Photo By Neil Mabini | Karon Myles, director of the STEM program and the Naval Engineering Education...... read more read more
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Karon Myles is the STEM and Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) director at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Corona. She began her career here in February 1986, when she was hired as a mechanical engineer in the Firing Test Effectiveness Branch. Less than a year later, she transferred to the Product Assurance Division (later renamed Quality Assessment - QA), where she worked for the next 10 years.
“I decided to take advantage of a Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay option in 1997, left the Navy temporarily, and opened a gourmet coffeehouse featuring live jazz entertainment,” Myles said. “My husband and I ran that business until 2000, when we realized I needed to go back to work, as I had children starting college.”
With a job history that also included design and construction engineering for an oil refinery and work as a piping design engineer at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, NSWC Corona welcomed her back in 2000, into the same branch she left a few years earlier. By 2004, Myles was a Quality Assessment Department branch head and, subsequently, an Acquisition and Readiness Assessment Department branch head.
Her work history was preceded by a long and diverse upbringing, being an Army kid and moving around throughout her father’s career. When her father retired from the military, the family settled back in her parents’ hometown of Oklahoma City, where neighborhoods were still segregated. Myles said she was oblivious to a lot of the struggles outside of her “bubble.”
“Although I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood, my parents still drove us across town to the Catholic schools,” Myles said. “Consequently, I had close friends from various backgrounds and ethnicities. Because I was not exposed to many cultural problems when they were rampant, I did not understand how bad they were.”
While in high school, Myles decided she wanted to go to a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) and applied for admission to several. She was accepted to Grambling University in Grambling, Louisiana, with a full, four-year physics scholarship. She was also accepted to Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), in Tuskegee, Alabama, to attend the Pre- Engineering summer program.
“Both sounded good, so my brilliant plan was to go to the Tuskegee summer program, get ahead by earning six hours of credit over the summer, and then transfer to Grambling to begin my Physics education,” she said.
As it turned out, she loved Tuskegee’s engineering program and the Alabama campus so much that she relinquished the physics scholarship and stayed at Tuskegee, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Attending Tuskegee Institute introduced her to more racial segregation and discrimination than she had ever known before, she said.
“After being exposed to that, I realized that I had lived a sheltered life, and was happy that I did not grow up in Alabama or the other Southern states,” Myles said. “While at Tuskegee and in the South, a close camaraderie was formed by being around the large concentration of black students in class and around the local communities. This was different for me, but very much appreciated and enjoyed.”
The knowledge to which she was exposed while at the HBCU helped her better understand how life in the black community was before the civil rights movement, Myles said.
“I am thankful that I did not have to experience those times, and do not want those situations to return now,” she said.
Myles’ social and physical outlet during college was her participation with the Marching Crimson Pipers, Tuskegee Institute’s marching band as an alto saxophone player, which allowed her to travel to other HBCUs, see their campuses and have fun. However, she always took her homework with her on the bus when she traveled with the band.
“I was shaped by Tuskegee Institute, maybe because of the feeling of belonging,” Myles said.
Belonging did not come without its challenges. Up to that point, HBCU bands had been predominantly male, so female band members had to work very hard to compete. This wasn’t her only obstacle, as engineering school was also predominantly male at that time. In both situations, she rose to the challenge. She said the band was an early start at having to demonstrate that she could do just as well as the male band members.
“My college years at Tuskegee were a very significant part of my life experience,” Myles said. “I still return for homecoming and to participate with the alumni band.”
Being a member of Tuskegee’s Engineering Alumni Association affords Myles with opportunities to motivate students. As such, she promotes both NSWC Corona and her profession in STEM, aiming to inspire students to achieve whatever they set their minds to through focus and hard work, no matter the obstacles.
“I think that a number of opportunities seem to be more obtainable and available to people, but there are still unspoken, ignored, or unconscious obstacles that exist. Society still has a lot to overcome relative to our cultural differences,” Myles said. “While I am seeing more diversity in public jobs and responsibilities such as news anchors, television shows, managers and business owners, some old beliefs and practices still need to be changed.”
Myles said Black History Month provides an opportunity to openly reflect on historical events and milestones that have been significant in shaping the lives of Black Americans and offers a chance to enlighten others.
“Black History has shaped me to be who I am, because my curiosity of black culture taught me about how many important contributions were made by African Americans that many people today don’t know about,” she said. “It reinforced my confidence that I could achieve whatever I set my mind to do.”
Myles is a member of the Greater Riverside STEM chapter of Blacks in Government (BIG). The local chapter was chartered in 2010 by NSWC Corona employees. Along with fellow members, Myles has held oratorical and STEM workshops for students off-site throughout the years and has nurtured four local students to win first place in the BIG National Student Oratorical and STEM competitions.
Having forged a successful career path through STEM, Myles is able to reach back with a helping hand to inspire and motivate today’s black youth while encouraging them to keep moving forward. She empowers them to dispel any negative thoughts of not being able to pursue positive careers and lifestyles for which they are passionate or have skills.
“I want them to stop settling for opportunities that just ‘get them by,’ and put forth efforts to propel them closer to their dreams,” Myles said. “I want them to step out of their ‘generation’ boxes, be open and embrace the differences, and try to figure out how to make the future better for everyone.”
Her advice to young black women as they navigate life, family, and careers is to not let temporary obstacles block their paths, to be proactive, to embrace positivity and to be vigilant in making the right choices for themselves and their families.
“You may have to take an alternate route to get to your destination,” Myles said. “Don’t be a wallflower. Your voice, thoughts, and actions may be what’s needed to make a big difference.”
| Date Taken: | 02.02.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.02.2022 20:16 |
| Story ID: | 413898 |
| Location: | CORONA, CA, US |
| Hometown: | OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, US |
| Web Views: | 145 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, From HBCU to STEM: NSWC Corona Black History Month Employee Spotlight, by Linda Welz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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