Photo by Joe Viger, posted with permission. Find more of his incredibly skillful work at www.joeviger.com
Pittsburgh is a boomerang city. Anyone with friends in this city knows that moving away isn’t always forever. Stefanie Sydlik came to Carnegie Mellon for her undergraduate degree, and then spent 2007-2015 earning a PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She then moved back to Squirrel Hill to teach organic chemistry at her alma mater. She is an avid cyclist, having won the Mount Washington Bike Race, a brutal climb up the highest peak in the northeastern United States. She is also a patient teacher, a former rower, and a future friend to anyone she meets. Her stories of resilience and persistence are inspiring and true to the spirit of her upbringing in Allentown, PA.
S: I went to college at Carnegie Mellon. That was 2003-2007, I was an undergraduate and on the crew team. I was a swimmer freshman year, but then I hurt my shoulder. So, I started rowing, because it was a little less demanding on my body. But I started to really love Pittsburgh, and the School of Engineering here, the chemistry we do is very practical, it’s very applied. It’s comparable to similar classes, but we really apply the theories we’re teaching. I still consider myself a chemist, despite teaching engineering students. I did my PhD up at MIT, and when I was looking at teaching jobs and saw that there was a position open at Carnegie Mellon, I knew I wanted that.
F: Wow, that’s really exciting!
F: Where did you grow up?
S: I grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is the eastern side of the state.
F: No way, really? I grew up on Lake Wallenpaupack!
S: We would go there all the time- it was a nice place, according to us. We liked going there on the weekend.
F: It seems like you’ve spent a lot of your life in the northern portion of Appalachia.
S: Right. I spent, um, Plenty of time in Pennsylvania. I left Allentown when I was 18, then college i here in Pittsburgh. 2007-2015, I was up in Boston. Then, I came back.
F: In leaving Pittsburgh and returning, how did you see it changing? I’m sure your relationship to the city changed, but how do you think the city itself changed?
S: That’s kind of crazy, right? Pittsburgh! The neighborhoods have changed so much. Lawrenceville, for example. The first time I went to Lawrenceville, after I moved back...it had been eight years since I was here, and it used to be so run down. But it was December of 2018, and I had been here a few months. It was snowing, so maybe the cold had something to do with my chills, but it was surreal how much that neighborhood in particular changed. And there are little things. I lived in Squirrel Hill during my undergrad, and I live in Squirrel Hill now. Lawrenceville is the biggest one, but there’s also Bakery Square, East Liberty...it’s kind of fun to see.
F: Do you feel the same way about Allentown?
S: I almost feel like my perspective on Allentown is limited. I think once you leave your hometown and have your experiences elsewhere, you see your hometown more objective. You know, I hated growing up there. But now, I can realize that it wasn’t so bad. There wasn’t a downtown area, it wasn’t a big city of anything, but we had everything we needed.
F: When we start to look at the ways especially northern Appalachia has changed over the last ten years, it is a big shift. And that shift is largely proprietary, as property owners and real estate folks start to see things they can market and snatch up, but it’s also interesting to see the opportunities that arise from that. People play into that duality, knowing that it’s coming from a place that might not be beneficial to former communities, but creating something new. Do you grapple with that at CMU?
S: I guess one of the things I’m sensitive to as a millenial with student debt is a higher cost of living. Pittsburgh has always been a very reason city to live in. But prices are increasing a lot. Now, up in Boston, where I went for grad school, when I started graduate school the rent in Boston was kind of expensive, but manageable. Less expensive than New York city. But eight years later, when I graduated, it turns out that the average rent in Boston was more than New York City. So I find Pittsburgh to have a very affordable cost of living, especially compared to Boston. Here in Pittsburgh, I worry a little bit about underestimating home prices. That has been one of the things I’ve always really loved about Pittsburgh, that almost anyone can come here and have a good life, and not have to worry about finding a place to live. And it’s not so hard to find places that are available to buy or rent.
F: As you see these rents skyrocketing alongside what appear to be fantastic developments happening, it’s not an easy road to navigate. How are you finding the bike scene in Pittsburgh?
S: Oh, I love it. I’ve found a ton of people to bike with here, and the roads are really fun. Pittsburgh’s cycling community is a really special one because it’s a small enough city that you don’t have to deal with much traffic. You can easily get out of the city and find some roads that will be fun to ride. But, it’s a big enough city that you’ll always be able to find people to ride with.
F: Fantastic!
S: I’m a professor and most of my meetings and teaching obligations were in the afternoon today so I went on a ride with seven other guys this morning. It was really nice that on a random Tuesday, you could find that many people who were available to explore.
F: That’s amazing. It’s a part of your daily life, it doesn’t have to be something outside your routine.
S: It’s a great city to ride in. Very hilly! But I like climbing hills, I think riding a lot of flat is kind of boring. So we have pretty farmland and a lot of rural environment around the city. I call them more like mini mountains. It’s not like rolling hills that we have. I think it’s pretty fun. Then we also have a large system of paths. Those are perfect if you want to not worry about traffic or making the right turn. There’s also the rail trails, because it was such an industrial city. They turned a lot of the railroad paths into bike paths. They also have a racing series right in the city parks!
F: Someone told me once there are no hills in Pittsburgh, because it’s all erosion, and that the landscape is constantly changing in one way or another.
S: Oh Yeah! We get harsh weather too, a lot of heavy rain in the summer. Lots of landslides and flooding. Being out here and observing it over the last two years, it’s crazy! Different roads will be closed for flooding, or roads that used to have a bit of shoulder fell away and now there’s a cliff! Definitely, it is always changing! There are a number of roads under repair that you can no longer go over on a bicycle, because of flooding, or construction, or sinkholes!
F: That’s something you certainly experience, but you’re not stranger to hills. Can you tell me a bit about the big race?
S: So actually, my first time encountering Mount Washington was in grad school up at MIT. Because it’s the highest mountain on the East coast. I did a lot of hiking in the White Mountains, and when I left for Boston, I was rowing. I actually made the US National Team and won a Bronze Medal at Worlds.
F: Woah!
S: But then I hurt my shoulder. It’s funny, the hurting of my shoulder. A lot of good things came from it, like cycling. I couldn’t row, which was frustrating, so I got a bicycle. So then I met my husband when my arm was in a sling from shoulder surgery. I found the research I did in the lab to be very therapeutic, and this was all inspired by my own personal injury. I was doing a lot of hiking and outdoorsy stuff, and while I was hiking Mount Washington with a friend, and we preferred going up! It was just this crazy mountain we had climbed. Mount Washington has some pretty extreme weather. I think something like over 260 mile-per-hour winds have been recorded. It’s not uncommon, but this year, it was inside a rain cloud and just above freezing. It was the summer! Most people would think that they never want to be in that miserable place again, but I thought, you know what? Next time I come I want to race my bicycle up here! So I had been trying to win that bike race. I had gone to the Mount Washington climbing race four times. I got three second places, then a third, and finally I won. So it took me a lot of tries to win that bike race.
F: My goodness! That’s a very resilient act.
S: Yes. So, I have a tattoo on my left hand. Two-now three tattoos. It says SIFU. It is a finished concept for perseverance in the face of repeated failures. That’s kinda life, huh?
F: What did it feel like to finally win?
S: I was pretty happy.
F: I would hope so!
S: Even when I see the pictures, I can tell how happy I was. I could finally cross it off my bucket list! They also asked me, like I said, I had done it a bunch and gotten a lot of seconds and thirds, so I was kind of late to sign up. The organizers emailed me and asked me if I was doing it this year! So they asked me that, how did it feel, and well, it felt really good!
F: Knowing what it feels like to finish something difficult is something it seems you’re quite familiar with.
S: I’m a glutton for punishment.
F: I was going to say no short supply of gumption, but that's another way to put it! One thing that I wanted to point out in this interview was that you came in second to the race overall. I say that because, of course it is amazing to come in first in the women’s division, but there was no second heat for women. You beat all those men! What does it mean for you to compete in this field dominated by men?
S: Part of that is that I do have a lot of guy friends. I mentioned that it was seven men on my bicycle ride this morning. There’s been times when it kind of gets me down that more women aren’t doing these things. I developed an outreach program called The Chemistry of Cycling, where I teach chemistry concepts with bicycles and similar materials. I’m hoping the target audience is young women interested in cycling and chemistry. There are definitely times when both chemistry and cycling are both majorly boy’s clubs, which is super frustrating at times. But by and large, the people I surround myself with every day are ruthless, really positive, and fun people. Smart people and other people who like challenges, so...yeah. I do try to do my part to do what I can to create more opportunities for women to level the field. So, the cycling team I’m part of, we do race on the professional circuit. But we make sure to take along amateur riders on our races, like people who are still in college, just to give new people the experience of riding in these races.
F: So, if people are looking to get more involved in these programs, where should they look?
S: Chemistry of Cycling is still pretty new. I started it last summer and have only been doing pop up events at different biking events. I’ll set up a tent or a table and just try to get people excited.
F: So how do you feel when you’re interacting with these landscapes? It seems like you traverse a lot in the course of a day. From cycling in Squirrel Hill to teaching at CMU, to conquering mountains, it seems like you traverse a few metaphorical landscapes in the course of a typical day.
S: Yeah..One day to explain it is that I have ADD, so it takes a lot to occupy my attention. I need to do a lot of different things throughout the day. So, that’s fun to me. I really like kind of having a different challenge or thing to focus on. I like having different environments and challenges. I think I’m a creature of habit. I don’t necessarily like change, but I like having different opportunities. F: It sounds like you have a lot of different aspects of your life that are full and rich and that’s beautiful.
S: Thank you.
F: I’m wondering about the most beautiful place you’ve ever ridden a bike in Appalachia?
S: SO many. Can I give you a list of some of my favorite places? Outside where I grew up in, Allentown, there is the Blue Mountain Ridge. It’s all these lovely country roads, up and over this mountain,and it is really pretty. The state of Connecticut is also absolutely beautiful. I love riding in New Hampshire. Mt Washington is actually steeper than I like to move a bike. The Kancamagus Highway. Is one of my favorite rides. In Pennsylvania, I love to go to Ohiopyle State Park. It’s amazing. The Laurel Highlands and the Ohiopyle area, I really like to imagine I have more free time than I do, but it’s just an hour out of Pittsburgh. And the riding right around Pittsburgh is great, but it’s beautiful there. Asheville North Carolina has some of the most breathtaking roads I have ever seen. So, all it! Just go for it!
F: What advice would you give to someone just starting to bike around?
S: Be fearless but cautious. I got into cycling as a teenager. When I got my first job, I’d ride my bike to work, so it has always been a mode of transportation for me. I think a lot of people get into cycling that way. A lot of people are out there, on the road, sharing the road with cars. They’re obviously so much bigger than, and so I think I learned a number of life lessons just from riding on the road. You can learn to be fearless, but you have to be concerned for your safety, so I try to take on the attitude when I am riding on city streets that all the cars are trying to kill me. So I keep my distance and keep my guard up. But there are other times where you feel you can leave your comfort zone, on rural roads and more scenic rides, where you get to experience being completely fearless. For example, after climbing steep hills, I used to be really afraid of descending. And there’s a natural fear, of heights and falling, that probably everybody has, but I didn’t enjoy going quickly down a hill! Part of it is also that I’m a control freak, and it can feel out of control when gravity is assisting you with speed. But I had the opportunity to ride the California Tour a while ago, and we were absolutely flying on a descent. And I realized we hit 160 mph.
F: Woah! S: Yeah, we were truly flying. And on the bicycle I wasn’t thinking about it, I was just doing. I was much more living in the moment rather than thinking about what I can and can’t do. And so, it’s important to be proactive about being safe, but the idea of living in the moment is one we can bring to cycling and to life.
F: I’m almost afraid to ask, but do you wear a helmet?!
S: Absolutely! It matters! I am very superstitious. Even if I spin out or something, and I don’t hit my head. If I crash in any way wearing a helmet, I will get a new helmet. It’s not something I mess with.
F: I’ve heard some surprisingly controversial options, and I’m not on that team! In so many aspects of life, it’s okay to give yourself the protection that is going to keep you safe.
S: Safety first! First and foremost. If you get a brain injury, that might end cycling for you. So much better off to prevent that and wear a helmet.
F: When you’re riding in Pittsburgh, do you feel like you’re in Appalachia? When you’re riding in Allentown, do you feel like you’re in Appalachia? What does that mean for you?
S: Hmm. Oh, I forgot West Virginia on my list! THere are some beautiful places in WV. I know there is a lot of riding, not far out of Morgantown, and there was a wonderful Appalachian Bike Racing route in the PA/WV corner there. And you’d always be on amazing roads. I definitely do appreciate the Appalachian mountains. My hometown is more in the rolling hills, and I remember a few years ago, when I was up in Boston, and we were spending a lot of time in the White Mountains, the White Mountains have a lot of these really fantastic hiking trails, where you go above tree line and get these breathtaking views. I haven’t really seen that in Pennsylvania. It kinda bummed me out, but the Appalachian Mountains are an ancient mountain range. And when they were young mountains, hundreds of years ago, they were just as tall as the White Mountains now. So the centuries of being have made them they way they are. After learning that, I have felt much more in tune with my mountains. I do a lot of fracking in California or out west, and they’ll always tell you how the East Coast mountains are small, but I disagree.
F: In talking to people about outdoor recreation and enjoyment in Appalachia, a lot of people tell me how it’s so wild and so untamed that it feels like it’s there for you to explore.
S: Yeah. And the humidity. I like it! I really do! I don’t like what it does to my hair, but other than that!
F: I think that these connections can exist in Appalachia, where the cities are small enough and tightly knit enough that you can do that. You can provide opportunities for other people.
S: Everyone knows everyone else, and I really like that. It just feels more friendly to me.
F: Have you ever had a pepperoni roll?
S: I’m a vegetarian.
F: Oh, me too! We have some really delicious rolls made with hearty vegetables that still can really give you a lot of energy. They’re super wholesome. That could be perfect for a bike ride.
S: That sounds delicious!
F: The origin of the pepperoni roll was when Italian immigrants became coal miners in West Virginia. They needed something that could be kept without being kept cold, and that provided a lot of calories and energy. The sourdough bread and cured meats all are just fine in a lunch pail, so they’re kind of like the original energy bars. Is there anything you miss about living in a small town?
S: I do miss the people. But that’s what I miss about Boston, too, and that’s a big city. I think that’s true anywhere I go, I love connecting to other people. Pittsburgh is pretty unique for a bigger cty, in that it has so many small neighborhoods. A lot of my friends live in my neighborhood, which helps it feel much smaller than it really is.
F: I think it’s through the changes that we come together.
S: Yeah!
F: I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.
S: Thanks for calling and setting up this time!
