Elayne Arrington

Elayne Arrington (born c. 1940) is an American mathematician and engineer. She was the first African American woman to graduate with a bachelor's degree from the School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Quotes It was surreal watching the movie Someone actually got what went on and how I felt As the first African American female graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering in 1961, I did not have a role model,” she writes in part. “I understand that requests are not few, and her contacts must be very limited. If there is a way that a meeting can be arranged or a sighting, I am very interested. … Knowing of her has been an inspiration to me. I could do a split, but another African American girl could do a flip,” she remembers. “There could only be one African American cheerleader, and I couldn’t do a flip, so that was that. Girls always come up here, but they never finish, and you won’t finish either.” Then he glanced at her hands and added: “Besides, you’re never going to be able to draw with those fingernails.” Some of it may have been racial prejudice,” she says, “but they didn’t even have to get to racial because being a girl in engineering, being female, was enough There’s always been magic in complex math calculations,” she says. “I used to think about problems all day long. Sometimes I solved the problems in my sleep. But then I would wake up and couldn’t think of what I did. So I trained myself to write down the solution immediately Ultimately,” he adds, “if we are to maximize human potential, having a safe, welcoming environment is absolutely vital for knowledge generation and for learning. I’m certainly committed to making sure that the Swanson School and the University of Pittsburgh are the best places for individuals to come and do their best work Elayne Arrington on the struggles faced in becoming an Engineer External links Category:Women academics from the United States Category:Women engineers from the United States Category:Living people Category:1940 births Category:Educators from the United States Category:Women born in the 1940s Category:Women mathematicians from the United States