Yamilée Toussaint has always been passionate about two seemingly unrelated things: dancing and mathematics.

Growing up on Long Island in New York, as she pursued her diverse interests, she always had the support of her father, a mechanical engineer, and mother, a nurse.

“I think my parents’ careers in the STEM fields made it so that I always believed that I could also do something in STEM,” Toussaint said.

While she had a love for math, the dance studio was her “home away from home,” she said.

This dual passion led Toussaint to study mechanical engineering at MIT, where she was also head of the dance team. It was there she saw for the first time that Black women were not pursuing education in STEM – an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She was one of only two Black women in her major, an experience that highlighted the need for greater diversity in these career fields.