Technology should tell the story of the world it deems to serve. These bright and ambitious students bring their unique perspectives to computer and data science.

We know that “Steminism” is the movement advocating for more women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). And going forward in 2021, it’s precisely what we need more of. As part of Virtasant’s recently-announced winners for the Future Leaders in Technology Scholarship for 2021, a group of computer science students-two at the high school level, one at the college level-are a testament to why we need more women in tech.

The scholarship is…

When I first started working in design, user experience design wasn’t a thing. There were web designers and graphic designers- but UX wasn’t a job title until the late 2000s. Now, UX designers function as a bridge between business needs, product development needs, engineer needs, and the end customer needs. But this discipline is about more than just making products pretty. It’s also about delivering value to the people who use that product and negotiating with everyone within the business to craft an experience that customers will want and advocate for.

For me, the UX role emerged from my experience…

After becoming the first Black woman to join ESPN’s sports analytics team, Tiffany Kelly’s search for her place led to a groundbreaking career in STEM leadership.

Data Scientist Tiffany Kelly’s professional trajectory might have looked very different were it not for Will Ferrell. A lifelong athlete growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kelly knew she wanted a sports career. As a high school senior, this ambition is why she sought out an opportunity to shadow the marketing team for the then-New Orleans Hornets of the NBA at the former New Orleans Arena. Ferrell’s presence at the game threw a curveball…

In an IPSOS MORI poll, commissioned by Amnesty International, nearly a quarter (23%) of the women surveyed across eight countries — Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US — shared that they had experienced online abuse or harassment at least once.

Another landmark survey, State of the World’s Girls report, by Plan International surveyed 14,071 teenagers and young women aged 15–25 years old across 22 countries, including Australia, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Zambia, and the US, to find that almost one in four (24%) of those surveyed said they or a friend had been left fearing…

While breaking bread at a Friendsgiving this past Fall, a couple with a child explained their homeschooling experience. Among several challenges, one of the points they mentioned was about their son’s classmate. Every day he sits at the tables outside of Taco Bell with his younger siblings so he can connect to his virtual classroom. He’s seven.

Access not just to technological devices but to the infrastructure that allows those devices to connect with the world is fast becoming a point of urgency. The presidential election was another opportunity to shine a light on the lack of access that plagues…

Have you ever grappled with the feeling that you don’t belong? Do you feel undeserving of the rewards of your work? Known by a variety of monikers like “impostor phenomenon”, “fraud syndrome”, “impostorism,” Impostor Syndrome is a disjunction between internal beliefs and actual accomplishments.

The phrase was coined in 1978 by psychologists Dr. Pauline Clancy Rose and Dr. Suzanne Ament Imes “to designate an internal experience of intellectual phoniness.” People living with impostor syndrome often undermine and undervalue their skills, believing that they’ve made it in life on a fluke, due to luck, or through deceit. …