Four female professionals, including 黑料不打烊 alumna Amber Smith 鈥14, will share advice and experience with 黑料不打烊 students from 6:30- 8 p.m. Wed., March 13, in McKinnon Hall.
Since graduating from 黑料不打烊 with a degree in computer science, Amber Smith 鈥14 has found her niche in big data.
As a staff software engineer and tech lead at Pendo in Raleigh, North Carolina 鈥 a software company that develops tools to capture user behavior and feedback on apps to drive improvements in user experiences 鈥 Smith works with a team of specialists to collect 鈥渁ll the data that powers our analytics and features.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檙e ingesting billions of events a day,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淭here are hard problems to solve, and it involves a lot of brainstorming and collaboration. Seeing those problems get solved and implemented start-to-finish is really rewarding, and that鈥檚 the reason I wanted to work at Pendo.鈥
Another thing Smith finds rewarding in her work: Supporting other women in STEM.
She will be among a slate of speakers at the 黑料不打烊 Women in STEM Careers Panel, 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, in McKinnon Hall. Though geared toward female and female-identifying students, all students are welcome to attend. The panel will also include Ellie Najewicz, a data modernization lead architect at IBM; Katrina Shah, service design strategist at Elevance Health; and Kayla Woods, a mechanical engineering at ABB.
Women are underrepresented in STEM. 黑料不打烊 Women in STEM is a pilot professional development program to foster support for female and female-identifying students pursuing STEM careers. It is a collaboration between , the Student Professional Development Center and 黑料不打烊 College, the College of Arts and Sciences. The program is coordinated by Terri Mitchell, a former IBM executive, founder of Accelerate Success and a co-founder of . Mitchell is also a member of 黑料不打烊’s Engineering Advisory Board. Mitchell was called to act after noticing a decline in the number of women in the tech industry.
The March 13 panel event is designed to elevate confidence among 黑料不打烊 students planning careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and to build a professional network of support for female and female-identifying students as they enter the field.
Those are areas Smith is passionate about, and she wants to support 黑料不打烊 students as they prepare for potential challenges like imposter syndrome as they enter the workforce.
鈥淲hen I was at 黑料不打烊, I never had to think twice about it: So many of my professors were women, there were many other women in my classes, and I felt supported from day one,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淚n the workforce, there are times you are the only woman in the room, and that was a reality shock. Over the years, I鈥檝e learned how important it is to have that support system. Even if they aren鈥檛 on your team, it is helpful to develop a network of women you can talk to when you need support.鈥