KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — How does a mother home-school all four of her children, climb the professional ladder from intern to senior management and still find time to volunteer and improve lives in her community? Ask Margaret Jones, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mechanical engineer, currently deployed in Afghanistan.
“You’ve got to set the right priorities, get organized and waste no time,” Jones urged.
As an Air Force brat growing up on military installations around the world, Jones received a high-quality education both on and off base; one that was supplemented by her parents’ commitment to informing and inspiring their children.
Jones’ father was a jack of all trades and an explosive ordnance disposal technician in the U.S. Air Force who frequently told his children, “You can do anything you put your mind to and don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t.”
Jones’ father would tinker with appliances and electronics and Margaret would join him. Jones’ mother was a classically-trained pianist who began teaching her daughter how to play the piano when Jones’ was five; a skill and talent Jones possesses to this day.
As a little girl, Jones dreamed of becoming a teacher or a doctor. Once in high school, an immersion program with engineers on the campus of Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, a historically black college in Baton Rouge, La., inspired Jones to consider engineering instead.
Jones entered Louisiana’s McNeese State University in 1977 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. She was the only woman of color in her graduating class.
“There were not many women role models in engineering back then,” said Jones, “but I remembered what my dad told me, ‘You can do anything you put your mind to.’”
Jones married a U.S. Army soldier, started a family and went to work for a petrochemical company in Louisiana. After four years at the company, Jones made the tough decision to put her career on hold and moved to Fort Richardson, Alaska, her then husband’s new duty station. The highly-adaptive military brat was used to frequent change, she said, and saw Alaska with its rebel spirit and rugged, pristine terrain, as an adventure.
Once at Fort Richardson, Jones enjoyed using the community’s many resources such as the swimming pool, library and ice skating rink to keep her young children entertained. At the rink, Jones met some mothers who shared with her that they taught their children.
“Well I teach my children too, in the summer,” said Jones.
“No, we home-school year round,” explained the mothers.
Home schooling is often defined as the education of children at home, typically by parents or by tutors, rather than in formal public or private school settings by formally-educated and traditionally-trained teachers.
Home schooling is popular in Alaska because of the harsh climate and sparse, dispersed population, explained Jones.
After some research and contemplation, Jones decided home schooling was the best option for her family.
“I was not working, so I had before me this wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with my children, raising them with my values, my attention to their needs, my focus on helping them learn and succeed,” she said.
The curriculum included language arts, chemistry, biology, including dissecting frogs, and Jones reveled in serving as her children’s teacher, she said.
She loved teaching so much that she decided to go to Fort Richardson’s education center to see about teaching adults. The center wanted instructors to teach drafting courses. After three semesters of the class not proceeding due to lack of enrollments, the education center’s staff coordinator approached Jones with a question: “My husband would like to know if you would consider working for the Corps of Engineers?”
Jones had never heard of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Well, I home school, and my children are my number one priority, so if I were to work for the Corps, it would have to be part-time only,” Jones explained.
The staff coordinator gave her an application, which Jones filled out and provided to USACE. Unbeknownst to Jones, the staff coordinator at the education center was married to the USACE district commander in Alaska.
Jones was hired as the first permanent, part-time intern at the Alaska District, which allowed her to continue home schooling while building a career in the district’s engineering division.
In 1998, Jones accepted full-time employment with USACE and along with her three youngest children, embarked on an exciting new assignment in Egypt. She served as the project engineer for construction of the International Medical Center in Cairo. Her responsibilities included inspecting various types of mechanical equipment and systems to assure compliance with plans and specifications as well as serving as a liaison between contractors, customers and the U.S. and foreign governments. Her success in Egypt led to a promotion and Jones returned to the United States to what was then called the USACE Transatlantic Program Center.
As a project manager, Jones was responsible for projects in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Jones continued to excel and in 2006 achieved the grade of Government-Schedule 15, the highest grade on the GS scale. Over the last decade, Jones has lived and worked throughout the Middle East and Asia, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where she currently serves as the deputy chief of the Engineering & Construction Division at the Afghanistan Engineer District-South in Kandahar. She helps oversee a division that is constructing projects, including military installations and public infrastructure, aimed and improving the security and stability of Afghanistan.
“Margaret is a joy to work with and embodies the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage,” said Perry Hubert, P.E., chief of the Engineering and Construction Division. “She is a true leader with a remarkable work ethic and requires very little supervision or guidance. She exhibits speed and attention to detail. I’m thrilled to have her as my deputy,” Hubert said.
Among her dozens of awards is the prestigious USACE Bronze de Fleury Medal. The medal is awarded by the Army Engineer Association and is presented to individuals who have “…rendered significant service or support to an element of the U.S. Army Engineer Regiment.”
Despite inspirational leaders like Jones, women still fall far behind men in employment in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2011 that although women make up about half of the American workforce, they hold only 25 percent of mathematics positions and 14 percent of engineering positions. The statistics are even lower for women of color.
Jones would like to see those statistics change.
“There are not enough women that are invited to interact with STEM professionals and visit STEM schools, like I was,” explained Jones. “If young women were able to meet engineers and visit these STEM schools, they could see for themselves that they can be scientists and engineers. I hope that with my life, my experiences, my support, I’ve been able to encourage women to pursue engineering,” Jones said.
When she’s home in Virginia, Jones teaches Sunday school at church, volunteers for a domestic violence prevention and response center helping survivors heal, and has served as a member and officer of numerous associations including the Society of American Military Engineers. She also mentors youth in her church and is a proud grandmother.
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 03.05.2013 03:51 |
| Story ID: | 102914 |
| Location: | WINCHESTER, , AF |
| Hometown: | WINCHESTER, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 354 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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