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Living in Germany was one of the\hgreatest experiences I ever had.

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A destination you loved? I love\h\hthe culture there, I love the people, I loved\hthe public transportation, it was amazing.

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My name is Jamesa Stokes and I'm a materials\h
research engineer here at Glenn. What do you do at NASA Glenn? I work in the environmental effects and coatings branch.

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What excites you and motivates you most about your work? That\hhuman element of knowing that whatever I make is\h\hgoing

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to go on to vehicles that are going to make\hflight safer and fuel-efficient, I think that's really what motivates me.

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Fun fact that would surprise most of your coworkers?  I had my boxing gloves in\hthe car, one of my co-workers who sat in my

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front\h\hseat, they saw them there and they were like why do\h

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you have boxing gloves? It's like, it's a fun stress\h\hrelieving workout.

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What was your path to NASA? 
I started off as a studio\hart major, then I switched to

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pre-architecture, and finally I switched to being a physics\hmajor.  And it was when I

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became a physics\h\hmajor in undergrad that I started taking NASA\hinternships because I was like - oh this would\h\hbe a cool place to work.

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Something you love doing?  I love to crochet, I love to sew. In terms of visual arts, I mostly do\hcollage and mixed media. \h\h

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Recently I bought two\hof the same blazer, I took them apart completely into their fabric components and then I sewed them back in together into one jacket that would fit me.\h

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On how to grow the number of African-Americans in STEM? \hI think most importantly showing  that there's no\hsingle way to be a really successful scientist or\h\hengineer.

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Actually coming here to Glenn now was the\hfirst time I met another African-American woman\h\hwho was also in material science and engineering.\h

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Somthing on your bucket list? Definitely traveling to Antarctica.

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I have a bunch\hof friends from grad school who are all amazing\h
geoscientists, and I feel like it's one of those\h\h

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experiences that really make you grow closer\h
to the people that you're there with because\h\h

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you're just all trying to survive out there in\h
this frozen tundra.

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Advice for younger generations pursuing a career in stem? Don't limit yourself to the experiences that you could have as a science and\hengineering major \h

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and really keep yourself open\hto a variety of different opportunities, because you can learn a valuable skill\h\h

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from anything - whether it's something that you want\h
to research in the long term or not.

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Are you a sports fan? Oh absolutely\h\hI went to Auburn for undergrad, I went to Penn\hState for grad school, so I'm a huge football fan.