As a 13-year old living in Spain, Ana Hermida was captivated by TV show on quantum physics that put her father and brothers to sleep.
The program created a spark in Hermida for science — eventually leading her to study physics, math and business in college. Now a hardware engineer at Qualcomm, Hermida joined other Hispanic women engineers Friday to share their love of technology with San Diego middle and high school girls at the launch of Technolochicas 4.0 — a national initiative to raise awareness among young Latinas about careers in tech.
“Specifically in the Latin or Hispanic community, sometimes the expectation of girls is to not really go to college or to not really be in technology,” said Hermida. “That is the stereotype we are trying to change.”
Launched in 2015, Technolochicas is a joint effort of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, or NCWIT, and the Televisa Foundation. Friday’s event brought about 70 Latina students from Bell Middle School in Southeast San Diego, Perkins Elementary near Barrio Logan and e3 Civic High downtown to Qualcomm’s campus for panel discussions and workshops around STEM fields.
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“Technolochicas is one of the programs we are most proud of,” said Terry Hogan, president and chief technology officer of the non-profit NCWIT. “We are in the business of making sure that all women and girls are able to participate in technology, and Technolochicas is about inspiring Latinas to see that technology has a place for you as well.”
Hispanic women held just 1 percent of jobs in the computing workforce in 2017, representing a vastly untapped talent pool for the innovation economy, according to NCWIT.
Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon, a native of Brazil who started as an engineer, told students that he viewed his heritage as an advantage.
“When I came to the United States, I had an opportunity to learn a new culture, to learn a new language, and still keep the one I had,” he said. “That diversity I always thought was my strength. So for all of you who have different backgrounds, that is a great thing. You have the ability to understand different cultures, to understand different languages.”
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When Karen Saldaña was a young teenager in Mexico, her parents took out a loan to buy a computer that her father needed for work. She learned graphic design, and at age 15 started her own business selling personalized adhesive ID labels to small businesses and schools.
At 19, she came to the U.S. and worked as a nanny during the day while attending English classes at night. She took her first formal computer science course at community college. After transferring to the University of Washington, she landed a job at Microsoft as a program manager on a team that builds identity tools. She now travels the world working with Microsoft’s clients.
“I didn’t know (at the time) that learning something on the computer like graphic design would become a tool that would allow me to fulfill my dream,” she told students.
Hermida’s family lived in Tijuana before moving to Spain. In their small town, she didn’t have access to many STEM resources. In high school she joined the physics club. She turned out to be the only member.
But with her parents support, she was able to attend Northeastern University in Boston. She landed two internships while in school, including one in a factory in China. Six months after graduation, she was hired at Qualcomm.
Hermida, 29, hopes her story can create a spark for STEM in Latina students so “they believe it can happen.”
“If you don’t really know what you want to do, just try it all out,” she told students Friday. “Don’t turn down any experiences because you never know which is going to be the experience that changes everything.”
2020-02-01 01:16:02Z
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/story/2020-01-31/technolochicas-4-0-aims-to-inspire-san-diego-latinas-to-pursue-tech-careers
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