Cohort Stories: Meet Eliana
vol. 5, no. 28 — guest post by Eliana Lopez
I am very proud of being a child of immigrants. Since I am a child of immigrants I have a lot of firsts in my titles (i.e. first born in the United States, first-generation college student, etc.). Since I am the first to pursue these things, I continuously acknowledge the hard work and effort my parents have in providing my sister and I these opportunities that they were never given. One of my biggest motivators that drives me to always learn, succeed, and to even try for failure is my mother’s sacrifice to come to this country. Growing up she would always install the values of gaining an education, and for me it was always an unspoken responsibility as a daughter to work hard because without her sacrifices I would not have the opportunities I have now. Being a child of immigrants is something I am very proud of because seeing and acknowledging my parent’s hard work and sacrifice drives me to work hard and continue pioneering wherever I go.
My interest in technology was actually a huge accident. Prior to University, I did not have any exposure to programming languages nor robotics, so pursuing it had never come to mind. However, this all changed the day I attended my first ever Hackathon. During the weekend the Hackathon started, I was actually planning on staying in my dorm throughout the event. Despite the Hackathon being hosted in my University, I did not pay any mind to the emails or flyers about the event. However, my first year college roommate persuaded me to attend and did so with enthusiasm. So I agreed to attend the Hackathon and I teamed up with a group of friends. We ended up creating a prototype of an improved version of my University portal in the web-based Balsamiq mockup tool. Despite none of us having any coding experience, we ended up winning the category “Best Web Hack”! It was an exciting time, which led me to become an avid Hackathon attendee. From that, I decided to pursue learning Python for the first time ever, and the rest was history. Had my first-year college roommate not persuaded me to attend, I would not be where I am today.
Because of this experience, I am a fan of trying anything once with an open heart and with enthusiasm. Positive energy is a very powerful tool.
Once I heard about Hack.Diversity, I knew that this could be the program where I not only get to experience what working in tech is like for the very first time, but actually pursuing a career in tech seemed reachable. I applied immediately and I am very excited to announce that I am an upcoming Fellow for Hack.Diversity for the year 2021. What excites me about this program is that I get to meet and learn from other Fellows who also share an enthusiasm and passion for technology! In the future, I aspire to mentor and introduce individuals to tech who may not have exposure to it. This is because mentorships play a huge part in growth and experience in any field.
I would also love to give back to Hack.Diversity by mentoring a future Hack Fellow for the year 202X! My favorite part of Hack.Diversity is that it creates a space that is unique in the tech industry so I will give this Fellowship all I’ve got.
