The road to recognizing Dr. Gladys West has been long. Dr. Gladys West was instrumental in creating the technology that makes our efforts to get from point A to point B much easier. Even before the recognition, the well-traveled Dinwiddie County road ahead of Dr. West seemed to be filled with roadblocks of working in the fields picking tobacco, corn and cotton, or in a nearby factory, beating tobacco leaves to the size that could fit cigarettes and pipes.
However, before being a part of the team that developed Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, Dr. West’s internal GPS guided her to education as a different way through life. Education was the detour that led Dr. West to graduate at the top of her class earning her a full scholarship to attend college. Dr. West was hired as the second Black woman and one of four Black employees at the United States Naval Weapons Laboratory in 1956 where she calculated numbers and processed data from satellites to help determine their exact location. What seems like light years later, it was not until December of 2018 that Dr. West was recognized for her contributions. Simply put, she played an integral role by contributing to the accuracy of the technology that we know as GPS.
In 2019, I learned of Dr. Gladys West when my friend, Camela, and I finalized the lyrics to my song, #Driven. I simply want to know what GPS stands for. How pleasantly surprised I was to learn of Dr. West in the process. I think of her every time my song plays; especially this part of the hook:
“When everyone says no, my GPS says go. I’m livin’ #Driven.”
Listen to the full version of #Driven.
Think about your ride to your destinations in life and how your internal GPS can guide you by responding to the following:
What are your top five goals?
What what are the possible potholes, roadblocks or detours?
List three green lights to reaching your main destination.
Email your responses to cms@coreyempowers.com and let’s chat about them.