When You Are Grown and in Charge

To the men who have asked me to be on their team at hackathons. To the men who sat next to me in class and struck up a conversation, and to those who have invited me to study sessions. To those who do not question my abilities because of my gender, my race.

I thank you.

As a Latina woman, I might be one of the rarest sights in the computer science world. I have few trailblazers, few role models, and stories of women like me are usually ones of failure, or simply untold. So to my male friends in CSIC, thank you to those who have not made me feel like an outcast. Thank you for including me, for treating me as a friend, or at the very least, a peer. I know maybe some of you will always put some distance between us, but I thank you for not excluding me, or for making me feel unwelcome. You are special, you are appreciated, and every time you reach out, the countless times I have been disregarded, told no, told maybe, becomes less overwhelmingly.

I ask one thing. I ask, when you are grown and in charge, to not forget about us. To not forget when you see a Jenna, Amita, Leticia, or Nadine on the head of a resume, to remember that that person has probably been subconsciously passed over a thousand times, and had to work twice as hard to prove herself a thousand more. I ask when you are sitting in a conference room with your future coworkers, to think of your friends from 132 and 216, and to remember how often you saw them alone, how little they spoke up. How some of them seemed to rush in and out of class. Remember their perseverance in the face of low odds and condescending words.

Most of us girls will not inherit the world. It’s a sad fact we have to look in the face every day. Many of us will drop out, give up, as so many did in my elementary school math classes, middle school science classes, high school and college computer science classes, when my female friends decided this field probably “wasn’t for them” and decided to be models, psych majors, or artists. Most of didn’t make it and many of us won’t still. One day, maybe, but not today. We can’t do it alone, so I ask you. When you are grown and in charge, don’t forget us.

With thanks,

The girl in your computer science class