My name is Danya AbdelHameid.
I am a senior at the College of William & Mary
studying physics and a minor in geology.
I am currently working on a project to better
understand, on the most basic level, how does
a glacier flow using materials that aren’t
glaciers, that is not ice, to try and better
understand how might a real glacier flow.
It’s a really interesting material.
It is solid in that it’s ice, it’s compacted
ice most times, but also it can sometimes
flow more like a liquid like corn syrup or
honey.
I’ve also become very interested in thinking
about what role have African Americans or
black people had in glaciology in the past.
On the surface it can seem like there is nothing
there, but I think it’s important and really
crucial to think about on a deeper level how
did the roots of glaciology impact the way
people do research in the field, but also
who does research in the field.
There is a lot that we can do as a geoscience
community, as a society overall, to make geoscience,
but also to make STEM broadly, a place that
is not only welcoming, but also inviting to
people from underrepresented backgrounds.
I think what I like most about college is
being able to, more or less, take any class
that you want and to learn about any topic
that you want.
Some of the best classes that I’ve taken
have been classes that were not at all related
to my major, not at all related to my minor,
or any sort of course requirement.
I think the main challenge for me, that especially
affected me earlier on, was having a firm
believe in myself, but also really believing
that I deserve to be here.
I deserve to be on this campus, I deserve
to be in this class learning this topic.
What I’ve found most helpful to overcome
feeling like you don’t belong in a certain
environment or feeling like you don’t deserve
to be doing what you're doing I think is finding
communities where there are people who maybe
don’t have the same exact identity as you,
have the same exact experiences, but have
dealt with the challenge of not feeling like
you deserve to be in a certain space.
My family immigrated to the U.S. from Sudan
and I still have family that lives in Sudan
and I think what has been super important
about having that part of my identity shape
me is it's really given me a sense of why
I’m doing what I’m doing.
I think it’s really sort of put things in
perspective for me and sort of instilled in
me more of an importance of these issues of
climate change, global warming, and water
pollution, and water rights even.
They’re very real issues that affect people
on a very, very personal level.
For me, that’s sort of the bigger picture,
the why, and I think having that perspective
is important.
