Briana Berger: high school junior in Florida
Julia Hu: high school junior in New York
Sunny Wu: sophomore at Stanford University
Priya Ganesan: senior at Stanford University
Julie Black: CTO at Evidation Health, B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science
Cynthia Lee: lecturer at Stanford University, Ph.D. in Computer Science
Here are their stories, continued.
“Do you have any role models in the tech or computer science?”
Briana: “My aunt. She’s a strong female, funny, and goes against the stereotype of a programmer. She has red hair and knows how to talk to people. She isn’t a geek. So I realized that if I were also in CS, I wouldn’t have to wear glasses and overalls; I can just be me.”
Julie: “Jen Fitzpatrick — a current VP of engineering at Google. She was my manager when I was an intern in 2002 and has remained someone gracious enough to give me mentorship and guidance. I also get a ton of leadership mentoring from my parents. Jerry [Cain, Stanford lecturer] has also been a fantastic mentor, opening a ton of doors. Generally speaking, I also love to learn from everyone I work with — there [are] so many wonderful people in the tech industry, and everyone has something to teach you.”
Cynthia: “Almost everyone I can think of has nothing to do with CS or is a man…Oh no, this is tragic! Well, actually, I can think of someone — my mentor that first summer at NASA was a mom to several young kids, and that aspect of herself was very present in my interactions with her. If I had only seen female role models that were not so involved with family, it would have been very discouraging.”
“What are some cool things you’ve done with technology so far?”
Priya: “My internship project at Facebook this past summer was impactful. I worked in the Protect and Care division and specifically focused on proactively reporting objectionable content on Facebook. It might seem like a weird or niche project, but when you hear stories of how people have been negatively impacted by objectionable content on social media, it becomes so real. One of my team members shared a story about a woman in India who became the victim of doctored nude photos posted on Facebook. The woman was so embarrassed and upset that she committed suicide. Being on a team that can help people feel safer on social media made it seem like I could do something worthwhile.”
Julie: “Lots! Right after I finished my MS in 2005, I went to Google and got to work on some really challenging technical problems in advertising. I went back to Stanford to get my MBA in 2008 and later joined a startup as the Head of Engineering. Together, our small team managed to change the way that retailers thought about marketing. I then went on to Pinterest where I lead early monetization efforts and numerous projects in search and discovery. Most recently, I’m the CTO of Evidation Health where I lead product, design, and engineering. We’re building technologies that put individuals in control of their health information and give them the opportunity to participate in research.”
