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I am Nancy Holloway, and this is my story.
As a little girl, I liked art and making things.
I used to love to make my own dolls and doll clothes
and furniture and things like that as a child.
I always thought it would be interesting to
get in a field where I could express myself
through fabricating and creating objects.
My high school teacher got me a position
out here working during the school year part-time.
I clearly remember walking through the laboratory
and looking at all these amazing machines
and wondering what they did.
Seventeen year old with wide eyes. [ LAUGHS ]
I came out as a secretary in the clerical field
and did a career switch early on in my career
and got a position in the fabrication organization as an
electronics technician, and I was able to create and fabricate
and manufacture parts and components and materials.
There were a lot of people that doubted
whether I would make it in that program.
Even my mom doubted I could do it.
(She) Suggested I stay in the clerical field,
and that was a good career, but I told her,
"I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna make it."
I would consider my greatest accomplishment --
I probably have two that come to mind...
One of them would be developing the fetal heart monitor.
It doesn't sound like something that's related to NASA
but, ironically, it was a project that was worked
through a technology utilization program.
We were looking at piezoelectric materials
to measure pressure on wind tunnel models,
and there was a Dr. Zuckerwar that was
one of the lead engineers on the team.
He came and worked with myself and some of
the other technicians to use that kind of technology
to translate it into a fetal heart monitor and actually
got to try it out on my first child that I was expecting.
Another one was developing a resin known as LaRC-SI --
Langley Research Center Soluble Imide --
that was cast into flex circuits and cables.
And that was a very rewarding project to work on.
I think I grew more working on that project...
So it's been a mix of people, a combination of family,
engineers and researchers and managers that have
come together, you know, that I feel like have really helped me.
My parents and my grandfather -- a hard work ethic, a good
work ethic, a strong work ethic definitely came from them.
Rob Bryant gave me a lot of confidence to go out and do it, to try it.
It really helped me to grow and develop and to try things
and challenge conventional ideas and wisdom.
I've learned through the years to be patient.
I've learned, and I'm still learning, to talk less and listen more.
Don't cut yourself short. Don't take the easy path.
Continue to challenge yourself, especially in math and science courses.
They will prepare you for rewarding technical careers.
Build things with your hands.
Learn how things are put together, how they're taken apart.
And I would say one of the most important lessons
that I learned from one of my mentors was "How do I add value?"
Am I just going through the motions and getting the job done,
or am I adding value along the way?
When you think about that, it makes all the difference between an
average product or an average result and a great or excellent result.
My role models were traditional female role models -- teacher, nurse, secretary.
I never realized I could get into a technical field and there were
these interesting technician and technical-type jobs,
and that's what NASA brought to me.
It gave me the opportunity to see that and to go down
a completely different path than what I ever imagined.