tech-girls

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Brooke Blankenship and Avery Bruen

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting two young women, Brooke Blankenship and Avery Bruen, who recently presented at Charlottesville Entrepreneurs and Espresso (CE2) about their work as interns with an early stage startup, C.A.R.E. Lab. They are rising seniors at Albemarle High School. In addition, Avery is the co-founder and Brooke is the vice president of EmpowerHer, an organization dedicated to creating menstrual equality for public schools in Central Virginia. At CE2, they shared about a pilot workshop that C.A.R.E. Lab is launching for high school students this summer to nurture future leaders as they explore the conscious, accountable, regenerative, and equitable principles.

How do you work with technology today? At the C.A.R.E. Lab, we work with Humanized Generative AI technologies to tackle various complex challenges. Our role involves collaborating on projects that aim to develop smart and sustainable solutions for real-world problems. We utilize AI for data analysis, predictive modeling, and to enhance efficiency and productivity. By integrating AI with the principles of C.A.R.E., we strive to create impactful and equitable outcomes that can benefit our community and beyond.

What drives your interest in technology? Our interest in technology is driven by its transformative potential. We are fascinated by how technology, especially AI, can be used to solve complex problems and improve lives. The ability to innovate and create sustainable solutions that address global challenges inspires us. Additionally, the dynamic nature of the tech field, with its continuous advancements and opportunities for learning, keeps us motivated and eager to contribute to its growth. Through our work at the CARE Lab, we have seen firsthand how technology can make a difference, and this fuels our passion to explore and innovate further.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? Brooke: I vividly remember my first coding experience during a summer tech camp where we were introduced to Scratch. Creating an interactive story with animations and sound effects was incredibly fun and rewarding. It was fascinating to see my ideas come to life through coding, and this experience ignited my curiosity about how technology works and what more I could create with it.

Avery: My journey into technology began in middle school with an introduction to Scratch, MIT’s visual programming language. The user-friendly interface made it easy to create interactive projects, sparking an interest in coding. Later, I explored QuickBase, a low-code application development platform, which provided more advanced, practical experience. These early encounters with Scratch and QuickBase laid the groundwork for my growing interest and skills in technology.

What was your pathway to working in/studying technology? Our path to technology is shaped by a combination of academic pursuits, leadership roles, and a strong passion for student empowerment. Technology must integrate 360 degree thinking in both design and implementation. Values and ethics cannot be an add on but must guide the design process.

Why is it important to see more girls and women studying and working in technology? Having visible female role models in technology inspires and motivates young girls to pursue careers in this field. It helps break down stereotypes and shows that success in technology is achievable for everyone, regardless of gender.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? Both of us are inspired by the mentors and teachers who have guided us on our tech journey. Their support, encouragement, and belief in our potential have been invaluable. They demonstrate the importance of mentorship and the powerful role it plays in shaping future leaders in technology.

What most excites you about the future of technology? We are most excited about the potential of technology to drive sustainable and equitable progress across the globe. The rapid advancements in AI, renewable energy, and biotechnology promise to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time, from climate change to healthcare accessibility.

What advice would you give to your younger self? In a world that often pushes conformity, remember to stay authentic. Your unique perspective and talents are valuable - it’s diversity that drives innovation. Trust in your abilities and be confident in the path you choose, even if it's unconventional. Be responsible for the impact of technology on others and the planet!

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Courtney Christensen

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Courtney Christensen. Courtney is a Senior Engineering Manager at Linden Lab in charge of the teams that build most of the web pieces for Second Life. She is also a long-time mentor with C4K and Tech-Girls. Courtney has this to say about her mentoring experiences - "How can you give back to your community, make the world a better place, and experience your own and another person's joy all at the same time? For me, by mentoring. My mentees are my ripples in the pond, they will help me make an even bigger difference than I ever could alone. Plus they are clever, awesome, funny people and it's fun to spend time with them."

What drives your interest in technology? I can't remember a time when I didn't want to know how things work. I didn't take apart the hairdryer or the alarm clock, but I constantly took apart pens. I drew things and tried to get closer to real life. I used tools and I read books and how-to guides. I also always played video games. Once I put together that I could program games, I was hooked. Now that I'm in tech, I still love solving puzzles, but I realize that technology permeates all aspects of our lives. I want to be helping build the things that power our modern world.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? My older brother sent us a family computer when I was in middle school. I thought I was such a hacker poking around at the DOS prompt loading shareware games and adding HTML to make my profile on a Jeopardy site sparkle. I bought an old BASIC programming book from the library book sale and taught myself from that leading up to my QBASIC class in high school. I loved telling a computer what to do and having it dance to my commands. It's still so much fun to get into a code puzzle.

What was your pathway to working in/studying technology? I have a fairly stereotypical path to technology. I wanted to play video games and take things apart. Then I learned to do some programming. That chose my college major, Computer Science. And I got a job in the field right out of college.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? I've got a few different answers to this. My heart answer is that I love to be there to fan the flame of someone else's endorphin rush at discovery. Learning is so much fun and helping someone else to learn is amazing. The corporate answer is that women are half or more of the target audience, getting women and girls into designing the products you're trying to sell them makes better products. Women on teams makes better teams, but women designing a product for women means you won't have the pitfalls like VR controllers being too big for typically smaller hands or cellphones that can't fit my face!

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? I really like some of the stories of dangerous women from history. Grace Hopper and Ada Lovelace have been great inspirations for me. But today, I've got female CTOs at big companies to look up to. And closer to me, I've got female friends in technology leadership like Ann Lewis. It might be coming to mind because it's Mother's Day as I answer this question, but my mom has always encouraged what she calls my "science brain".

What most excites you about the future of technology? We're making science fiction into science fact daily. I'm most excited about tech that makes the world a better place.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would tell my early career self to change technology sectors and be intentional with your job choices so you don't get typecast. This might be on me and in my own brain, but after 2 jobs in web development, I got labeled "web developer" instead of just "software developer". I would also pursue dreams before you get used to your salary! And make sure to keep learning, don't let yourself get comfortable at being an expert at one thing because times change, technologies move on, and learning new things is a skill that can dull with lack of use.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Anooshka Pendyal

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Anooshka Pendyal. Anooshka is a junior at Deep Run High School's Center for Information Technology in Henrico County, VA. She is passionate about exploring computer science and helping others explore it as well! She is also on the Tech-Girls committee and a frequent session leader at Girls' Geek Day.

How do you work with technology today? I work with technology as both a learner and a teacher. At Virginia Commonwealth University, I am researching applications of quantum computing and mathematical formulations that can be used to help solve problems. At school, I am a student at the Center for Information Technology at Deep Run High School, where I get to learn the fundamentals of computer science through courses like AP Computer Science A and Honors Application Development and through hands-on projects with local companies. One of my passions is helping other people discover and explore technology. Through DebuggingOut, a computer science and math education organization I founded, my team and I hold workshops and tutoring sessions to expose people to computer science in the Richmond area, as computer science is the future. We aim to bring technology education to underserved communities and do so by holding computer literacy workshops, intro to programming workshops, and math tutoring sessions, for example.

What drives your interest in technology? My interest in technology is driven by curiosity and a need to solve problems. As computer science has become and will continue to be bigger parts of our lives, I've always been intrigued by how we can reach better solutions to problems through the power of technology. I also enjoy the challenges and logical reasoning of programming and solving problems.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? My first coding experience was in elementary school when I attended STEAM workshops. Although I already knew how important technology was, it was at the workshops where I discovered that technology could be fun as well. I remember making LED flowers, programming robots to run through mazes, and creating games in Scratch. This fun and interactive introduction to coding inspired me to help other people have the same experience with learning technology.

What was your pathway to studying technology? When I was in elementary school, I was exposed to computer science through workshops and programming courses. Then, while continuing to build my fundamentals, I participated in science fairs in middle school with computer science projects. I also began volunteering to help tutor kids in math and computer science. In high school, I joined a speciality center focused on technology, where I gained experience working in projects with real clients, and I continued my passion for research and volunteering, by joining computer science labs and conducting workshops through DebuggingOut. I plan to continue my education by pursuing a computer science degree in college.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? More diversity in technology means more efficient solutions to problems and different approaches and perspectives. Also, technology is a very lucrative field, and having more women in technology could help to close the gender pay gap.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? Why? My older sister inspires me to pursue my passion in research and technology. I've always looked up to her as a role model and thought how cool her research and career in technology is. Another role model of mine is Ada Lovelace, who is regarded as the first computer programmer and a talented mathematician. I have always enjoyed math and computer science for their problem solving logic, and I admire Ada Lovelace's perseverance in exploring math and technology in spite of the limitations placed on women at the time.

What most excites you about the future of technology? Quantum computing and artificial intelligence have always fascinated me. I'm extremely excited to see how quantum computing will revolutionize computing by using the principles of quantum mechanics and how AI will help us even more in our everyday lives.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would tell my younger self to have more confidence in myself. Although it's important to be conscious of your weaknesses, it's more important to believe in yourself and your strengths. Confidence and hard work helps you conquer fears and be open to new opportunities.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Analia Marzoratti

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Analia Marzoratti. Analia is a PhD student in the Applied Developmental Science program in the School of Education at UVA. She works with Dr. Tanya Evans, studying the cognitive and neural systems most affected by facing adverse environmental conditions (like those linked to poverty) in early childhood. Her long term goal is to use this research to help make changes in early childhood education practices that can make schooling more equitable long-term for children from all backgrounds.

How do you work with technology today? For my research I analyze neuroimaging data (EEG, and fMRI). This involves not just physically working with technological equipment, but also using computers and statistical software to process and analyze the data I collect with it. I write and adapt lots of code, and read a lot of papers about how other people have tackled research questions similar to mine.

What drives your interest in technology? Technology and knowledge go hand-in-hand. New knowledge helps us create technologies, and new technologies are what help us create knowledge. As a part of the really new field of educational neuroscience, it’s hard not to notice that a lot of the research questions being asked today would not have been thought of even 5 years ago, because there was no way to evaluate them and scientists just didn’t know what they didn’t know. I’m interested in staying up-to-date with and even contributing to creating the newest technologies, because that’s where I know I can find the most innovative research questions that can lead to significant changes.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? I decided to learn how to code early on while working on my Bachelor’s degree because I realized how much I needed it in my work as a research assistant, where I was helping process EEG data. My first solo-coding project was writing a script to produce a set of plots in MatLab for multiple datasets. I remember a lot of yelling at my computer, angrily hitting the run button, and late night video-calling an engineer friend. However, while it was painful at first, I found coding was one of the most valuable skills I could have gotten, and each new coding language has gotten infinitely easier!

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? For way too long now white, male voices have dominated all the platforms we use to create and disseminate knowledge, which is a great way of stifling other voices and stepping on potential innovation. This has also kept the interests of the many people out there from being equally represented in the decisions being made using what knowledge we do manage to gather. If more girls and women get into technology, we can add our unique perspectives to the process of creating new knowledge from the very beginning of the process. We can promote changes based on our own needs and take research to places it might not go otherwise, paving the way for even more women and girls like ourselves to become a part of research.

What most excites you about the future of technology? I’m excited for all the ways that technology can help make things more accessible for people, make it so that there are fewer barriers to entry for people in any field based on their background. I’m also looking forward to witnessing the moments of new discovery that we can’t even begin to imagine from the point we’re at in history.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would absolutely tell my younger self to bite the bullet and LEARN HOW TO CODE. Like any other language, the earlier you learn it, the easier it is to pick up one coding language, and then to build on that momentum and keep learning more. Coding is everywhere and is only spreading more across every part of life and every field. I think by studying coding earlier, I also would have learned to enjoy it sooner.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Aditi Prakash

Aditi Prakash is a senior at Albemarle High School. Her passion is inspiring kids to pursue education and STEM. Recently, she created a free STEM kit program called Key to Learning, with her co-founder Rimi Kaur. So far they have partnered with the Boys and Girls Club, the Northside Library, and a few local elementary schools who are using their kits in their 3rd/4th grade curriculum. They have created 400 kits so far, and each kit contains the materials for five science experiments that are paired with five science lessons.

Aditi has also been very involved with Tech-Girls, mostly recently as an intern during the 2020 Bio-Med Tech-Girls summer program. In April she received the Emily Couric Leadership Award!

How do you work with technology today? I work with technology through teaching robotics and creating STEM instructional videos! Rimi and I use video editing and are working on animations for our videos.

What drives your interest in technology? What drives my interest in technology are the endless opportunities and curiosity that it brings. I love exploring technology, but I also love the careers and options it can give. I hope to inspire kids to pursue tech and not get discouraged.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? My first coding experience was in my lovely robotics team in 5th grade. We started out pretty simple, we used RobotC to program a robot we built together to dance to the cupid shuffle with us! It was incredibly exciting, and I hope to pass that excitement and joy down to future students.

What was your pathway to working in/studying technology? My pathway into working with tech was through my robotics team - I always loved math and science, but my first true tech/coding experiences were with my team.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? It is important to get girls and women interested in technology because the field is missing crucial talent! Every girl who is told she is terrible at science has incredible potential. The more diverse and accepting STEM becomes, the more innovation is possible. In addition, girls deserve access to the careers and opportunities available in technology, and we need to make sure that those opportunities are within reach.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? My mentors and students inspire me to pursue my passions. Every mentor who happily teaches new skills is opening up a new world to their students, and this inspires me to give back to my community in the same way.

What most excites you about the future of technology? What most excites me about the future of technology is the potential it has to change lives! The quality of life we experience today is entirely thanks to technology and innovation, and there is no telling how much we will improve the world we live in through technology.

What advice would you give to your younger self? The advice I would give my younger self would be to never give up on a project or a new skill before you have given a good number of attempts. So many students are conditioned to believe that their inherent ability is what matters in whether they will be successful in a certain field or not, but this could not be farther from the truth. Persistence and grit is what yields success. This is especially important for discouraged and underrepresented groups in STEM. If we teach students that their effort and persistence is what matters and not 'talent', the world will be a better place.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Melissa Phillips

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Melissa Phillips, a Data Scientist at Commonwealth Computer Research, Inc.

Learn how bringing students to a math competition inspired her journey from middle school math teacher to data scientist in this September episode from the Once Upon a Tech podcast. Melissa was also recently a panelist at the CWIT Summit, where she and others shared how they are thriving in tech with less traditional backgrounds.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Bio-Med Tech-Girls

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting the 23 young women who came from all over the U.S. to join the 7th annual Bio-Med Tech-Girls online! This program is a collaboration between the UVA Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), St. Anne's-Belfield School and Charlottesville Women in Tech. This year the week was filled with guest speakers, hands-on activities and a design challenge focused on the Go Viral Project developed by Dr. Jeff Saucerman and Dr. Shayn Peirce-Cottler from UVA BME.

Be sure to check out the projects and presentations from:

The Adapters (Bria, McKenzie, Rehanna and Taliya) looked at COVID19 from the perspective of small business owners and created interactive "in their shoes" stories with Twine about the tough decisions they are facing during this pandemic.

Team Super Scratch (Anvintha, Mia, Riley and Shivani K.) created a super informative website targeted at teenagers about COVID19 as well as computer models with Scratch that show the impact of wearing masks and social distancing.

More Spaces, Less Cases (Madeline, Maya, Sydne and Veda) created a desk placement model in Scratch to show different COVID19 transmission scenarios to students/teachers based on desk placement and teachers who travel between classes.

The Preschool Protectors (Ananya, Kourtney, Nyla and Shivani V.) created models in Scratch for parents and educators to show the spread of the Coronavirus infection based on different mask wearing scenarios.

Helping Nice Nurses (Aasa, Hailey and Priya) were concerned with the added stress that health workers are facing due to the pandemic and created a quiz to help them monitor their mental health.

The Underwater Adventurers (Mary, Padmaja, Shreshta and Vinata) created a Scratch game geared toward preschoolers to help them understand that even their small choices can make a big impact on keeping everyone safe.

You can also get a behind-the-scenes look at this program from two of the student organizers, Noelle and Sruthi, on the Once Upon a Tech podcast.

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Notes from the field:

A Bio-Med Tech-Girls Experience by Noelle Robinson

Focused. My ears focused on every word coming out of her mouth. Every line strung with emotion and love. Love for her son and appreciation for our listening ears. My pen stopped moving, so my eyes could be supportive and help me remember the vivid story our guest painted in front of us. A fly on the wall would have seen a mom sharing her story about the moment her life changed, the moment her son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. This was the most moving and memorable part of my 2018 Bio-Med Tech-Girls experience. Listening to this mom’s talk about the transition to a diabetic sensitive life helped me empathize with the people we listened to and formed a better idea of what the diabetic community might need. The first part of the design thinking process, empathy, began when we were listening. By the end of the week, myself and fifteen other girls prototyped five innovations for diabetics and their families through the design thinking process.

Empathy, as we learned, is not only composed of listening. We also tackled experiential empathy. For twelve hours I participated in a “Diabetes for one day” exercise, based on Susanna Fox’s Parkinsons for one day. This opened my eyes to how much responsibility and planning went into the lives of a Type 1 Diabetic. As a group, we realized how much stress this disease could cause a family and motivated us to come up with better ideas for our prototypes. On the other hand in 2019, when the topic was orthopedic disabilities we empathized in three different ways. Like before, we heard from many guests and listened intently to their moving stories. We also had a personal challenge to do one part of our morning routine without the use of our fingers to empathize with youth patients. Lastly, partnerships had to enter a store and buy something when one of the people did not have a hand. This exercise brought to our attention how other people’s reactions can make you feel. It made me think about the worries or fears one might have when walking into a store or restaurant.

Next, we had to define our focuses and the problems we wanted to solve. This task can become challenging because we are not talking about solutions, only places where an innovation could be useful. To do this we filled out empathy maps and reflected on the words of our guest speakers. With the difficulties in mind and our groups formed through those, we began ideating/brainstorming. The task of thirty ideas in one minute or one hundred ideas in five minutes seemed impossible. However quality neglected to be the goal. Every idea could become a valuable idea. For the week on diabetes, my group decided to address glucose injections during the night. Some of my ideas were a robotic pill and melt away glucose paper, which could lead to a great innovation, but we decided to prototype a glucose pump. The next year my group created a game controller for a paralysis patient. We thought about making a hula-hoop contraption or a wire pulling gadget for our patient. In the end, our prototype looked like an oversized Xbox controller.

Prototyping or 3-d-a-fying our ideas. This is where computer science knowledge came into play. We learned how to use micro-bits, MakeyMakeys, Hummingbird Robotics, and Scratch. Since we made controllers in 2019, most of us used a MakeyMakey for our controls. Because the MakeyMakeysare so versatile all of our controllers were unique, which made for a cool and diverse showcase. My group also made a Scratch game to play with our oversized controller. In my first year, we used a Hummingbird to make a glucose pump. At the Demo Party, we exhibited our prototyped instrument with a fake screen, light for emergencies, and a pump.

The Demo Party exemplifies another skill I improved: communication. Every day, we were pushed to ask questions, work with new people, sit at different tables, and reflect on the day. Collaboration was essential. While brainstorming, we bounced ideas off of one another. During the exercises, we worked together to accomplish a challenging task. For the final projects, each member of the team had to do their part so we could finish on time. Then during the showcase, we spoke about what we created and the design path we took over the past week. I met amazing women and we all learned from each other.

While working through the design thinking process we also took time to tour labs and learn what biomedical engineers at UVA are working on. My favorite lab worked on muscle regeneration. When we visited we saw the rats they tested their muscle substances on. Also, during my first year, we got the opportunity to tour the virtual reality lab and witnessed a demonstration of the robots used for surgeries. My second-year an occupational therapist came to talk to us and then later in the week we toured the occupational therapy section of the children’s hospital. The creative use of tools and contraptions the occupational therapist made to achieve various motions and stretches for their patients impressed me.

Overall, through these two years I have gained an understanding of a new way to problem solve, which I can use in my everyday life. I learned valuable knowledge about different disabilities and diseases, and the camp opened my eyes to various careers and research which I did not know existed. Coming in I knew minimal about computer science and the biomedical field. However, throughout two weeks I feel more equipped to tackle a quandary and prototype an answer to any problem.

Applications are still open for Bio-Med Tech-Girls 2020!

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Raeann Giannattasio

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Raeann Giannattasio. Raeann is a fourth year at the University of Virginia majoring in Aerospace Engineering. She spent the summer of 2019 combining her passions for STEM and public service through an internship at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. via UVA's Policy Internship Program (PIP). As part of the Mars Reconnaissance Team, she worked on projects that leveraged the integration of planetary science, engineering, and policy in order to investigate steps that can be taken to establish human presence on Mars. Raeann is an Elementary & Middle School Outreach Co-Chair for the UVA Society of Women Engineers (SWE). That work was recently highlighted on the Once Upon a Tech podcast and through a STEM session at the first virtual Girls’ Geek Day!

How do you work with technology today? In class, I use many different computer software. I use CAD inventor to build parts that can be 3D printed. I use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to run computer simulations on parts that will be surrounded by fluid. For example, I can simulate a plane moving in air at a certain speed. I can use other technology to verify those results with something such as a wind tunnel. I also use coding languages such as MATLAB to solve math problems in my orbital mechanics class that would take me days to do by hand.

The most interesting piece of technology I work with is the Flight Simulator in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering building. My Flight Vehicle Dynamics class has a lab component where I get to spend time flying a simulated plane. It can mimic the effects of thunderstorms, night sky, and any other situation that a pilot should know how to handle! It's a really great tool for pilots to practice being in the air, and I like being able to work with it firsthand!

What drives your interest in technology? The way technology is able to help others motivates me to use my ability as an engineer to improve lives for the better. On the other hand, the potential for misuse of technology instills a responsibility in me to use my knowledge of the field to make recommendations to try and ensure that technologies are not abused by anyone. This ethical line is one that engineers should always keep in mind when designing the latest technology. All of the good we do for people with tech is very important work that I am proud to have a hand in, no matter how small.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? My first coding experience was during my first year in college. UVA students take an intro programming class that uses python. I was very nervous to start coding because I heard it was very difficult, and I didn't know how I would like it. By the end of the course, I wound up designing a game that could be played for points! The professor was very encouraging, and now I like coding because it is an excellent tool for problem solving.

What was your pathway to working in/studying technology? In early elementary school, I was very fascinated by space. But I was led to believe that due to my compassionate nature I would be better suited for careers that suited these traits, as opposed to the dry lab work of a scientist. I was part of a Law and Public Service program in high school because of my desire to help others and make our world a better place. Throughout high school, I loved my math and science classes, and eventually realized that engineering is a way to use math and science to help others. Because of my childhood passion, I chose to study Aerospace Engineering, and I have not regretted it.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? Having diversity in technology is immensely important. The best solutions to any problems will surface more easily when a group made up of unique perspectives is on the case. Having a blend of genders, ages, races, and upbringings will generate more ideas than any one demographic can create alone. Diversity is essential to develop robust solutions, and women can, do, and will contribute meaningfully to the technology problems of the day.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? Professor Ryals is part of the applied math department here at UVA. I took my first college math class with her while struggling to adjust to college life. I was experiencing issues with college outside of academia, but Calculus II definitely added to the difficulty. Having Professor Ryals push me mathematically from the start of my college career allowed me to grow into this discipline. I went on to take 3 more math courses with her, and still tell people that I want to emulate her intelligence and grace when I "grow up." Once I sorted out the rest of my college experience, math class became far better than it was when I was a first year. I am very thankful to Professor Ryals for helping me realize that I have the ability to learn new material, and that is what makes me a good engineer.

What most excites you about the future of technology? Being in the space industry, I am excited to see what is in store for human exploration. From a technological perspective, we're mostly capable of sending humans into space. What we need is to fix the belief issue, and get everyone excited about deep space exploration. If the general public can see how going into space helps us as a species, then we will be that much closer to seeing it happen.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would tell my younger self that being an emotional person is not as much of an obstacle as she was made to believe. Having compassion and empathy do not contradict the work of a scientist. Emotions are a real asset to an engineer, not a hindrance. Being emotionally invested in your work and the people you're working with makes you a motivated and caring teammate. STEM work can compliment public service needs well, and you will not have to choose sides.

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Spotlight: Girls’ Geek Day

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting the amazing people who make Girls' Geek Days possible - the girls, their parents, the host schools and of course, all the volunteers!!! The Once Upon a Tech podcast captured some behind-the-scenes action at the February Girls' Geek Day hosted at St. Anne's-Belfield School. Hear what it's all about and why everyone who is a part of it is so special to us:)

Listen now!

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Spotlight: Bridget Olson

Bridget Olson is a student at Virginia Tech in her final semester of Creative Technologies. She loves 3D modeling, 2D/3D animation, and digital painting! Her Octo Bus design is a finalist for the 2020 City Art Bus project.

How do you work with technology today? I'm currently working on my senior show, Navigating Echoes with Daniel Monzel. I'm animating using Maya and 3D models we made together to explore the themes of reincarnation with mandelbulbs!

What drives your interest in technology? I love seeing how I can blend art and technology in pleasing ways. I think we should blend the two more in the future!

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? My parents have been a constant support of me pursuing this passion. I owe it all to them where I am now!

What advice would you give to your younger self? Keep going! Focus on what you enjoy and find a way to turn that into a career!

Check out her amazing creations here.

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Spotlight: Camellia Pastore

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Camellia Pastore. Camellia is a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech, majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Math and PPE (Philosophy, Political Science, & Economics). She stumbled onto computer science in high school, and fell in love with how it combines creativity and problem solving.

How do you work with technology today? This summer, I am working for WillowTree Apps (which has its HQ here in Charlottesville!) as a Software Engineering Intern. I am an iOS developer, which means I am helping to make iPhone apps for WillowTree client companies. During the school year, I help plan two hackathons and serve as a representative from the VT College of Engineering to the Dean of Engineering.

What drives your interest in technology? It seems like technology is becoming more and more intertwined in everything else in our lives. It's really exciting to feel like I have the ability to create something that could power items that people use everyday, or write algorithms that help with important decisions.  

What do you remember about your first coding experience? The first program I ever wrote was a "Hello World" in Java, which I made by following exactly what my teacher wrote in an AP Computer Science class in high school. I had never thought that I would ever be able to do anything with computers, and being able to see a message pop up on-screen that I had made happen was an amazing and powerful feeling.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? Since technology is something that affects everyone in the world, it should be created by people from every demographic. However, sadly, I think that engineering and computer science are two places where people still have a specific image of what someone in that field should look like. Many stereotypes about programmers -- dorky, never goes outside, hates being social -- makes some people with an interest in CS feel that they won't fit in. However, the power that technology has makes it imperative that people with different perspectives and life experiences work together to find more thoughtful, more creative, and ultimately better solutions.

In my first few years of programming, I definitely felt like an outsider, and I try to volunteer now to help people see that computer science can be a broad, diverse field. I've had the amazing opportunity to teach at Girls’ Geek Day, the SPARK! Hackathon, and the Summer SPARK! program.

What most excites you about the future of technology? I'm really looking forward to seeing how technology is going to continue shaping education. Immersive virtual reality or even just lectures with better animations could totally transform the learning experience and help close the gap for underfunded school districts. I hope that tech makes learning more useful and more fun for the students of the future.

What advice would you give to your younger self? Nobody knows anything. But in a good way! The wonderful thing about computer science is that the field is always changing and evolving, so there is always a lot of room to learn. I spent a lot of years being intimidated by people who talked about how great they were at coding before I realized that everyone is forever getting better at CS, and just because someone has more experience in one area doesn't mean they're smarter.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Melissa Young

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Melissa Young. Melissa is a Software Engineer at WillowTree in Charlottesville! Her main focus is Android Development, though she has a background in Front-End Web Development as well as a Bachelor of Science in Game Design and Development. One of Melissa’s biggest passions around technology is to host workshops and provide mentorship when she can, to help get more kids interested in Computer Science since she wasn't exposed to it until she got to college.

How do you work with technology today? Now a days I work on mobile technologies for different clients that we have, working with my team to help create amazing digital products. On my current project, I'm working on our Android Platform using a language called Kotlin.

What drives your interest in technology? What drives my interest right now is how quickly technology is changing and how the people around me are so excited to be working to create all these different projects together. I find that many of the people I know in the technology field are always striving to apply their skills to try to make amazing things and I want to help do that.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? The big thing that I remember about my first coding experience was that we were using a click and drag coding language called Alice and no one really explained to me that click and drag wasn't really how most programming worked. So I was kind of thrown for a loop the first time my friends in college showed me python!

What was your pathway to working in technology? My pathway to working in technology was that after I went to college (originally for Chemical Engineering), I had a few friends who were in CS programs on my first year floor and I became interested because of what they showed me, switched my major, and the rest was history.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? It's extremely important to me that girls and women have an equal opportunity to learn about coding and find a passion with it if they want. The more diverse the mindsets within a field, the more benefit for that field because so many different ideas get introduced that way. People usually end up approaching problem solving with themselves in mind, so if you have a group of people that all have similar life experiences, you might end up leaving out potential solutions just because its not something that affects you on a daily basis.

What most excites you about the future of technology? I think what excites me most is that you never really know what could be made tomorrow by someone or the impact it might have. Being part of a crowd that's always striving to create new solutions to the worlds issues is an amazing feeling.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? The people that inspire me to pursue my passion the most is those that I have had the privilege to teach to. The more that I do and the more that I learn, the more that I can spread that knowledge and reach out to others with more subjects that could interest them. I want to be able to give back to the next generation in technology so that they can hopefully come up with even better ideas than we did based on the things we were able to teach them.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would tell my younger high school self to look into Python! Encourage them to try and find some workshops around being a developer, and really explore the option instead of not doing anything because no one else around you knows anything about it.

Yes We Tech! Want to learn more about Melissa and what it takes to make an app? Join us June 4, 2019 at the Yes We Tech Meetup hosted by WillowTree. The meetups are free and open to girls in middle school, but registration is required.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Viv Shields

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Viv Shields. Viv is a junior at St. Anne's Belfield School and a Tech-Girls volunteer.

How do you work with technology today? I use technology in my CS class in order to learn more about it. I also use it in places such as Hackathon to help solve problems in the local Charlottesville community.

What drives your interest in technology? I think its so important to understand how technology works, as it is our future.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? I remember doing a project in my computer science principles class my freshman year. I was so confused and didn't understand why I couldn't figure it out. After much more experience, I know that this is just part of the process of problem solving.

What was your pathway to working in technology? I started taking computer science because none of my friends wanted to. I knew nothing about the class. I was excited to see the class wasn't just coding and that I would learn the valuable skill of problem solving.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? It is so important to break the stereotype surrounding the field of computer science, which is, it's a boy's subject. Problem solving is a significant part of life and learning it in early education is so important! It was so valuable to see girls problem solving at Girls' Geek Day. It was interesting to see the physical and emotional differences between boys and girls when solving a problem. For these girls, solving the problem in front of them almost seemed relaxing. As for most younger boys, it's more of a frazzled energy when solving a problem.

What most excites you about the future of technology? Education about technology is what excites me the most! The developing technology all includes the concept of problem solving, looking at new ways to solve a problem.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? So many people inspire me, I can't choose one! Seeing people pursuing their passions and changing the world for the better is so inspiring to me. Especially when it's obvious that what they're doing is making them happy.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Mariah Payne

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Mariah Payne. Mariah is a senior at St. Anne's-Belfield School where she takes computer science. She was one of the student organizers for the 2019 SPARK! Hackathon and is a Tech-Girls volunteer.

How do you work with technology today? I use technology in my CS class in order to learn more about it. I also use it in places such as the SPARK! Hackathon to help solve problems in the local Charlottesville community.

What drives your interest in technology? My interest in technology is driven by the fact that everyone uses it and it grows at a rapid pace, making the lives of people easier and helping to solve problems for those who need it.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? In my first coding experience, I remember my friend teaching me Python during the SPARK! Hackathon a few years ago. I remember understanding what was actually happening and being excited about it because it was easier to understand than I ever thought it would be. I thought only the most intelligent people could code but anyone can understand the concepts if they're presented in a way that works for them.

What was your pathway to working in technology? My friends mostly influenced me into working with technology. It was something I wanted to learn more about and my friends seemed to love working with it.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? It is important to get more girls and women interested in technology because everyone is using it today, not just men, and everyone should know how it works. Including more women also brings more ideas and inputs into solving a problem. Our different backgrounds and experiences allow us to come up with different ways to approach a problem, and more women could not only solve more problems in more ways, it also brings attention to problems women have that are not being considered and can be solved using technology. Not to mention a women, Ada Lovelace, was the first person to program on a computer.

What advice would you give to your younger self? I would tell myself to be more confident in my abilities and not beat myself up for not knowing something.

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Sarah FitzHenry

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Sarah FitzHenry, a library superhero!

"I'm a 21st century librarian. People are generally surprised to learn that technology is integral to librarianship, but we can get the whole librarian stereotype thing out of the way right off the bat: I'm loud, I love computers, and stamping and shelving books is only a fraction of my multi-faceted job. I'm the K-8 library media specialist at St. Anne's-Belfield School, and kids shush me a lot."

How do you work with technology today? Libraries are dynamic, constantly evolving community resources, and incredibly tech-savvy minds and hands are required to keep up. All libraries have the obvious tech components (digital cataloguing and archiving, computer labs and/or tech-based programming, devices available in the library collection), but as a school librarian, I get to utilize technology and media literacy in a unique way.

St. Anne's-Belfield School has an incredible computer science program, and I'm lucky enough to work closely with our K-8 Computer Science Coordinator, Kim Wilkens, to bring CS projects and ideas into the school library. We team up for multiple units each year, like using media literacy and coding to teach fourth graders to recognize fake news, using 3D rendering and graphic design to solve library problems using the design thinking process, and a school-wide unit we call The Twelve Days of Tech-Mas (which, more accurately, is more like a month-long technology party).

We also work together to create experiences for kids that blend literature and computer science in a way that challenges what students traditionally expect from a library. Kids that consider themselves strong readers but feel intimidated by the CS lab are much more likely to try out something new at a book club meeting that happens to feature robotics; tech program regulars that don't spend much time reading will happily pick up a book if they know that they can help run the makerspace we're building to celebrate it. We combine libraries and tech in a fun and creative way that pushes students to look past the "but this is too hard!" mental block and focus instead on all of the amazing things they can do.

What drives your interest in technology? I'm a very curious and creative person, and my day doesn't feel complete unless I've learned or designed something new. Computer science is full of puzzles to solve and ways to express creativity, which is so satisfying.

As a teacher, my drive is intensified by knowing that I'm a role model to hundreds of children. I know that they all benefit from seeing a woman with a strong interest and passion for technology, making mistakes and learning new things right alongside them. My tech skills are mostly self-taught, I'm not a traditional tech expert, and I'm constantly learning by failing. I love sharing that with my students! I'm happy to be a part of the effort to normalize women in tech taking risks, failing forward, speaking up, and unabashedly claiming a seat at the table.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? I'm endlessly inspired by the young girls that I am trusted to teach and mentor. Every day, they remind me why it's important to show up, stand up, speak up, and do it with pride. They're watching and listening all the time (especially when things go wrong!), and it's a privilege to listen, support, and guide them as they learn and grow. I aim to be the person that I needed when I was younger; if I'm lucky, my passion and confidence could become theirs. Being a role model to young people is not a responsibility that I take lightly, and the commitment pushes me in a powerful way.

What most excites you about the future of technology? It may sound weird coming from a person who loves technology and uses it both personally and professionally, but I'm excited to see where we end up when we eventually rebound from this current trend of "techno-maximalism" (if you're not familiar with Cal Newport's term, it's a super interesting Google). Will our next stop be digital minimalism, and more mindful use of technology? Will we decide that we've had enough and totally unplug? Or will we jump in with both feet and just embed stuff directly into our brains and bodies, a-la the fantasies of teen dystopian fiction? Whatever comes next, I'm excited to learn.

[tech-girls]

After graduating I want to share my university experience with you, the highs, the lows, the regrets… Here are my top 10 tips on how to get the most out of uni / college as well. Stick around to watch my final grade reveal! I hope this can be helpful for you, whether you’re in university or still deciding.