To Caroline—Love, Auntie

To Caroline-Love, Auntie is the compelling tale of a woman's journey across the globe to Italy to uncover her father's past, reconcile her guilt, and to understand how she had chosen her career path.

Scientist and engineer Lauren Giulio, the protagonist in the novel, had been led to believe by her father that she could pursue any career she wanted, even a male dominated one. She soon discovers that women are not accepted in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) fields in either the educational system or in industry. Lauren is determined to understand how she could have chosen a career path laden with gender bias, and suspects that the answer lies in her father’s early childhood in Italy. She travels there, determined to find out why her father ignored the cultural bias present at that time, and encouraged his only daughter to go to college to pursue her dream.

After Lauren's plane lands in Rome, her anxiety returns when her cab driver shares intimate details of his family that disconcertingly mirrored her own. At her father's house, Lauren is met by her cousin, Gabriella, with whom Lauren shares her innermost thoughts, and the struggles she has overcome as a STEM woman. As strange coincidences begin to make sense, Lauren soon realizes that she is being gently guided by other loving forces in her quest for answers.

Gabriella’s visit turns into an overnight stay when an unexpected snow storm shuts down the main road to Rome, and Gabriella has no option other than to spend the night with her cousin. This gives Lauren an opportunity to pour out her heart to Gabriella, and to relish in the solace and comfort Gabriella provides.

Lauren’s trip is successful in that she discovers what happened to her father in Italy, and understands why he was so different from other Italian fathers. She realizes, that by ignoring the cultural bias of his time, her father gave her a very special gift- the freedom to follow her dream, to choose her career and future, regardless of gender. Now, at the family gathering on Christmas Eve, Lauren decides to give a very special gift to her great niece Caroline-a gift that could only come about through the contributions Lauren made with the STEM women of her generation, who turned a deaf ear to cultural/gender bias, and freely chose the career they wanted.