MTSU STEM Mentors

Stephanie Compton

Stephanie Compton

How would you describe your college experience?

Honestly, at first, I did not love college. It took me a couple of years to truly find my place. I transferred to MTSU after my freshman year of college because I realized that if I wanted to get a job in the music business, I really needed to be near Nashville for my undergraduate work. I loved my RIM classes and meeting other folks with a drive to innovate within the music business. I loved gaining an understanding of how the entertainment business worked. I had phenomenal professors who had so many real experiences to share and great industry contacts to help with getting us off and running after graduating. During my junior year, I got a job as a sound production technician for the music hall in the School of Music. It was a great mix of handling microphones and technology while providing customer service and expanding my knowledge of music. At that job, I met two other women who affirmed that it was awesome to be a woman who knew the difference between a Sennheiser and a Shure. I also volunteered at the Women's Center (now the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students) and helped start up Tau Sigma, the transfer student honor society. Once I found organizations that catered to my interests and passions, I connected with other folks who became my support system throughout my early 20s. I also got involved more actively with EYH during my senior year and was amazed to hear so many stories from my classmates about influential teachers along the way who had reinforced the idea that girls were not supposed to be interested in STEM fields. That has been a major motivation for me to be a teacher who breaks gender stereotypes and encourages respect among all my students.

When did you know that you wanted to major in a STEM discipline?

I got involved with the sound engineering when I was high school working as a techie for our high school theater productions. There is definitely something that is empowering about understanding signal flow and looking at a sound board and being able to make it work despite it having what looks like hundreds of buttons and wires. I like problem solving and being challenged mentally and sound engineering can definitely provide opportunities to stretch those areas of my brain. When I found out I could study the music business in college, I was immediately sold.

What is the most rewarding thing that you do in your job as a STEM professional?

I love witnessing that light bulb moment where students suddenly "get" whatever it is that I am teaching or make their current knowledge connect with other experiences in their lives. I also have always enjoyed destroying gender stereotypes. Girls can do anything and everything that boys can do. Yes, I can build a fire with flint and steel and I like tinkering with electronics. Yes, I enjoy an all-natural herbal facial. Yes, I like talking about Bernoulli's Princi