Celebrating incredible data scientists and engineers at Shopify on #IWD
For International Women’s Day, a few amazing women from Shopify’s Data Science and Engineering team shared their inspiring journeys into STEM.
Lucky Manku — Data Scientist, Toronto
I never saw myself in STEM. I was not a “math whiz” kid, I was a solid B+ kind of math kid. I liked experimenting in science class but I was so nervous about getting a good grade on labs that I never really learned to feel safe and enjoy science. I flew through my social science classes though: essays, debates, and analyzing historical documents came naturally to me. I remember in high school they offered a specialized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program: a complex software used to analyze spatial data. It was a small, relatively unknown program, so the stakes of failure didn’t feel as high and it created a lab environment that I felt comfortable in. It also paired nicely with my passion for social sciences. I loved using it to study neighbourhood trends, health trends, and other social issues from a geographic standpoint.
In 2011, I moved to Ottawa to study geography at the University of Ottawa and pursue a career on Parliament Hill. I marketed my GIS skills to land a job as a GIS Analyst. Even though I worked on the Digital Team, it never occurred to me that I was doing STEM work. Fortunately, not everyone on my team agreed with me. Our senior web developer noticed the work I was doing was very analytical, and asked me to help him on a side project. That side project started out as leveraging our web analytics platform, and quickly expanded to implementing A/B testing, running data-driven online ad campaigns, and building data visualizations dashboards. I never consciously chose to enter STEM, it was a natural growth of me wanting to make better arguments and analyze decisions, which is what I love about the social sciences. The more I focused on the goal of what I wanted to achieve, the easier it became to see things like programming and statistics as just tools I needed to learn, not insurmountable obstacles. I solve problems, STEM helps me solve them.
Nevena Francetic — Data Science Lead, Ottawa
I’ve been always interested in math. It’s precise, clean, only right or wrong — never in between. I liked that I didn’t have to memorize a lot; it is enough to understand the principles and then it’s only a matter of applying them. But natural inclination towards a subject is not enough. I was lucky to grow up in an environment where my passion for math was recognized, encouraged and nurtured.
At first my parents supported it by making it into a game. We collected plastic spoons that came in ice-cream packages and used them as a prop for counting and solving small challenges. To collect more spoons meant eating more ice cream and what child would not want more ice-cream?! When I was in high school, the war just ended in the former Yugoslavia where I grew up. Life was difficult, resources were scarce, and nobody had any hope for the future. Fortunately there was one teacher who could not accept this, Jovan Knežević. His passion was teaching kids how beautiful math is: logical, structured and perfect. A contradiction to the world we lived in. He organized after school classes where he prepared us for math competitions and we did surprisingly well in them. Despite our circumstances, he never gave up on us and this drive really inspired me as I completed school and eventually emigrated to Canada.
Powered with a passion for mathematics instilled in me by my high school teacher, I continued my undergrad studies at the University of Ottawa in math and computer science. I had an incredible professor, Mateja Šajna. My first summer at school I was bored and really wasn’t sure how to spend my summers. She took a chance on me by offering me a research project and became a significant mentor in my life. I didn’t even think of going to graduate school before she very passionately encouraged me. She wrote a reference letter for every grant and scholarship I applied for, and I was lucky to receive many of them. She continues to find ways to open academic doors to students early in their studies by involving industry partners in Mitacs Accelerate projects. Most importantly of all, she is the picture in my head of a successful, happy, empowering, female leader.
Parents, teachers, professors are those that shelter, encourage and empower young minds. I am humbled by and incredibly grateful for them. All I can hope for is to pay it forward. Some of the sweetest moments in my life were when some of my female students told me that my classes helped them get over their fear of math or that they want to grow up to be just like me. There is a lovely feedback loop which gives me energy and inspires me to be even better in what I do and find new ways to help others.
Chen Karako — Senior Data Scientist, Montreal
I’ve been interested in science as far back as I can remember. I think it was in part thanks to my parents, who would take the time to patiently explain concepts to me, making me curious to learn more. I remember that when I was about 8 years old, my dad gave me an “assignment” to read and summarize the encyclopedia entry on “chemistry”. I was so excited with my new knowledge that I later insisted on “playing molecules” with my friend, blowing her mind with my (simplistic) explanation of it. How does one even play molecules?!
I was also fascinated by electricity. In science class, we each had a little container full of wires, batteries and light bulbs. I used to love when our teacher would give us free time and encourage us to build circuits. I enjoyed it so much that I would bring the container home to continue experimenting. My curiosity quickly outgrew that little box. Ask my mom and she’ll tell you how I was constantly pulling things out of the pantry to make all sorts of wacky concoctions (“I wonder what you get when you put uncooked spaghetti in a glass of water with some ketchup in the fridge”… nothing happens, young Chen). Instead of complaining about the messes I made, she would encourage me by expressing interest in the latest science experiment in the fridge.
As I grew older, my interest in science grew too, leading me to pursue a degree in math and physics, followed by a master’s degree in astrophysics. Having realized the importance of being surrounded by supportive family, teachers and friends, I make it a priority to teach science and programming to children in my spare time. I’ve also been actively speaking and mentoring at events for women and other under-represented groups in hopes of inspiring more people to go into tech. By helping people recognize their potential and encouraging them to keep learning, I hope to foster a supportive environment, like the one I was lucky to have while growing up.
Alysha Gardner — Senior Data Engineer, Ottawa
My family got our first computer when I was 10 years old, and I remember spending a lot of time on it — moving around system files, trying to edit things I didn’t understand, opening it up and pulling out parts. There was something exciting about the process of changing things on the screen and seeing how the computer’s output changed. My parents were very supportive and didn’t mind me breaking their new computer over and over, as long as I fixed it! So I got very good at reinstalling Windows.
When I got to high school my Computer Science teacher encouraged me to learn and develop my programming skills. There weren’t a lot of other students who were interested in computers, but he organized coding events at the school, and spent his weekends driving a team of us around Ontario to participate in programming contests. Solving problems and meeting people who were passionate about doing the same convinced me I should pursue a career as a software engineer.
Since I graduated from the University of Ottawa I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of inspiring people from around the world, and to meet a lot of terrific role models. Working with a team with different experiences and viewpoints leads to better solutions, but it also makes work and life more enjoyable and fulfilling. I’m so grateful for the support of my family, my teachers and my colleagues who always encourage me to learn and improve.
Ella Hilal — Director of Data Science, Waterloo
I was blessed to have been raised in a loving family where science discussions were a key part of our daily conversations around the dinner table. My father is a Quantum Chemistry professor at Cairo University, so I grew to understand the role of science in people’s lives. Throughout my childhood, I was fascinated by the fact that science has profoundly impacted the way we are living our lives, how the collective inventions of applied scientists have defined modern society. For me, Science and Engineering is a passion more than a job or a career.
I was raised in a supportive environment that encouraged me to pursue my dreams, nourish my leadership skills, and appreciate my strengths. I grew to be a self-motivated and ambitious person with arduous targets and the urge to pursue them. I was raised to believe that every challenge is an opportunity in its own way and I strongly believe in the saying ‘if you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there’ as a guiding thought. I think that applies to everything in life, whether it’s a career choice or even an algorithm being developed.
I believe that there is a global need for more women in technology and in general more diversity in the technology sectors. Women may think, act, or approach problems differently. Different perspectives can help build a holistic solution to the problems engineers are solving. I acknowledge that there are major strides that have been achieved in recent years to increase women representation in the technology industry. However, we still need to recognize that there is more to do and more fundamental issues that still need to be solved to ensure equal opportunity for all genders in the field. This, by no means, discounts the need for overall well-diverse teams. It is definitely important to build teams that are highly diverse. We need to design for a community, not for a single range of people and having diversity definitely helps with that.
Happy International Women’s Day! If you haven’t yet, send a thank you to the influential women in your life. If you enjoyed what you read and want to learn more about the team and are interested in pursuing a job in STEM at Shopify, head on over to to our Careers page!
