Lady Breaks US Varsity Record, Becomes First African Woman To Earn PhD in Aerospace

A young and brilliant Lady who goes by the name, Dr Nialah Wilson-Small has broken the Academic record of Cornell University, New York, as she emerged as the first-ever black woman to earn a PhD Degree in Aerospace Engineering.

The brilliant lady, Nialah who celebrated her academic achievement on Linkedin described her journey as a wild and tiring ride, noting that she is incredibly grateful to everyone that helped her achieve the feat.

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Nialah started her higher academic sojourn at Howard University in Washington, the USA where she bagged her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. She thereafter went ahead to earn her Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

Upon the conclusion of her Ph.D. at Cornell University, she announced her incredible achievement saying: “I successfully defended my dissertation and became the 1st Black woman to get a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.”

“You may now call me Dr. Nialah Wilson-Small,” she added.

Talking about her interest to get her PhD degree, Nailah said: “I was interested in grad school before [my internship at Sandia], but after that I was like ‘I gotta do a PhD.’ … I saw that the people doing the leading and pushing stuff forward all had PhDs and so I was like ‘Oh!’ if I get a PhD, then this can be my life …”

Taking advantage of the right message, passed at the right time, is also one of the things that led to Nialah’s career in robotics.

“One of the competitions that I did in high school was through the NAACP, and I only heard about that because of someone in my church, and I only knew about that because I talked to them,” Nialah told BlackInRobotics

Advising young people, Nailah said they should find someone that is in the position they want to be in and reach out to them. According to her, “You learn new things and it opens doors for yourself as well.”

Her LinkedIn post which attracted thousands of likes and comments got many celebrating and congratulating her. Below are a few:

Jessica R wrote: WELCOME to the sisterhood of black aerospace PHDs! I’m excited to see where your career takes you. Congratulations on blazing the trail at Cornell for future generations of underrepresented minorities!

Dr. Tony wrote: Congratulations Dr. To me, the strange thing is that you have not received the number of likes that a woman who is not an achiever would have received, simply because she’s regarded by myopic people as “pretty*. You are very pretty and very educated. Congratulations 

Krista Woodall wrote: Congratulations! You obviously have all it takes to be GREAT at what you do!

Ivan wrote: Amen….. you’re going to do great and amazing things because of your humbleness that without God, there is no way this would have been possible. Thank you for defining this moment to all the amazing young girls out there who have been discouraged that you cannot excel in a such heavy weight program. I have nothing but much respect for successfully defending your dissertation. Now I beg you to reach out and pick one another girl to follow your footsteps and before you know it, you will be 10, 20, and 30. And that’s how we all win. Congratulations Dr. Nialah. Good luck 

READ ALSO: Caleb Anderson, boy who gained admission into US Varsity at 12, to become Aerospace Engineer

CREDITS: ALLSCHOOL, Scholarshipregion, Blackinrobotics.org