Ms. Annie Carter
Summer Internship Student, 1979
Chair of Texas Alliance of Minorities in Engineering since 2006
Interviewed by Vidisha Barua Worley on 04/05/2023
‘Summer of 1979, I was a student on campus during an internship then called Gulf Oil Refinery Port Arthur. So, they allowed students who were interning to reside on campus. It was a great way to have housing and also provided an opportunity for me to take courses that I needed for my degree plan. I was a full-time student at Texas A&M University. And that summer of 1979, I was able to take history classes, first semester summer session and 2nd semester summer session. At the same time, I did the classes at night and I would go to work during the day. There happened to be another young man don’t remember his last name, first name was Arturo, who also worked at the plant with me and he lived here on campus. He was a University of Texas student. As part of working, I ended up working full-time in 1980 for Gulf Oil. We also asked some of our engineers to see if they be interested in volunteering for some of the pre-college programs that are going on at the University. One of them was led by Dr. Richard Price. It was an organization call Texas Alliance of Minorities in Engineering. I helped with their activities. And in 2006 when Dr. Price retired (he was the chair for that organization), I became the chair in 2006. So, I continue to be in that capacity as a volunteer for philanthropic activities. When he retired in ’06, we founded the scholarship. So, there’s a Price Scholarship, endowed scholarship for students in Math and Science and Engineering.’
‘The favorite memories are of impacting students in the Golden Triangle, encouraging them to go into STEM careers. We have seen hundreds of students go through that program. We also have seen some of them, now, they are engineers, teachers, or they have started businesses.’
‘I was impressed with the constructions of the dorms. They are no longer standing, since been demolished. They were still standing for another 50 plus years. They were well-constructed. They were across from the tennis court, where the dining hall is. And the nice thing was because it was a small campus and a lot of the students lived off-campus. There was not a huge demand for housing on campus. In the summer there were not many of the cars. In the parking lot next to the tennis court, there were about 20 parking spots, and that’s all we needed.’
‘The Dining Hall was old and dingy back then. However, when we stopped by for breakfast, the ladies would pack us a little bag of lunch. We really appreciated that. The Dining Hall is much nicer now. When we have students for the competition today, one of their highlights is eating at the Dining Hall. Lot of times we will bring in industry professionals, or will have college students sit at the table with them, and we call it the VIP lunch.’
‘Lamar was going through issues with integration and I would like to tell how they did that with the dorms. It was an eye-opener. In Texas A&M, there were about 30,000 students and about 100 of them were African American. For them, if you are here, you deserve to be here. I was usually the only African American female engineer. It was a huge place with resources. Lamar was a more commuter type university, there were still indications of we are still doing this. One of them was about the dorms. There was a list of the students that were in the dorms and by some of the names, there were little red dots… I had specifically requested and paid for a room … I realized later that was the way of indicating that was an African American room…it was unofficial…residual behavior.’
Biography: Annie excelled in Math and Science while attending public schools in Houston and graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. In 1980, she became the first African American female awarded a BS degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M.
As a project engineering professional with Gulf, Chevron, and Chevron Phillips, Annie was responsible for directing diversified teams of professional and technical personnel. Her groups were involved in the development, detail engineering, procurement, and construction of multi-million-dollar capital projects, including ensuring project scope and schedule and cost control.
Annie is also the chair of the Golden Triangle Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (GT-TAME) hosted at Lamar University. Additionally, she is a force in the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (hosted at the University of Texas) - having served as the first female chair. Along with developing STEM awareness programs and organizing activities for thousands of students, she initiated financial contributions and secured millions of volunteer hours from businesses to support STEM programs for Texas students.
‘The favorite memories are of impacting students in the Golden Triangle, encouraging them to go into STEM careers. We have seen hundreds of students go through that program. We also have seen some of them, now, they are engineers, teachers, or they have started businesses.’
‘I was impressed with the constructions of the dorms. They are no longer standing, since been demolished. They were still standing for another 50 plus years. They were well-constructed. They were across from the tennis court, where the dining hall is. And the nice thing was because it was a small campus and a lot of the students lived off-campus. There was not a huge demand for housing on campus. In the summer there were not many of the cars. In the parking lot next to the tennis court, there were about 20 parking spots, and that’s all we needed.’
‘The Dining Hall was old and dingy back then. However, when we stopped by for breakfast, the ladies would pack us a little bag of lunch. We really appreciated that. The Dining Hall is much nicer now. When we have students for the competition today, one of their highlights is eating at the Dining Hall. Lot of times we will bring in industry professionals, or will have college students sit at the table with them, and we call it the VIP lunch.’
‘Lamar was going through issues with integration and I would like to tell how they did that with the dorms. It was an eye-opener. In Texas A&M, there were about 30,000 students and about 100 of them were African American. For them, if you are here, you deserve to be here. I was usually the only African American female engineer. It was a huge place with resources. Lamar was a more commuter type university, there were still indications of we are still doing this. One of them was about the dorms. There was a list of the students that were in the dorms and by some of the names, there were little red dots… I had specifically requested and paid for a room … I realized later that was the way of indicating that was an African American room…it was unofficial…residual behavior.’
Biography: Annie excelled in Math and Science while attending public schools in Houston and graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. In 1980, she became the first African American female awarded a BS degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M.
As a project engineering professional with Gulf, Chevron, and Chevron Phillips, Annie was responsible for directing diversified teams of professional and technical personnel. Her groups were involved in the development, detail engineering, procurement, and construction of multi-million-dollar capital projects, including ensuring project scope and schedule and cost control.
Annie is also the chair of the Golden Triangle Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (GT-TAME) hosted at Lamar University. Additionally, she is a force in the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (hosted at the University of Texas) - having served as the first female chair. Along with developing STEM awareness programs and organizing activities for thousands of students, she initiated financial contributions and secured millions of volunteer hours from businesses to support STEM programs for Texas students.