Chapter 2: The Scholarship Winner
Several weeks later, the first recipient of the Eleanor Grant Scholarship arrived for an interview.
Her name was Maya.
She was twenty-two.
Brilliant.
Quiet.
And almost ready to abandon engineering because every manager she had worked for ignored her ideas.
She reminded me of myself.
During her presentation, she nervously apologized.
"I'm sorry if my proposal isn't good enough."
I smiled.
"Never apologize for your ideas."
She looked surprised.
I slid her design across the table.
"This solves a problem our senior team has been struggling with for months."
Her eyes widened.
"You mean..."
"I mean congratulations."
"You've just been hired."
When Maya left the room, Adrian laughed.
"You hired yourself from ten years ago."
May you like
"Maybe," I admitted.
"I just made sure someone opened the door."
