{"id":7309,"date":"2019-06-13T10:58:47","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T14:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=7309"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:48:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T15:48:31","slug":"hooked-on-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2019\/06\/13\/hooked-on-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooked on Technology – Women in Tech Scholars Are Breaking the Mold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Angel VanEllison and Alajia Colon are new Georgia Southern University graduates. Chidera Obinali graduated in December. All three are information technology (IT) majors \u2014 a field that is vastly underrepresented by women and minorities. Last year, each received $5,000 scholarships from Women in Technology (WIT) \u2014 an organization that promotes the advancement of women in science, technology, engineering, the arts and math (STEAM).
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The Aspiring Graphic and Web Design Company Owner: Angel VanEllison<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The budding entrepreneur, who specializes in web and\nmobile foundations, received the\nWIT Campus\nFiserv Scholarship. VanEllison started playing video games very young and describes herself as a devoted PlayStation gamer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love \u2018Call of Duty,\u2019 \u2018Assassin\u2019s Creed\u2019 and \u2018God of\nWar,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI love playing \u2018Sims\u2019 on the PC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VanEllison is from Savannah, and first learned how to\ncode using Scratch and Alice (computer science programs) as a 12-year-old\nsummer camp student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy my parents introducing me to different technologies,\nenrolling me in programs at Georgia Tech as a child, and consistently\nsupporting my passion for technology, I fell in love with all things tech,\u201d she\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The undergraduate is the president of Georgia Southern\u2019s\nWIT Campus and as the former vice president of membership, it was her\nresponsibility to encourage the University\u2019s WIT members to apply for the\nscholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGeorgia Southern had the most applicants and the most winners,\u201d\nsaid VanEllison who is also a\nchampion of the fight to make the tech industry more inclusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs children,\nlittle girls often are not exposed to toys that\nmay lead to an interest in science, technology, engineering and math,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we are very\nyoung, we learn what toys are for\ngirls and what toys are for boys,\nand that\u2019s a message that sticks.\nThen when you are one of a few women\nin a male- dominated space, having the confidence and comfort to remain in it\ncan be overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VanEllison pointed out that Georgia Southern\u2019s IT\ndepartment faculty have been extremely supportive.
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\u201cThanks to the amazing and helpful\nprofessors, I would say the coursework is nothing I can\u2019t handle,\u201d she said.\n\u201cOf course, there are many long nights in the IT Building. Teamwork and\ncollaboration are a big part of being an information technology professional\nand that\u2019s something we\u2019re big on in the IT major. So, we study together and\nwork on many group projects together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority member graduated in May and accepted a position with Fiserv \u2013 the company that sponsored her $5,000 scholarship. She acknowledged WIT has been life-changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBesides the scholarships, WIT offers opportunities for jobs and internships,\u201d VanEllison said. \u201cWIT Campus is a major part of my Georgia Southern legacy and I want to pay it forward. For girls and women who want a career in tech, the resources are there, the scholarships are there, the mentors are there, you just have to look for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(L-R) <\/strong>Elizabeth Rasnick, Ph.D., Alajia Colon, Angel VanEllison, Chidera Obinali and Kristen Hawkins hold up the Georgia Southern flag<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Aspiring Web Developer: Alajia Colon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Colon, who has a minor in graphic communications, won the\nWIT Campus Edge Solutions Scholarship. She grew up playing video games like\n\u2018Crash Bandicoot,\u2019 \u2018Just Dance\u2019 and \u2018Sonic,\u2019 and started at Georgia Southern as\na computer science major. She didn\u2019t enjoy her first programming class, so she\nchanged her major to IT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I switched majors, I enjoyed the\nprofessors and students much more, as well as my first IT class \u2013 Intro to IT,\u201d\nshe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coursework has been challenging but Colon credits her \u201cpeers and professors for helping her each step of the way.\u201d The senior is from Alpharetta, Georgia, and is a member of the University\u2019s chapter of WIT Campus, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and the Student Government Association. The IT program pushes students to participate in internships and Colon completed hers in her hometown at St. James United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt offered a great experience to learn about managing social media and graphic\nwork,\u201d said the new graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colon, the former vice president of membership for WIT Campus at Georgia Southern, has been hired by Cerner, a global leader in health care technology. The during the interview process, she told recruiters about WIT Campus and her scholarship. The company was impressed and organized and provided speakers for a virtual event for members of the organization. It also donated $100 to provide the students with pizza. \u201cWIT has given her so much and she wanted to give back,\u201d said VanEllison about her WIT colleague and sorority sister, who was the impetus for the virtual event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the future, Colon hopes to start her own web\ndevelopment and graphic design company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Front-end Developer: Chidera Obinali (\u201918)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The recent graduate, who specializes in web and mobile\ntechnologies, was awarded the WIT Campus T-Mobile scholarship. To Obinali, the\nscholarship meant more than additional school funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scholarship meant that there are people out there\nwho believed in me and believed in my story and saw that I had a lot of\npotential,\u201d said Obinali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in a traditional Nigerian household in Fayetteville, Georgia, Obinali and her siblings were expected to find financially stable and sustainable careers in\nfields such as engineering or medicine. She considers herself lucky to have\nfallen in love with something similar. She joked, \u201cIt did take me awhile to get\nthem to stop calling me their little engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scholarship occurred at a very crucial time for Obinali as her mother had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing expensive chemotherapy. Most of the family\u2019s additional funds went for her treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the first purchases I made with the scholarship\nwas a new laptop because, for about six months, I couldn\u2019t afford to get a new\none,\u201d Obinali said. \u201cI was borrowing my professor\u2019s laptop which is another\nexample of how the IT professors care about us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that she has graduated, Obinali is currently working as a front-end web development course instructor and freelance graphic designer. She is looking to expand her experience by working for a large company that partners with organizations committed to education, cultural awareness and women in technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you ever gone to a website where you couldn\u2019t figure out where to go or what to click? It\u2019s frustrating,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a loss for everyone because the company lost a potential customer and the user couldn\u2019t find what they were looking for. I\u2019d love to be a bridge for that. That\u2019s what\nI\u2019ve always loved to do since middle school, just helping people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides her involvement in WIT, she was in the University\nHonors Program, the Southern Leaders Association and since her junior year\ndevoted more than 200 hours to community service. Noting that there are very\nfew women and minorities in tech, Obinali offered advice for those who follow\nin her footsteps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can write a book or two about young girls, especially black girls in IT. Don\u2019t be afraid and don\u2019t be swayed. It is okay to fail at something but it\u2019s not okay to quit. Drive yourself to do things that you want to do. If you want to succeed and you really want it then it\u2019s going to happen because you\u2019re going to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Sandra  Bennett<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Angel VanEllison and Alajia Colon are new Georgia Southern University graduates. Chidera Obinali graduated in December. All three are information technology (IT) majors \u2014 a field that is vastly underrepresented by women and minorities. Last year, each received $5,000 scholarships from Women in Technology (WIT) \u2014 an organization that promotes the advancement of women in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-7309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spring-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}