I never believed in my technical skills enough to pursue a future in STEM until I started my junior year at the University of New Mexico. At the time, I was working on a bachelor’s degree in international relations with a minor in foreign languages. I had to write a paper on the politics of cybersecurity and I realized that I didn’t really know how computers worked, so I decided to teach myself how to code. After a few months of learning on my own, I learned about a coding boot camp called Cultivating Coders that focused on web development and design and I decided to apply. During the camp, I learned now only how to code and design websites, but I also realized that while I loved international relations, I loved coding a lot more. So I decided to merge my love for politics and tech and pursue a career in cybersecurity, focusing on the ethics of tech companies and the effects of more complex technologies like artificial intelligence and it’s effects on society. I am still working towards my degree in international relations but I plan on pursuing a master’s in computer science or cybersecurity. In the meantime, I want to be as involved in my community offering my technical skills to as many people as possible so that I may not only improve my skills but also so that I can give back as much as possible.
One of my favorite Ted Talks of all time is one by a woman named Debbie Sterling. Her talk is called “Inspiring the next generation of female engineers”. During her speech, she discusses how being an engineer is having the ability to create a solution for any problem that you may encounter. I wanted to have that power which is why I decided to pursue a career in tech. Out of all the engineers in the United States only 13% are women, and of those only 2% are Latinas. I figure if the majority of engineers have all come from the same background and have had similar experiences, then the solutions that they had created this far have only been for problems that they encountered. Being a Latina engineer means that I had the power to find solutions for problems that women and my community encountered. Solutions to problems that past engineers probably didn’t even know existed. There’s a lot of pride in that. Getting to rise up and inspire a new generation of women to pursue a career that gives them the skills necessary to tackle the world’s problems is an incredible thing. Latinas have a lot to offer and I believe that a great opportunity for us to do so is by pursuing a career in science and technology.
