This week, Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, is speaking at the Grace Hopper Conference, a celebration of women in computing in Phoenix, Arizona. Microsoft is one of the event’s platinum sponsors.
As I understand it, the number of attendees at this year’s conference is nearly double last year’s. That gives you a sense of the kind of progress we’re making in raising awareness for more women to pursue STEM careers.
I feel very fortunate to work with some truly phenomenal women here at Microsoft New England. We have a number of women in leadership positions, including: Annmarie Levins (General Manager, Technology and Civic Engagement), Jennifer Chayes (Managing Director, Microsoft Research) and Julie Bennett (Development Director & Site Leader, Microsoft New England). In addition, women like Raji, Yun, Cathy and Dena represent engineering, legal & corporate affairs and real estate roles at Microsoft. All of these women serve as role models to me; they are intelligent, thoughtful, reliable and fun to work with.
I was particularly proud to see another fantastic woman from Microsoft recognized by Glamour Magazine’s 35 Women Under 35 Who are Changing the Tech Industry. Congratulations to Hanna Wallach, a Microsoft researcher and assistant professor in the School of Computer Science at UMass Amherst. You can learn more about Hanna and her work here.
Kudos to Glamour for recognizing these amazing women in technology! Check out Hanna and the 34 other women Glamour featured here.
Hanna is certainly a role model for girls and young women. If you have children or students who you’d like to inspire to pursue a STEM-based career, here are some local resources.
1.) MassCAN CS Sparks: A group of computer science (CS)-focused STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) student leaders who share the goal of spreading computer science education to K-12 students. Head to their website for upcoming events.
2.) Science Club for Girls: Science Club for Girls connects thousands of bright, young women from underrepresented groups with female mentors to inspire them to pursue careers in science. From building rockets to building self-confidence, Science Club for Girls is doing its part to build a sisterhood of future scientists.
3.) Microsoft Stores in Boston, Burlington and Natick – Yes, the Microsoft Store! The store hosts dozens of free training classes for K-12 students and teachers including video game programming, digital storytelling and Microsoft Office skills.
This is a small sample of the programs available for students in MA. A list of additional programs has been compiled by The Mass Tech Leadership Council Education Foundation: masstlcef.org.
