By Dionne Whitaker-Moore
Three Angels
In the course of a lifetime, people’s choices inevitably ignite chain reactions of influence in the lives of others. Small choices—such as the giving of an encouraging word, a shoulder to cry on, a prayer—strengthen the web of our delicate connections. In their own words, four alumni express gratitude for the choices, big and small, people made in their lives while at Walla Walla College and how the effects continue to spread.
It had been a very tough quarter and things were starting to bog me down. But I was going to be ok because I was going to take a class from a teacher that everyone loved and, I was told, was very nice and approachable. Much to my chagrin the teacher called me into his office. He proceeded to tell me that I needed to change my major because he didn’t think engineering was for me. Based upon my grades he felt that I should try a different area of study.
I was stunned and in shock for the rest of the quarter and the rest of the year. I slowly started to doubt my abilities and my self-esteem spiraled.
By my senior year I was a mess. I had zero confidence and I’d stopped asking questions in most of my classes. It seemed like every class became more and more confusing. I was afraid to ask questions because I thought they sounded stupid to ask in public. I had to invite myself into study groups, and I always felt my opinions and ideas were ignored. As I enrolled in several of the senior level engineering classes in my specific discipline, I knew that these classes would be the death of me. So in my mind I prepared myself for dropping out and trying to explain to my parents why all of their hard-earned money was not going to produce an engineer in the family.
Then God assigned three angels disguised as teachers to three of my classes. Their names are Jon Cole, Robert Wood, and Fred Bennett. At the time they were also known as the “hard teachers,” especially Bennett.
On my first day of class with Dr. Bennett I sat way in the back. I’d heard how he would ask students questions just like a prosecutor does when someone is sitting in the witness stand.
My first day in class with Dr. Cole, well, I just didn’t understand anything he said. It seemed to fly straight over my head. Dr. Wood’s class seemed easy enough, until I took my first exam. Then I realized I didn’t understand anything at all.
The turning point for me happened in Dr. Bennett’s class. One day he asked me a question and I didn’t know the answer. I started to get nervous and embarrassed, and I wanted to run out of the room. So instead of answering I asked him a question. The room went silent. All eyes were on me. Dr. Bennett came over to my desk and looked at me long and hard. Then he said in his authoritative voice, “Good question, Whitaker,” and he walked away.
After class I told him how lost I was and asked if he could help me to understand some topics. It was almost impossible to get an appointment with Dr. Bennett so I knew the answer would be no. Instead he looked at me long and hard again and said,“Of course; what’s a good time for you?” To the reader this may sound normal, but an engineering student getting a one-on-one with Dr. Bennett was not common. I expected him to confuse me further when we met, but he didn’t. He was patient and very encouraging. He kept telling me that I was as smart as the rest of the students, possibly smarter, but I just didn’t believe it. He kept telling me to trust my instincts and believe in my abilities. He was right. Then he scheduled me for more appointments.
Dr. Cole would spend hours with me after classes were over for the day, explaining over and over again topics that he’d already gone through in classes. I just didn’t understand them during his lectures. He would use tons of scratch paper and draw numerous diagrams that I still have to this day. His after-class sessions finally started to embed things in my mind just like a processor chip is embedded in a motherboard. He would always say, “Come on Dionne, think. What are you trying to do? Let me try to explain it a different way.”
But Dr. Wood takes the cake with his never-ending patience. I would sometimes ask him the same question 10 times in one hour and he never once changed his tone or got irritated. He would just continue to find a different way to explain it until I got the subject matter. I also still have tons of his diagrams written on scratch paper. Every time I came into his office he would say, “Welcome, Dionne. What can I do for you?” Like I was brand new and he hadn’t just seen me 20 minutes earlier asking the same question.
Never once did these professors tell me I should change my major. Even though it would make logical sense to do so, since I seemed to be struggling in so many areas at the time.
Guess what? I made it. I didn’t drop out and I enjoyed those three classes the most: Structures III/Structural Design, Geotechnical Engineering, and Hydroenvironmental Engineering II. These three teachers gave me the confidence I needed to graduate with my degree in engineering. I already had the intellect, but my self-confidence had started to destroy my intellectual capability.
I don’t even know if these professors knew how much they were enabling me to succeed in college and in life. But they dug down deep and helped me to discover that I did have what it takes to make it as a successful engineer. That is just what I needed during my senior year in college.
God knew I needed them when I did, also because they didn’t become my teachers until I’d reached my lowest point. I’ll never forget them and what they did for me. I wouldn’t be here today writing this from my office in the Pentagon, if it hadn’t been for God and the three angels he sent my way, disguised as teachers.
Today I’m a successful software engineer and when I’m explaining an oracle relational or object relational database concept to someone within my team of dbas, I always take out a piece of scratch paper and tell them to trust their instincts. Finally I welcome them into my office asking, “What can I do for you today?”
Dionne Whitaker-Moore, a 1995 civil engineering graduate, is a Senior Oracle dba/System Administrator (Unix) for Northrop-Grumman, a global defense company. She is currently based at the Pentagon.