Cohort Stories: Meet Evely
vol. 5, no. 31 — guest post by Evely Cruz
The biggest challenge I have faced has been becoming a person of my own and discovering my interests. It is not difficult to follow a curriculum in high school; after all, those four years do not govern the rest of your life. Following high school graduation, I enrolled into college without having a clear sense of what I was passionate about. I tried forcing myself through college by randomly picking majors; fortunately, I could not force myself to finish. Through trial and error, I learned that I am driven by goals and passion. As time went by, I felt as though I was getting older and still had not discovered the path I wanted to take in life.
I have always had my parents’ support and thanks to them, I had the opportunity to go back to my native country, Peru, and do some self-discovery. I lived in Peru for a year, it was there that I discovered my interest in computer science; later, it turned into my passion. While living there, I met new friends, stepped out of my comfort zone, and was open to positive experiences to help with my growth. I was fortunate enough to have an uncle who took interest in my career and offered to take me to his workplace. I spent a day there and was able to talk to engineers from various fields. At this point, engineering had never crossed my mind. While speaking to a system engineer, I realized that the more we spoke the more thrilled I became with his career.
I loved the flexibility, the challenges, what it consisted of, and most of all, it fit my personality. I found myself researching this field and I came back to Boston ready to take on this new path of becoming a software engineer.
My biggest motivation is my family, my community, and my country. I want to give back to my parents that moved here with nothing, to give me everything. I want to make a difference in my community. Anyone who gets to know me can see that stereotypes can be broken and that it is never too late.
I want to be a woman in STEM setting a path for future generations of women to reinforce the fact that we do belong in this field.
Lastly, I want to give back to Peru, a country that watched me grow for 9 years and that I so often think about. Looking back, I would have never thought I would be graduating from college or that I would be looking forward to becoming a software engineer. I believe in myself and with hard work and dedication, I will become the professional I aspire to be. I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of Hack. Diversity. I love what this organization stands for, and together we will make the difference we long for.
