Personal Statement

My strong interest in addressing the gender gap in technology started the summer before my senior year in high school. As a low-income immigrant student, I participated in a free summer program called Girls Who Code, that empowered me with the knowledge of programming that my high school could not provide me. I learned that although tech jobs are among the fastest growing in the country, women and girls remain underrepresented. I decided to start up a Computer Science Club at my high school to teach my peers the basics of web development and programming. As an alumni, I volunteer six hours weekly with the high school students in my community to teach and get them excited about coding. I have partnered with Google CS First to utilize their curriculum in my makeshift classroom! Over a twelve weeks period, I volunteered over 500 hours to use my programming knowledge to build the website www.wocforamerica.com, the first database developed to get more progressive women of color elected to office and to keep communities of color more civically engaged. In addition, I also volunteered with an immigration coalition to build their website www.informedimmigrant.com which helps immigrants in the US to find resources in their community pertaining to healthcare, legal help and even financial assistance! I aspire to continue to use my programming knowledge to make an impact, and to empower more young girls to know that they have the smarts needed to pursue education and careers in computer science.