Jada Martin Scholarship

When I was 13 years old, my father and I built a PC together. This was one of the first ways that me and my once distant father connected and bonded. Rather than fighting or arguing over mundane things, we worked together to pick the correct parts, learned how to connect them and built the PC. This sparked an ever-growing interest in something I never thought I would be able to take part in. Since growing up, I never saw many females talking about, or perusing a degree in Technology. This naturally dissuaded me from ever trying to learn more about computers. I kept this limiting mindset until I had first-hand experience in realizing how interesting and invigorating it is to learn about all the parts, what they do individually and how they all work together. Building the computer with my father influenced me and taught me how to problem-solve, have patience, follow directions, and taught me more about being fiscally responsible. By pursuing and currently majoring in computer science, I am trying to begin my path to having a part in the vast changes computer science is making in our world. Technology is the future, and as a female, I think that making sure my opinions and voice are heard would inspire more women to join the STEM field. Empowering young girls and letting them know that they can work and pursue a male-dominated career is important. On a more personal note, I hope to be a good influence on my little sister who is also interested in Computer Science. She is currently working on coding a video game, but is nervous and intimidated by her other male peers who seem to have more support and experience than her on the topic. Seeing her doubt herself, her skills and her ambition motivated me even further to succeed. Even more motivation is the fact that my high school computer science class has a ratio of 5 girls to 18 boys, 1 of those girls being me. By having a place in the Computer Science field, I would be able to contribute my opinions, knowledge and experience. Computer Science is one of the few things I know I am good at. It requires things that I know I can give, such as patience, problem-solving, open-mindedness and creativity. Before I even started my high school major, I knew that I would love computer science and all that it came with. But now that I am here and trying to plan out my future, I find myself wondering just exactly what are my motivating factors. What is pushing me to become one of the few females in Computer Science? What do I hope to achieve? And when I wonder these pivotal questions, all I have to do is look at my younger sister.