Community Service

Vonda B. Rhodes
Staff Systems Engineer
Lockheed Martin Corporation

By Garland L. Thompson

Vonda Rhodes is driven to join. In her day job as a systems engineer with Lockheed Martin's Technical Leadership Development Program, Rhodes is responsible for coordinating, planning, scheduling, status reporting, metrics, and delivery of releases of a large, new software product. She is a member of a program that provides experienced employees with opportunities to develop their technical and leadership skills through mentoring by senior management personnel.

That's a pretty big job, but Rhodes, who was honored at the 1999 Women of Color Technology Awards program as an Outstanding Technology Leader, decided it's just not enough. Vice chair of NOVA, Lockheed's Network of Volunteer Associates, she became its representative for the 500 workers at her Gaithersburg, Md., location. NOVA volunteers work on projects ranging from running fund drives for community facilities such as St. Jude's Children's Ranch and the Humane Society to preparing and serving breakfasts at a residence for senior citizens, putting on Special Olympics basketball tournaments, and working to support homeless shelters in Gaithersburg and Arlington, Va. Members participate in telethons to raise money for public TV, gear up drives to collect discarded pairs of eyeglasses for those less able to buy new ones, organize Children's Fingerprint Days for area residents, and collect supermarket receipts for the Apples for the Students program.

A member of the Potomac Valley Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, Rhodes helped organize the Delta Diamonds tutoring and mentoring program, working with young women aged 11 to 18 at a public housing development in Montgomery County, Md. The Delta Diamonds, now the Delta Academy, focus on math, science, technology, and community service learning. Rhodes has organized trips to the Maryland Science Center, Rockville Science Day, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in addition to organizing the local observance of the National Black Family Technology Awareness Week. She also has taken several of the young women to her church.

Rhodes participates as a tutor at the Daly Elementary School, Germantown, Md., helping a student with his homework and class projects, or to boost skills he needs to improve his academic performance. She became a super big sister, available when the boy needed someone to whom he could talk about his home life, friends, activities, and interests, and also recruited other volunteers from NOVA. A supreme volunteer herself, she regularly transmits her infectious enthusiasm to her coworkers.

Garland L. Thompson is assistant managing editor of The Philadelphia Tribune and a member of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Selection Panel. He can be reached at GThompson@ccgmag.com.