Women in Development

March is a month to celebrate, and not just because of St. Patrick’s day. We are here to celebrate women — women working in technology to be specific. We are lucky enough to work in an office full of women who have some unique skill sets, including three awesome women developers.

Rachel Harvey, a Development Specialist with the Digital Corps, has always been “math brained”, which is why her sister encouraged her to take a computer science in high school. All of our women developers started programming in high school.

Jessica Lohse, a Development Master, describes how sometimes women are perceived as not being able to do as much as men — a stigma that has motivated her to prove to herself and to be the best she can be.

Tara Williams, another Development Specialist, added, “Don’t get discouraged when people know more than you. Some people may have more experience, but it may not mean that they learned how to do it right.”

When it comes to wanting to enter the currently male-dominated development field, Rachel said it is important to just do it and give it your all.

“Women can be just as good, if not better sometimes.”

All of our women developers have plans to pursue programming when they leave Ball State. Jessica hopes to fulfill her childhood dream. “I want to work at Pixar, on their rendering software,” said Jessica. She’s interested in working with the developers who created the bubbly effect for characters in Inside Out.

Tara aspires to go into software engineering and eventually advance into a management position. While Rachel hopes to continue working as a programmer, because she’s just really enjoys coding.

Tara, Jessica and Rachel are just a few of the influential and talented women with the Digital Corps. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more stories on women working in technology this month.