Success, like a fire, is the sum of its parts, a black female fire chief says.
"You need three things to have a fire: oxygen, heat and a burning source," said East Point, Ga., Fire Chief Rosemary Cloud. "To be successful, you have to have discipline, good habits and focus."
With words of empowerment and firsthand knowledge of what it takes to overcome adversity, Cloud and two other black female fire chiefs spoke to students Wednesday at the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy.
Cloud said she hopes the students realize there are other opportunities in life they may not have realized or looked at before. She said fire services is a profession that is 95 percent male, yet many women have made a successful career out of it.
Academy ninth-grader Alexis Grant said the stories of hard work and sacrifice are important and something her fellow students need to hear. She said the message is that race and gender bias don't have to hold one back.
"I thought it was very important to hear what they (the fire chiefs) had to talk about," Grant said. "Some kids may want to be firefighters when they grow up."
Toni Tolbert Dixon, fire chief of Decatur, Ga., told students in Joe Casola's seventh-grade math class that studying hard now could set up a foundation of learning that could benefit the students for the rest of their lives.
"School never stops," she said. "In the workplace, you have to stay current and constant on new trends. Doing just enough to get by just isn't enough anymore."
Out of 300,000 firefighters in the United States, only five chiefs are black women, according to the International Association of Women and Fire Emergency Services. In the country, 6,000 women have careers in fire services, with 150 women serving as fire chiefs, the group says.
Dixon said she hopes students can see that anything is possible.
"You can obtain anything you set your mind to," she said.
Chief Debra Pryor of the Berkeley, Calif., Fire Department said she hopes the girls at the academy understand that education is important and the first step to any career, and that gender and race shouldn't be limitations.
"Being a woman of color is not an obstacle," Pryor said. "It's an enhancement to their career path and their future."
The three were in town for a reception hosted by the Southeast Chapter of the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters.
Contact Jeremy Belk at jbelk@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6345.