Deanna Interview - Transcribed

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What you will be reading is a transcripted interview between me and my mentor Deanna
Ratnikova and what you will be ready has lots of juicy info about her and her job.

Eivy Herrera: Alright I think its ready

Isaac Perry: Alright, first question; what is your name and age?

Deanna: Deanna Ratnikova, and Im 31

Jeremiah Preston: Where are you from?

Deanna: Im originally from Tennessee.

Isaac Perry: How was your life all the way up to high school?

Deanna: So like my elementary and middle school years? So elementary and most of middle
school I went to a small private christian school, because I lived in an area in Tennessee where
it was part of like the bible belt,so thats a big aspect on how I grew up. So I went to a small
christian school, we had to wear dresses or skirts everyday, and it was just very strict; we had
like bible class and the boys had to wear polos or button up shirts or things with collars, and
also had to have their shirts tucked in their pants. They could never wear shorts and also for
girls the dresses or skirts had to go below the knees, and I just remembered we had very small
classes so for a lot of the time, my class was 5,6 people, and we would usually just stay with
just one teacher the whole day, so that one teacher had to be well versed in everything, but then
in my final year of middle school I talked my parents into letting me go to public school, and that
was a huge change because I went from like a class of five people total to each class of like 30
people, but the way I talked my parents into it is I played basketball, and I eventually wanted to
get a college scholarship for basketball, and I could continue doing AAU, I said I could continue
doing AAU but I really need to be on a team where I would like go and play in like actual state
tournaments and things to get recognized and I thought being in public school I could be on a
team and get more recognition to get the college scholarships, so my eighth grade year I got to
go to public school and play on the team and the biggest change was the class size, like you got
to have a lot of one on one with your teacher and now I was like one of thirty, and I could also
whatever I wanted I could wear pants, I could wear shorts, so that was like leading up to high
school that was a big change I encountered.

Jeremiah: What college did you go to

Deanna: So for my bachelors degree I went to Austin P state university. Which is a state school
in Tennessee, its northwest of Nashville, and its on the Kentucky border and its very close to
fort Campbell which is an army base thats technically in Kentucky and Austin P is the name of a
former Tennessee governor, so thats where I went for my bachelors degree for my graduate
degree I went to the university of Pittsburgh.

Isaac: What did you study in college; what did you major or minor in?

Deanna: For my bachelors degree I majored in Chemistry, and I minored in leadership. For my
graduate degree I got my degree in public affairs, and my focus was political economics
because what happened was I liked two subjects in high school; science and english, and my
dad worked for an engineering facility, but he was not an engineer, he was actually; he did a
variety of things throughout his term, he started as a janitor, and then he worked his way into he
got a commercial driving license, so then he worked his way into driving large equipment,trucks,
he could do like bulldozers,eighteen wheelers, so that was a step up from being a janitor and
then eventually he worked his way into working with hazardous material so even though it was
very dangerous, it paid really well because no one wants to work with hazardous material and
he did that till the very end because the way that work environment is structured is that your
pension or what you get payed in retirement is based off the last three years of what you
earned, so for the last three years of what you earned, so for the last three years he wanted to
get to the highest paying job he could so that is why he moved to the hazard materials, but
theres a lot of engineers where he worked, and in high school he introduced me to a few of
those, and yea I said I liked english and I liked Science, and they said you can minor in english
but you need to major in science because science will give you a better paying job, you can do
whatever you want if you get like an engineering degree, just do science, and so when I got to
my bachelors degree I said either want to do biology, chemistry or physics,and they said go the
minimal the way, because Biology is sometimes considered easier,physics is super hard, and
chemistry is right in the middle, they said do Chemistry, if you change your mind you should
switch, but they said do chemistry so I started with chemistry and then because I was active
with the student body association and I was on the track and cross country team I ended up
never switching because I was just too busy with other stuff and by the time that I thought I
actually enjoy a lot of politics I enjoy public relations I pretty much had my chemistry degree
done, so I said maybe I will go to grad school for something else and see if I can tie it together,
so I went to grad school for something different

Jeremiah: What were you doing before you came to the Fleet

Deanna: So the job I had before this was with the American physical society, and that is the
american society for physicists, so what happened was I was doing my chemistry degree, I did
chemistry research and I did physical chemistry research, which is research at the intersection
of physics and chemistry, so I made some connections to the physics world, and then I
eventually moved to Washington D.C area and that is where the headquarters are for the
physics society, and they had an opening for someone to lead their women and physics
program, so it was kind of a natural fit because I was a woman,I enjoyed physics, I enjoyed
chemistry, so I started working on the women and physics program, and I was there for six
years, and even after I moved to San Diego, because my husband got a job here I continued
working there, so every month I would fly back to Washington D.C and work there and come
home, and then fly back, and I was doing that until May, when I started here at the Fleet.

Isaac: So how did you find out about the Fleet, you said something about your husband working
here right?

Deanna: yea so he worked for Scripps, the research institute at the torrey pines, so long story is
after a while we decided we wanted to have children, but then we were having trouble having
children, so I thought I couldnt have kids, so we looked into foster and adoption, and they said
youre great candidates but youre gone half the year on the east coast,and we cant really put a
child into your home when youre not going to be there most of the time to even care for them,
so I decided I needed a job in San Diego,so I started looking for jobs in San Diego and I saw the
opening at the Fleet and so I interviewed I think twice here at the Fleet for the job, and I found
out I was pregnant so I said maybe I want to keep my job because I really liked the job I had,
and I said maybe Ill keep it but then I realized Id have to once I got back from maternity leave
Id have to start travelling back again, and I didnt want to do that with a baby, so I took this job,
but that meant Id have a very short time after the baby after the baby was out so thats why I
have such a small baby at home since I had to go back to work.

Jeremiah: What is your job here at the Fleet

Deanna: So my title is Community Alliances Program Director, and theres four programs that I
work on;52 weeks of science,B wise, High Tech Fair, and the stem eco-system. and the project
you guys are on is the high tech fair. The Gist of what I do is, the 52 weeks and stem ecosystem
I have people who work with me, so Daniel works on 52 weeks of science, Visrat and Emily
work on stem ecosystem. For b wise and high tech fair, Im a one woman show, but the key
thing is is that all the projects I work on, we engage partners, or other companies, just like how
we have all the exhibitors at the High Tech Fair for B wise, all the workshops that we host, its
another organization or another company hosting, so its a lot of connecting people is what I do,
so I build relationships, and I kinda like advertise my programs and then when people tell me
what they do, I find some connections and find some way to partner with them, so its taking a
lot of what I did in college and graduate school in terms of public affairs, like navigating
relationships and situations where someone would originally see me as a competitor, cause
they might also do women and science initiatives, and then I find a way to say like oh, we can
actually be partners not competitors, and its all related to science so that brings by bachelor's
degree, so its kind of like the dream job in terms of taking everything, my education and also
my work experience up to this day and putting it all together

Isaac: So, what is your favorite thing about the Fleet?

Deanna: Every month, if you are a full time employee, you get four passes to the Fleet, and I
like getting those passes and giving them to neighbors or friends. I thought at first I would get
those passes and enjoy coming myself but since Im here every other day, I really dont want to
come back on the weekends, so I started giving them away, and everybody is just always so
grateful, they will come back and say Oh I came to the Fleet and it was so much fun and we
enjoyed Balboa Park, and thank you,because it is 20 dollars per person and more and more
people I get to know now a days, 20 dollars is a lot of money, when you got to do it like 4
people, like if you had to bring two kids and two adults, so that makes me really happy that I can
give like my friends with kids a free saturday in the park and they enjoy it so much, so its nice
that we get those 4 tickets every month.

Isaac: Alright so we need a tenth question, so do you have any questions? I had another
question, but it wasnt a good question so do you have any questions?

Eivy: After your projects that you are working on right now, do you know any other projects you
are going to be working on?

Deanna: Oh, so all of them are like on going projects, so the only difference is High Tech Fair is
kind of like one time a year, so the nice thing is that after January 26th, I will get a little bit of a
break, and I will only have like three projects, like I have to process all the bills and invoices
from High Tech Fair, but I wont have to start planning it again until probably April, when I start
thinking about the next year, but theres really no end in sight theyre all ongoing, which is
exhausting, but I guess its a good thing cause as long theres work to be done, they are not
going to get rid of you or youre not going to lose a job as long as there is stuff to be done.

Isaac: I think thats the end of the interview

Deanna: What was your question?

Isaac:Oh it was, did you have any other careers in mind

Deanna:oh, originally when I started majoring in chemistry when I was in bachelors, I wanted to
be a chemical engineer, but the school I went to didnt have an engineering program,but that
was fine because I could switch after the four years and then get the rest of the requirements I
needed for my engineering degree, but what happened is the summer of my freshman year, the
summer of my sophomore year in college I did an engineering internship, and I actually didnt
enjoy it that much so the first year I was like well maybe I just need to do a different one, I just
didnt like that supervisor or that job so I did it again, I did another one, and I was like yea this
isnt what I really want to do, so originally I thought Id do engineering, and then after that I
actually thought about teaching chemistry, like being a teacher, so what I did is I worked with a
freshman intro to genchem, we call it intro to general chemistry, and I was, I forgot what my title
was,I think it was learning assistant,so I took the class that semester with the genchem, and
then I held tutoring sessions and sessions where Id help them understand the material better,
and because I was going through it with them I knew exactly what the professor was saying so I
could really relate to them like remember when the professor said this, and I was discouraged
by the number of students who didnt really want to learn, they just wanted me to tell them the
answers and they also didn't really want to conceptually understand chemistry, they just wanted
to memorize, and the biggest thing about science for me is that you cant really memorize it.
Theres some aspects you memorize but you apply it and you have to understand how things
work and so I got really discouraged on how many people just didnt want to learn it, they
wanted to just make the grade and just go on, so I said okay I dont want to be a teacher. I was
very active in the student government, and we would try to change things, and sometimes it
would be silly stuff like in our science building we had an aquarium that we all loved, because
we all enjoyed doing homework near it, or we would meet up at the aquarium, it was like a place
where it was a nice bright spot in the otherwise like youd see this room, is it very bright? Our
science building is pretty dull like this but we had these beautiful fish and at one point the was
like we have to do away with the aquarium, because it wasnt designed to be there, we put it
there for a little bit, but now we are getting rid of it, and I led the revolt and I was like you cant
take away our fish and they didnt take it away and after that I was like this is really fun, so thats
when I thought about doing more with policy,public affairs, and so I went to grad school for that,
and I thought Id eventually work on capitol hill when I moved to D.C,but it was really hard to get
internships in washington D.C with senators, a lot of them are unpaid, and the cost of living in
D.C is really high, so my only option for working on capitol hill is if I take out more loans to pay
for my rent and my food, and my transportation, and I was like I cant justify taking out loans on
an unpaid internship that I dont know if it will get me a job later so thats why I immediately
entered the workforce and started working. Who knows where Id be if I decided to take the
unpaid internship on capitol hill, but we all have to make decisions at some point, that was the
one I made.