Header image for CCI Student & Alums attend Google’s Women Techmakers

CCI Student & Alums attend Google’s Women Techmakers

Posted by Kate Blosser on

Google recently held its Women Techmakers Summits with the aim to raise awareness of innovative women leaders in technology and inspire others to join the field. The Women Techmakers Global Event Series for 2015 celebrated International Women’s Day on Saturday, March 7. Current and former FSU students applied to attend the events. With four summit U.S. locations in Cambridge, MA., New York City, NY., Kirkland, WA., and Mountain View, CA., Women across the country were able to push towards improvements for women in technology.

Three women from CCI were selected to attend the summit in New York City and Mountain View locations. Each summit is uniquely catered to the local community of women in technology. Events included coding workshops, inspiring speakers and networking opportunities.

 

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ICT student and current WISE (Women in IT/ICT Sharing Experiences) President, Kelby Mahoney, attended Techmakers in New York City. After a day of touring the city, she joined up with Women Techmakers and listened to keynote speaker Aparna Pappu, Engineering Director for AdExchange at Google, who spoke about personal failure and how it taught her more than her success. She told the audience – “Let your boss know you can do more.”

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Nicole Liang and Kelby Mahoney

Women who work at Google formed a panel and spoke about being women in the technology world. The women opened the panel up to questions from the audience. In addition to panels, attendees were able to participate in Coding and Sprint Design events and received Moto 360 watches.  The NYC summit included talks by Kristen Titus, Founding Director of Tech Talent Pipeline, and Jessica Lawrence, Managing Director, New York Tech Meetup.

use_thisTwo alumni of CCI and current GM employees, Nicole Liang and Nancy Moyers (former WISE President) also attended Women Techmakers.

Nicole Liang was struck by a statement from Aparna Pappu that simply said “If you want something, you need to ask for it.” In her reflection, Nicole realized “That is the attitude I want for my career; the initiative and the drive to ask for what I deserve, not because I am a Woman, but because I am good at what I do.”

Nancy Moyers attended the Mountain View event and was charged up by the experience.  According to Nancy, “It was an honor to hear from so many amazing and inspirational women. I feel as if I can truly accomplish anything and I’m ready to create my movement.”