The hardest part about writing a profile for Noa is choosing which story to use. Should we use the story about her getting selected to be a part of the 2021 cohort of Homeward Bound, a global leadership initiative for women in STEMM (which includes a 3-week Symposium at Sea in Antarctica), or the one about her rebuilding a 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser in High School and converting it to run on bio-diesel? Or should we choose the story that focuses on her academic studies (a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis, an M.S. in Water Resource Engineering from Oregon State, and now a PhD in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology at Arizona State), or the one where she can touch her elbows to her toes without bending her knees? Or the story about the year she studied (and played futsal with at-risk kids) in Brazil, or the one in which she plays the guitar (that she hand-built!)? Or the story of her sky’s-the-limit aspirations to develop high-tech environmental sensors or be an ice-bus mechanic in Antarctica or be a Kindergarten teacher?
Here’s the easy part: If we can’t agree on which story to use, middle-child Noa will help us get along as we decide.