Inadvertently enrolling Dajae Williams in honors geometry at Kirkwood High School in Missouri, which she attended as a child, her teacher altered the path of her passion. Although her teacher acknowledged making a mistake, they are unaware of how it will impact Dajae’s life.

Dajae Williams was able to demonstrate her genius in the scientific course, nevertheless. After graduating from high school, Dajae Williams enrolled at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri, to take an engineering course.

She remembered how her mother encouraged her to try the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) profession because of its underrepresentation of women and people of color.

Dajae Williams now works as as a rocket scientist in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States. “Sometimes I still have to pinch myself. It’s always an exhilarating experience being around so many smart people, just being present, and taking it all in because there is so much to learn,” she said.

Dajae Williams fused her love for music and science by incorporating her lessons into rap songs. “Sometimes education can be, at least in math and science, it can be a very traumatic experience…especially for kids of color. We’re not necessarily taught in the language that we learned growing up,” she explained to St. Louis Public Radio.

She went viral with her hit Quadratic Formula video. There, she took Soulja Boy’s popular “Crank That” beat and added lyrics on how to solve the quadratic equation.