The modern world is rethinking conventions like “male-dominated professions,” but challenges remain for women in fields that tend to attract more men.
This month we pause to highlight professors Marie Bruley, Ed.D., and Alison Huff, Ph.D., who are nurturing the next generation of students in mathematics and physics, two fields in which women are vastly underrepresented.
Also, we introduce you to welding program graduate Priscilla Vizcarra, who will soon become one of roughly 95,000 pipefitter¬s—just 2.5 percent of whom are women—in America today.
MATHEMATICS AS PASSPORT
Math Professor Marie Bruley grew up in Hilmar and then Turlock in what she calls “a non-academic family.”
Her mother suffered from mental illness, so her single father Israel Ortega worked hard raising two kids while working at Foster Farms. He was a devout Apostolic, and their family spent a lot of time at church.
“I didn’t have a perspective on being an academic,” Bruley said. “I knew I liked to read and had an aptitude for certain things. But everything I did at that age had to be self-motivated.”
Bruley was a junior at Turlock High School when an Algebra II class unlocked a door for her. She scored well and then found herself practicing algebra outside of class, for fun, because her enjoyment of it was so profound.
She took precalculus and, on the encouragement of some friends, started tackling AP courses. After her success there, two of her math teachers then recommended her for a summer math program at CSU Stanislaus.
At around the same time, Bruley’s home life turned difficult, and she found herself sleeping on friends’ couches. Her respite was spending two weeks in the Stan State dorms, swimming in algebra with like-minded math heads. She got a perfect score on the camp’s algebra placement test that summer, then returned the next year and aced the calculus camp, too.
As a Stanislaus State student, passing Calculus 1 out of the gate allowed her to get a much-needed job as a tutor. Helping fellow students pushed her to cycle from art major to an art-math major to simply a math major.
Bruley originally hesitated to commit to mathematics. She’d seen other math majors psych themselves out of taking the toughest courses—abstract analysis and abstract algebra—and quit.
“That’s where I saw a lot of that feeling inadequate and having to prove yourself,” Bruley said of entering a discipline filled with men. “I became really competitive and started enjoying getting the highest scores on tests.
“I approached it by brushing up close to those [fears about not belonging in math]. I’ve always projected confidence and then showed my competence.”
She completed her B.S. in Mathematics at Stanislaus State, then earned her M.S. at Sacramento State and her Ed.D. back at Stanislaus State. Bruley believes mathematics can unlock new worlds for her Merced College students.
“You’re developing mental acuity, mental stamina, persistence,” she said. “Mathematics can be intimidating, but if you see it as a way to personal growth, it translates into everything you do.”
Bruley honors the many teachers, professors, cheerleaders who helped her find her calling by working to mentor others.
At Merced College, she has overseen the supplemental grant program that pays for embedded (in-class) tutors, which have done great work bridging gaps for the campus’s mostly Hispanic and first-generation students. Both populations are woefully underrepresented in mathematics, as are women.
Two of her former embedded tutors, Caitlin Serpa and Jo Fawna Ebinger, are now part of the economics and mathematics faculty, respectively, at Merced College.
“Seeing them come back because they’ve developed a passion for math has been really awesome,” Bruley said. “I just want to continue to be involved in all of the math that goes on here.”
PHYSICS AS REBELLION
Pursuing physics as a calling felt right to Professor Alison Huff, but not for reasons you might assume.
Huff’s father Robert was a theoretical physicist at places like UCLA. But she was undeclared at the College of Wooster in Ohio before she took a physics class her second semester there.
“I fell in love with it,” Huff said. “The way it was taught, it lined up with how I learned the best. It was easy for me, even if the material was difficult, to know how to approach each problem and figure it out on my own.”
Huff’s father devoted himself to research-heavy theoretical physics. She found purpose in the hands-on side, using microscopes and lasers, among other tools, to solve the universe’s puzzles. “That was my lingering teenage rebellion,” she said.
Huff earned her B.A. in Physics from Wooster in 2010, her M.S. in Physics from Miami University (Ohio) in 2012 and her Ph.D. from UC Merced in 2018.
She landed at Merced College because she wanted to teach and make physics accessible to all students of all learning styles as a career.
“I treat it all like it’s possible and look forward to the challenge as much as possible,” she said.
Physics is the study of matter and energy, which touches every part of the universe. Who practices physics in the U.S., however, is not as expansive or inclusive. For example, just 18.5 percent of American physics professors are women.
A 2022 Science magazine article discussed how to diversify a field that is overwhelmingly white and male. It said “non-traditional” physics students—women and people of color—are capable and willing, until they’re discouraged by factors unrelated to subject matter.
Huff believes society stops them by making physics impossible to master.
“It can be especially difficult for minorities and first-generation students,” she said. “They hear that, and without realizing it, put themselves at a disadvantage. But I think people who succeed in physics have encountered some difficulty in life. They’re more likely to succeed. Because—and this is true with many of the sciences—it’s not how smart you are, but how stubborn you are to learn the material, and how patient you are with yourself.”
Huff starts classes each semester telling her charges to “get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.”
“I tell them, ‘Compare yourself to yourself,’” she said. “Think of it this way: Someone had to teach Albert Einstein that 2 plus 2 equals 4.”
WELDING IS LIFE
Priscilla Vizcarra completed her transfer degree in biology at Merced College in Spring 2021 because she “wanted something science-y” in her education. Though she could have transferred to Fresno State, Sacramento State or Stanislaus State, the pandemic left her exhausted from online courses.
Still, Vizcarra didn’t want to stop learning. She kept thinking about how she loved her wood shop and auto shop classes at Merced High School, and started wanting to put her hands on things. She’d never tried welding, and so she took a chance.
“I fell in love with it,” Vizcarra said. “I had no idea I’d be good at it. When I first saw welding, it looked so beautiful to me. It’s like art. Like how the welder looks in their hood, with the sparks.”
She completed the Merced College welding program in Fall 2021 and the new pipe welding program in Spring 2022.
Last week the 23-year-old also tested and interviewed to become a member of the Pipefitters Union Local 442 in Modesto. According to national labor statistics, the industry is made of over 97% men—but among 90 applicants, Vizcarra received the second-highest score overall.
Now she has a vocation.
“When I have my hood on, it’s the most peaceful thing,” she said. “Nothing else matters. Today, tomorrow, bad news. It makes me so happy. The whole building can burn down, but it’s just me and this weld right here.”
That love of the craft allowed Vizcarra to hone her skill. That skill allows her to feel confident working jobs where she might be the only woman present.
For others wanting to do the same, she added: “Just because you’ve never done something, it doesn’t mean you’re not going to be good at it.”