Calcea Johnson is starting her sophomore year at Louisiana State University’s Ogden Honors College. She aspires to be an environmental engineer. As many college students deliberate over what career they will pursue, Johnson is laser focused on her plan; it is intricately tied to the community she knows well. In 2005, when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, unparalleled flooding ravaged homes, crippling communities and displacing families. But a different environmental crisis has commanded Johnson’s attention: urban heat islands.
In many inner cities, reduced natural landscapes, urban material properties that absorb and emit more heat, urban geometry that lend to the sizing and spacing of structures and their capacity to block natural wind flow, heat generated from human activities, and weather and geography are all compounding factors that lead to disproportionately higher temperatures in communities where sprawling architecture has replaced elements of a natural habitat. As a result, human behavior is impacted significantly in spaces where there is more concrete and metal.
This blueprint is standard in low socio-economic areas across the U.S. Black communities, already under-resourced, must contend with the domino effect of urban heat islands. Johnson wants to fix this. “I want to be able to help the New Orleans community. That’s kind of what got me into environmental engineering. I just feel like it is my responsibility to try and help. I definitely want to be able to reach back and help the community that helped to raise me. There are studies showing that when you add greenery and trees and grass space, it makes it a lot cooler. And actually, when you’re hotter, it makes you angrier and more prone to crime and things like that.”
At the 115th NAACP National Convention that took place in July, Johnson and her high school classmate,Ne’Kiya Jackson, were honored at the Women in NAACP (WIN) Brunch. One of the goals of WIN is to “address within the framework of the NAACP, civil rights issues affecting women and children and shall carry out other civil and cultural activities…” In their senior year of high school, Johnson and Jackson did something that had not been done. “We created new proofs of the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry …it all started with a math contest,” Johnson explains. The pair were the only students to complete the bonus question. This led them on a journey they never saw coming. In the aftermath of solving a2+b2=c2 with non-circular thinking, the scholars were invited to present their findings at the American Mathematical Society conference hosted at Georgia Tech. Somewhat in disbelief, Johnson recalls. “And so, we were like, okay, if you think that it’s something that is worth doing, then sure, we’ll see what happens.”
So, the duo transformed their rough drafts of scratch paper into a full-on presentation that they shared at the conference. “We really had no anticipation of it going anywhere because we were like, ‘we’re high school students…we’re too young for people to think this is something.’ So, we just were doing it to see what was going to happen.” Doing that bonus question created an entire snowball effect, garnering nationwide attention. On CBS in May of this year, “60 Minutes” covered their story. It is also reported that NBA legend Charles Barkley, captivated by the academic excellence shown by these two young women, will donate $1 million to St. Mary’s Academy, their former high school.
How long did it take them to figure out this new proof? “It took months for us to initially even come up with any kind of proof. At first, in the beginning, it was a harder learning curve than it was once we started getting the proofs going. It was really tough, but we just kind of stuck with it. And there was no guarantee; it was just like a shot in the dark. I don’t like to start things that I don’t finish, or at least make a good effort to try and complete, so I figured, ‘okay, well, I signed up for this.’” When it came to presenting their project as the only two Black high school students among mathematicians from various fields, Johnson said that she experienced imposter’s syndrome. “It was really nerve-wracking at first, but once I started, I realized that I know what I’m talking about, and I know my work. This is just me showing what I’ve been doing this whole time. It’s nothing that I don’t know. So, I just went with what I knew.”
Johnson attests to coming out of this experience with confidence that she will continue to remember in new challenges. As an introvert, she reflects on her inner strength. “I belong here because, you know, I did the work. I’m here for a reason, being able to think about that to dispel the imposter syndrome that may come up is helpful for me.” This experience, she reflects, has become a measuring stick, reassuring her that she can overcome hard things.
In their acceptance speech, Johnson expressed her profound sentiments about the importance of representation in education and the significance of reaching back. She attributes much of her motivation to her grandmother and mother. Exposure to the Girl Scouts and field trips to NASA spurred her love for STEM. She recounts what her grandmother told her, that education is something that no one could take from her. Her family held her to high standards. Her mother’s journey through college gave her a template to follow. But when it comes to the village, Johnson gets candid: “I’ve just seen [that] when people get famous, especially in our community, it’s just kind of like, okay, well, ‘I got my piece and that’s all that really matters’ and it shouldn’t be like that because in order for us to win as a collective, we all have to pull each other up. No one got there by themselves. I know I sure didn’t get anywhere in life all by myself. It was definitely a community effort and other people helping me. So, I feel like it’s only fair for you to reach back and pull up the community who helped you.”
Through her lived experience, Johnson aims to be a community cycle breaker. Through STEM and empathy, she understands how to be the change she wants to see in the world.
Learn More About Urban Heat Islands Here:
https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/learn-about-heat-islands#heat-islands