Overcoming Barriers: Anna Victoria

It’s no secret that when it comes to getting into the tech industry, there are significant barriers for certain people — a fact that our Fellows know all too well. Whether it be internal, like imposter syndrome, or external, like discrimination or immigration, these Fellows have faced them all and despite the odds, overcome them. The following was written by Sonia Hamilton, our Summer Documentation Intern, and is part of series on #wethe5th.

Originally from San Paulo, Brazil, Anna’s family didn’t have the resources to get her into private school. “The public school system in Brazil was pretty terrible,” she said, “I was always a good student and wanted to learn, but I didn’t have the structure.”

She dreamed of one day attending a top university but recognized that this was an impossible hope. “In Brazil, if you don’t go to a private high school, you don’t get into a good university.”

Anna worked hard to earn good grades so that when she was fourteen, she won a full scholarship to a private high school.

“When I got to that school, it was the hardest time of my life. The people there were very mean to me,” Anna said.

On top of being bullied, Anna found herself far behind her peers struggled to keep her head above water academically. “My first two years, I was just trying not to fail. But my third year, I studied a lot and suddenly became one of the top students.”

In her final year of high school, Anna focused on acing the college entrance exam and set her sights on the Federal University of Santa Catarina — one of the top universities in Latin America, renowned for its engineering school. When she got accepted, Anna and her family were ecstatic. “My first year, I wasn’t sure if I was in the right place. A lot of people were there because they wanted to make money or because they’d been programming their whole lives.” Anna, on the other hand, was looking for a challenge. “I love that in computer science, you’re constantly overcoming barriers you didn’t know you could.”

Beginning on her first day of class — when two male students asked her point-blank how soon it would be until she dropped the course — Anna faced discrimination throughout her time at university. “I thought they were kidding, but they were serious.” They continued to harass her about switching majors and insisted that she, like all women, was incapable of “thinking like a computer scientist.”

In addition to her peers, Anna also faced discrimination from her professors. “One time I finished a test very quickly and my professor assumed that the test was too easy or that I was cheating.” Of her male peers and professors, Anna remarked, “It’s kind of sad because they choose to assume I don’t know anything, rather than to assume I know something.” This discouragement and exclusion were further aggravated by the pressure Anna felt from being one of the only girls — oftentimes, the only girl — in her classes.

Later in her first year, Anna experienced a watershed moment in one of her classes. After the class had completed a project, the professor announced a surprise: they were going to play a game. He would run everyone’s programs and the class would bet on whose would be the fastest. “I was so ashamed because I’d done the project the night before and I’d done it alone.” But Anna noticed a mysterious smile on her professor’s face. Almost everyone chose a male student in the class, who was known for his smarts. “His program ran in ten seconds, which was the fastest one yet. Then my turn came, and my program ran in four. No one could believe it.” Anna began putting even more effort into her classes. “I was motivated to prove them wrong. But later, I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I think when a girl is faced with that kind of situation, the hardest thing for her to do is not prove herself to other people, but to herself.”

Last year, Anna was accepted to a highly selective study abroad scholarship program that’s sponsored by the Brazilian government. While almost no one who participates in the program works while abroad, Anna earned an internship — a feat unheard of within the program and further magnified by it being at Foursquare on their exclusive production and site site reliability team. “I found out later that since Foursquare was founded, I’m only the second intern to be hired onto their production team!”

Despite the discrimination she faced, Anna doesn’t regret anything. “I could’ve easily given up. But I’m really happy I chose not to believe what people told me.” Moving forward, Anna is determined to break down the stigma surrounding women in tech. “I wonder how many girls are passionate and capable but because of the pressure, drop out. It’s a sad loss. I want to do my part to break down that lie.”

Anna is a member of #wethe5th, our fifth cohort of Code2040 Fellows.