- I have a very adventurous soul.

(inspiring music) It's my job to make online courses easy.

We literally design courses for the online environment so that it's fun and it's easy to use.

My name is Shakiyla Huggins, I'm a Learning Experience Designer at Duke University.

My absolute favorite part is being able to design.

That's what I love the most.

I love being able to go out and take an idea and make it an actual lesson, something that comes to life before my eyes.

And then being able to see everyone use it is amazing.

I love it.

(upbeat music) So when I was young, I would always be the student that finished their work in like seven seconds and then would start bothering other students.

So, I had a fifth grade teacher that noticed that about me and so she went to my parents and she was saying, "I think she's just bored and she needs more of a challenge."

And so she took me in on Saturdays.

She would teach me more challenging math.

So I was in the fifth grade doing sixth and seventh grade math.

And it really helped because I was like, "Wow, I'm really good at math.

I can actually do this."

From there, I just kept shining and kept shining.

I graduated high school seventh in my class and I was the number one math student for three years in a row.

And then I went on to get a bachelor's in math and I was the number one math college student also for three years in a row.

I kinda, in a sense, always knew what I wanted to do because that one fifth grade teacher put me on the right path to be able to say education, specifically STEM education, is where I shine the brightest.

And so I wanted to be able to give that back to other students.

And so I went and got my master's in math, also got a second master's in teaching, so that I can show other students that education in STEM is attainable for anybody that wants to put their energy and their love into it.

Multiplied by 8 matrix B, right?

- So like you said, we're determining the tensions in each of the cables.

- You just have to have somebody that believes in you, and have somebody that understands you, and have somebody that's gonna help teach you in a way that you need to be taught so you can see just how beautiful and bright STEM really is.

- Ah, I got it, yeah.

(drums beat) - I've always just loved the sound of music.

It literally soothes my soul.

Not only that, I also have a lot of dogs.

I absolutely love dogs.

I've had dogs my whole life.

When the music is going and I have my dogs running around and playing, I'm literally the happiest person in the world.

I can say the biggest challenge was losing my mom.

My mom passed away in May of 2021 and it was very hard for me to continue, but honestly, I was able to keep going because I knew that I still had a goal and I wanted to reach those goals.

And I want other people to know that when you keep going and you become who you said you're gonna become other people get that same strength, and they keep going, and they wanna become everything that they can become.

If I could go back in time and give myself advice I would tell myself, no matter what, just keep going.

Life may not always be exactly what you dreamed of, but always find a reason to keep going.

You're gonna end up exactly where you want to be.

(upbeat music)