Jul 14, 2022
Participant story: Berline (she/her)
“I want to change the stereotypes that women have to choose having a family or career and that pregnant women, mothers, and older women should not be in tech.”
1) Tell us a little about your life.
I spend the majority of my time working and studying programming in between shifts to help support my parents and my daughter. As a bridge operator, I worked the flex shift, morning, midday, and overnight shifts. In my free time, I enjoy sketching, reading books, and taking my daughter on adventure activities.
2) What made you decide to pursue a software engineering career and apply for Techtonica?
What attracted me to this profession is the fact that I love technology, building applications, and solving problems. I enjoy the ever-changing of the tech world and will always remember when Apple iPods and iPhones first hit the market. Working with people from different parts of the world and ultimately coming together to automate things to help make people’s life a bit easier and less time-consuming are big motivators for me. I applied to Techtonica for an opportunity to reach my goal, and Techtonica’s culture and values align with my personal values and passion to help women get into tech and bridge the community gap. The fact that Techtonica is trying to make a positive impact and help women become software engineers is why I applied to Techtonica.
3) What are you most excited to learn while at Techtonica?
I am most excited to work with others and understand how people solve problems in different ways. I’ve been learning how to code on my own, and in my previous field as a bridge operator, I worked alone for 8 years. So having human interaction with like-minded people who have a passion for tech is what I am most excited about. Also, I’m excited to build my foundation in JavaScript/HTML/CSS until it becomes strong knowledge.
4) What do you want to contribute to or change about the tech industry?
My contribution is to get more Black and brown women into the tech industry, on both the technical and non-technical sides, to decrease that “you do not belong here” experience, which is different from imposter syndrome. I also want to change the stereotypes that women have to choose having a family or career and that pregnant women, mothers, and older women should not be in tech. When I was pregnant, people didn’t want to work with me, thinking I was weak because I was pregnant. I would tell them that being pregnant is a temporary condition, it’s not a disease, and it’s not going to stop me from being great.
5) What’s your dream project?
I mostly want to create a project that helps people that tech tends to forget about. My dream project is to work in the AI community to develop a mini robot or a HomePod that talks to the elderly and allows them to easily communicate with their family members. Staying active and having conversations helps the older generation. I’ve witnessed this with my mom and her grandkids — since they are with her all the time, she ages pretty slowly.
