My name is Flavia Ziarnik, and I was born and raised in Brazil, specifically in Sao Paulo, the biggest city in the Americas and one of the world’s metropolises. For perspective, Sao Paulo is bigger than New York City in area and population.

My mom is a publicist and journalist, and my dad is an engineer and a math teacher. Needless to say, there were no excuses for low grades at home! Mom consistently enforced correct grammar, writing, and speech, while Dad taught me logical thinking, problem-solving, math, and physics. The first thing I wanted to be when I grew up was an astronaut. The stars and the sky always amazed me.

Around my 10th birthday, my dad gave me a toy called “Alchemia”. It was a kid’s version of a lab with experiences, chemical substances, protection glasses, and all the chemistry paraphernalia. The toy came with instructions to do specific experiments with adult supervision involving “firing” and ‘‘mini-explosions”. I was absolutely fascinated with all the colors and physical characteristics changes. All the gems, stones, sounds, and heat exchanges seemed so fun. My dad told me this could be my profession, and I could actually work doing these fun experiments every day and get paid to do it!

That was it! I didn’t know what Chemistry was, but I knew I wanted to learn more. I wanted to understand why all of these things were happening. How did the color change? Why was there so much liquid here, and now there isn’t anymore? Where does the fire come from? What are the stars made of? I was always curious by nature.

In 9th grade, I began taking Advanced Chemistry Classes, and thankfully, I had a teacher that I will never forget as she inspired my future career choice. Her name was Nilza, and because I loved chemistry and did really well in school, she used to seat me outside the classroom to take tests to avoid other students trying to copy my answers. In Brazil, right after high school, you have to choose your field of study, and differently from the United States, Brazilian students don’t have a major and a minor. When my time to make a choice came, it was an easy choice: I wanted to study chemistry. I was accepted into one of the best engineering schools in Brazil, Mackenzie University. I must confess that the first couple of college years were way more theoretical than I wanted them to be. I only wanted to spend time in the lab, mixing things and seeing reactions, especially the ones that would go boom and leave sparks.

Fast forward a couple of years, and it was time to find my first internship as a chemistry student. My first experience was in a water company's lab, where I had to test the hardness of different water samples. I was excited, but this excitement lasted less than a month. As you recall, my mom is a journalist, and my extroversion and communication skills stem from her. Being careful with stereotypes, STEM students are usually less extroverted and communicative than journalists. The tricky part was although I loved chemistry, I loved to talk more! I enjoyed meeting people and creating relationships.

After a month, the work at the water lab was not that exciting anymore. I couldn’t talk to people, and the tests I ran didn’t seem to be exciting. The best I could get was a change of color depending on the water's pH. My little bubble had broken, and I faced my first career frustration. At some point, while I was doing my job, I was bothering other chemists, as I liked to talk to people while performing my tests. It wasn’t working, and I decided to leave the company. After a couple of months, I applied for another position in another company for a non-lab job. I was hired as an intern in the Packaging Engineering of a big cosmetics company, Avon. Fate had Packaging Engineering and Purchasing sharing the same office floor. In a couple of months, my extrovert-talk-to-everybody-self had already made connections, which led me to a full-time position in Purchasing, buying raw materials. This opportunity opened my eyes to precisely what I have been craving in a future career. I could exercise my STEM side using math and chemistry daily while relying on my communication side to gather information and form relationships with the vendors. A perfect match for my skills!

Fast forward a few years, I moved to a pharmaceutical company, where I could be close to drug manufacturing, a new world of complexity and regulations. As I progressed in my career and received more responsibilities, I was assigned to visit vendors around the world. My first international work trip was in Germany. This experience solidified what I wanted to do for the rest of my career, as it was a perfect combination of science and communications! After a couple of years, I decided to move to another role at BASF, the biggest chemical manufacturer in the world. I learned a lot and gained experience, which allowed me to take the position that changed my life. I was invited to join a startup company, which led me to lots of work and travel in my future, including Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, China, Singapore, and Indonesia, among others.

I was always fascinated by the fact that it doesn’t matter the language or the country's culture; the chemistry rules or the math operations were always the same. It was easy to discuss the manufacturing process of a determined material, no matter where I was. This is one of the beauties of chemistry and STEM in general. 

A few years passed, and I was invited to move from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Wisconsin, USA. After thinking a bit, I followed my heart and accepted the offer. I would have a completely new life, friends, place, and job, but one thing remained the same - STEM. I knew how to do my work; I knew that something on my job worked the same in Brazil or the USA, and this gave me the confidence I needed to take this next step in my career.

This move showed me the importance of a college degree, especially a degree in STEM. First, I needed a college degree, or my move wouldn’t have been authorized by US Citizens & Immigration Services (USCIS). Second, the hiring employer had to write a long justification to USCIS about why they wanted me to move to the USA to work for them. When I read the justification, I felt proud that 75% of the justification came from my STEM technical knowledge and how this knowledge could be leveraged to bring a competitive advantage to the company. I had a friend who tried to make the same move. She was from another non-STEM-related area; however, her immigration was denied. Her denial was because her area of expertise was ‘too broad’ and thus easily replaced by someone already in the country.

And that is why I say that my passion for STEM helped me journey around the world. Seven years and 22 stamps on my passport (for both work and leisure), and here I am, in another STEM-related position, as the Senior Global Commodity Manager at Generac, responsible for polymers vendors (polymers are chemical compounds whose molecules are very large, often resembling long chains made up of a seemingly endless series of interconnected links) and all the aspects of the relationship, including contracts, price negotiation and definition of the strategy for the category in the next few years. I absolutely love cheese, and one of my first biochemistry classes was about the cheese manufacturing process. Who knew I would live in Wisconsin, America’s Dairyland? Best of all, I am working on what I love and championing STEM and the importance of STEM education!

My advice is to help a child understand that their indoor fun activity on a rainy day can become a future profession.

Expose your kids to STEM in a light and fun way! Which kid doesn’t like colors, fire, and “booms”?

Help your child be curious. Why does it rain? Why is the sky blue? How does the water become ice?

Encourage a child to ask questions! And please respond to these questions in a fun and real way!

We never know where these questions will take the kids! Maybe living abroad and visiting several places around the world. The more curious kids are, the more kids will be involved in STEM-related careers in the future! To get a child involved in STEM, visit https://www.stemforward.org/.

- Flavia

Posted September 2023 by Maureen Haeger. Communications & Program Manager.