Participant Story: Michelle
Michelle is one of the participants of our six-month software engineering program! You can support her journey at techtonica.org/donate.
Michelle is the kind of person who wants to be the change she wants to see in the world. A first-generation American whose parents immigrated to southern California from Mexico as teenagers, she’s worked hard to build a career centered in making a difference for kids from similar backgrounds.
“Seeing [my parents] work so hard always encouraged me to try my best and get to the point they wanted me to with a career,” she said about pursuing a teaching career.
In college, Michelle regularly mentored elementary and middle school students. She ended up spending 2 months in Tanzania teaching English.
“I always grew up knowing my parents weren’t rich, but when I went to Tanzania, I saw kids who couldn’t even go to school,” she said of the time she spent as a solo volunteer in a small village, where she lived in a mud hut without running water. “We take a lot of things for granted sometimes. We’re so privileged here to have education, housing, and family support. I think it made me more humble and appreciative.”
Michelle went on to earn her teaching credential and first years of classroom experience with Teach for America, which placed her in a public school in Miami.
“I wanted to make an impact and be someone who can represent students because I didn’t have that growing up,” she said, noting that she had the opportunity to teach a lot of Latino students.
About a year ago, Michelle was recruited to teach math and science at a charter school in Oakland. With better funding, she had lots more opportunities to use technology with her kids. Since she hadn’t grown up knowing about the tech industry, it was an eye-opening experience.
“One time I decided to host an Hour of Code with all my classes and since my students were really into it, I decided to look for a volunteer to be a guest speaker,” she said. “That was when I realized that there was not much diversity in the tech industry, and I began to picture myself in tech.”
In the same way she’s wanted to be a model for latino students, she’s wanted a model for her own career in tech. Techtonica has given her that opportunity.
“Knowing Techtonica is aimed at [people like me] is really attractive to me. I know it’s hard to get into tech as a woman,” she said. “I’ve never met another Latina woman in tech. The woman who interviewed me [for Techtonica] was the first.”
Ultimately, Michelle is excited about how she can combine her abilities and insight from the classroom with the skills and experience she’ll gain through Techtonica to create resources for her community.
“To me, working in tech is working to spread knowledge and opportunities to others,” she said. “Technology is making education more accessible; it’s allowing people to travel easier; it’s helping people open up to a world of opportunities.”
If you or your company might be interested in supporting program participants like Michelle, please donate at techtonica.org/donate or look at techtonica.org/sponsor.
To read about our other participants, please click on their names below:
