By Stephanie Bright
Despite growing up with high humidity, hurricanes and heat, Florida native and Systems Engineer Cathy Berrouët did as the locals do when she moved to Colorado to start her engineering career: she took up skiing.
The sport came naturally as it uses the same motions as rollerblading, which Cathy grew up doing. But after a few years, her cousin encouraged her to switch gears and take on snowboarding instead.
“He told me, ‘You’re an engineer and you like challenges, science and figuring things out. Try to figure out snowboarding,’ Cathy said. “My response was, ‘OK, challenge accepted.’”
As snowboarding captured Cathy’s interest, she became a regular on the mountain. But on the slopes, she noticed that not many people looked like her.
“I started looking up the history of professional snowboarders and skiers, and I only found two females like me — curly haired women of color who snowboard,” said Cathy.
Cathy learned that the National Ski Areas Association reported that fewer than 2% of skiers and snowboarders were Black, citing cultural, geographic and economic obstacles. Cathy wanted to help break down those barriers so others could enjoy the sport like she did.
Growing Up, Standing Out
Cathy was never one to fit the mold, she said. She was a curious, high-performing student who enrolled in numerous advanced courses, taking Calculus III by the time she was in ninth grade.
Her diverse heritage was also integral to her identity. With French and Haitian lineage, and fluency in French, Creole and Spanish, Cathy estimated that in her extended family, only about 2% of her relatives are American-born and raised like her.
“Growing up in Miami taught me about the value of diversity and culture, beyond what I learned as the descendant of immigrants,” Cathy said. “My friends and colleagues represented a plethora of nationalities and ethnicities.”
But when she got to graduate school at Florida Atlantic University, her confidence in standing out wavered.
“I struggled with self-doubt and low confidence because my mathematics professors and colleagues didn't look like me,” Cathy said. “And even though I tutored around 90% of the engineering population on campus, a lot of the students didn't look like me either.”
At the time, Cathy’s field was dominated by men, and Black women only comprised 3% of STEM graduates.
“When you can't identify with other people around you, you feel an unintentional, subconscious isolation,” she said. “You feel like an oddball, and it makes you doubt yourself for no reason.”
But Cathy didn’t let this hold her back. Instead, she used it to propel herself into mentorship roles, volunteering with academic non-profits that served young women interested in STEM, so that she could help others feel belonging. Over the years, this passion for inclusion spilled over to other areas of her life, including snowboarding.
Breaking Boundaries in Snowboarding and STEM
After Cathy discovered snowboarding and its representation challenges, she stumbled across the BIPOC Mountain Collective (BMC), a network of clubs dedicated to empowering individuals from Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities to get involved in snow sports. BMC is a branch of the more widespread National Brotherhood of Skiers. Cathy now leads free, sponsored trips to ski resorts and teaches others how to carve down the mountain.
“The big important factor about this is representation,” she said. “When snowboarders or even mathematicians appear on TV or to the masses, they're only displayed in one way. That builds this boundary of a construct in our minds of what mathematicians look like and what snowboarders look like. And if I don't look like them, I can't be a part of that group.”
Cathy continues to break through barriers in her professional field and on the mountain, carving the way for others. To her, representation matters — not so others feel like they must fit the mold, but so they can cast an entirely new one.
