take action on what they hear. I don't know, maybe that's just me getting all sentimental, but she was pretty motivating to me. You're going to get more of Miss Kathleen on our next show, so appreciate y'all listening, share it with somebody you think it's going to resonate with, and before I sign off, I want you to know that this episode was sponsored by sweat equity improvement. What Sweat equity improvement? Well, let me tell you. So I have a virtual course going on that's kicking off January 10th. It's going to be happening on Wednesdays and the folks that signed up for that bad boy are going to be learning how to make work more awesome for the people that do the work, and what I mean by that is they will be learning how to remove the burden in poorly designed work, how to standardize that improvement and how to scale those improvements throughout the organization. If you can't tell, I'm pretty darn excited about it. It's the funnest thing I get to do and I invite you to sign up or share it with somebody that you think would get some value out of it. Like, if you know any trade foreman, trade superintendents, vps of operations, those folks out there they would have a pretty keen interest on this content because it will impact their business results and make the days of their workforce much, much better. Again, appreciate y'all listening, appreciate y'all gifting me with your time. It is so valuable and I deeply appreciate it. Be cool and we'll talk at you next time, peace.