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Pictures of Eleni Coyle, her
husband Jim Coyle, her roommate, and friends.
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Part 2 of Ada's Legacy Series. This Friday the College of Arts and Letters will be hosting a conference, "An interdisciplinary Conference Celebrating the Achievements and Legacies of Ada Lovelace".
The Library wants to celebrate the legacy of Ada Lovelace by posting
blogs by Stevens Students written during Professor Lee Vinsel's, History
of Stevens course last semester about the history of women at Stevens. The students researched the library's special collections to discover pictures and information about this important time.
By Dana Lyons & Devin Corson, Class of '13
As
women at Stevens in the new millennium, it would be really interesting to find
out what life at Stevens was like in the very first decade women entered. Eleni Coyle entered the Stevens community in 1979
and graduated in 1983 with her Bachelors and Masters in Chemical Engineering. She was able to give us some perspective on
the end of this first decade of women at Stevens.
The
journey of being a woman at Stevens begins before freshman year—the women must
be brought up strong and confident. In
Eleni’s case, her father was the role model in her life that made it possible
to earn her degree. Reflecting upon her
fond memories Eleni notes, “When I was a teenager he had instilled in me that I
could have the same career goals as my brothers, if I wanted to, and that a
good career is fundamental to a secure future. He had instilled a love of math to me and he
had also brought me with him to various factories where I became curious as to
the operation of machinery etc., leading me to study engineering.”
The
professors at Stevens welcomed the idea of women attending with open arms, as
far as Eleni could tell. With a bit of a
smirk she stated, “My professors were fair minded people. Having said that, I will never forget the rare
exception to my previous statement, where even though I was sitting in the
front row, a certain professor insisted in greeting the class as "Hello
gentlemen". I heard that he later
transferred to NJIT :)” Eleni was offered the position of Head Physics proctor,
and later when she was studying for her masters at Stevens she received a
Fellowship from the Plastics Institute of America.
The
class sizes were smaller then, and the women in each were definitely in short
supply. She mentioned that there were
only 5 women who graduated with her in the Chemical Engineering department in
’83. However, she and the women around
her did not feel hindered in any way due to their gender. They felt like they could do anything. Even as few as they were they made their
presence known and made a huge splash both in and out of the classroom by
joining extracurricular activates. Eleni
even cofounded the Philosophy Club. Eleni went on to work at various companies
doing chemical engineering, but eventually found her passion teaching high
school seniors Chemistry and Physics.
To
wrap up her feelings about her stay at Stevens she said, “My overall experience
at Stevens was outstanding and that is why I was very happy when three of my
four sons decided to attend Stevens. Academically
it prepared me with a rigorous curriculum. It empowered me to know that I could
handle any job. Personally, I met my
husband there so that was an added perk :)” Side note: she and her husband were
freshman chemistry lab partners. We will
leave you to enjoy how ironic and the endearing that fact is.
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