Safe travels everyone!

by Zaza Soriano

The GHC Communities Committee had their last conference call last night. I ended that call by telling everyone not to miss their flights. They all laughed... but I have reason for that statement. :)

My sister, Ant Soriano, was living with me at the time. She had a train ticket home to see her mom for a holiday. The day comes... and I remember being rudely awoken by Ant. "Zaza!! You overslept!"... whoops. The second attempt, we made it all the way to the train station. Ant almost missed her train again because we had no idea you were supposed to just go down to the platform at the time stated on your ticket. It is definitely a different experience than traveling via plane.

So I state again, don't miss your flight (or train) and safe travels everyone!

See you in Houston!

Meet your ABI GHC[2016] Communities Committee

by Zaza Soriano

var GHC-CC = 'ABI GHC Communities Committee'
GHC-CC.job = 'Organize Volunteers @ GHC 2016'
GHC-CC.twitter = @GHC_Committee

The ABI GHC Communities Committee has some returning members (2015 committee) and some new members that manage various community activities at GHC. These include: note taking, blogging, and speed mentoring(A/B). The committee has been working for the past couple months to process and prepare some 140+ volunteers for GHC16. This year some of the manual intake processing was automated and will hopefully be polished in the years to come. As the committee chair this year, I am very proud of everyone and will miss our late night meetings (well... late... for us east coast gals). Thank you for all the hard work you have put in to make this years GHC awesome! :)

---

var ZazaSoriano = 'Chair'
ZazaSoriano.job = 'Embedded Software Engineer @ JHU Applied Physics Lab'
ZazaSoriano.twitter = @scuzy89
ZazaSoriano.favQuote = 'I\'d rather ask for forgiveness than permission - Admiral Grace Hopper'

Zaza Soriano is a full time Embedded Software Engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). There she solves hard problems, increases national security, and delves into biomedical engineering. She holds a double Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. Although her Father is winning their bet on who will become Dr. Soriano first, she does have the upper hand with their other dollar bet on who will have a patent first. This will be her 7th year attending and volunteering at GHC, and first time as the GHC Communities Committee Chair. She is extremely active in STEM outreach and has been recognized multiple times for her STEM efforts at APL. When she is not working, learning new things, or volunteering, Zaza likes to hike, cook, and go on crazy adventures with her puppy Gluon.

---

var FayeCheng = 'Future Chair'
FayeCheng.job = 'Future Communities Chair @ Anita Borg Institute'
FayeCheng.twitter = @fayecheng
FayeCheng.favQuote = 'Empowered women, empower women.'

Graduate from UC Irvine and current Computer Science Master’s candidate at Mills College, Faye is a proud Sociologist turned Software Engineer. She enjoys a multidisciplinary approach to learning, and has a knack for programming, design, and product management.

---

var CharnaParkey = 'Past Chair'
CharnaParkey.job = 'Customer Success Engineer @ Textio'
CharnaParkey.twitter = @CharnaParkey
CharnaParkey.favQuote = 'When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful. - Malala Yousafzai'

Charna leads Customer Success Engineering at Textio, a fast growing startup in Seattle. There she is helping revolutionize the way we approach writing and how we measure unconscious bias with massive amounts of data. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Digital Signal Processing from the University of Central Florida. This will be her 8th year attending and volunteering at GHC, and one of many times advising the GHC Communities Committee. When she is not working, learning new things, or volunteering, Charna likes to knit, cook, and go on crazy adventures with her friends and partners.

---

var AndreaDelgado-Olson
AndreaDelgado-Olson.job = 'Community Engagement Intern @ Anita Borg Institute'
AndreaDelgado-Olson.twitter = @316chic
AndreaDelgado-Olson.favQuote = 'I\'d rather ask for forgiveness than permission - Admiral Grace Hopper'

Andrea is the founder of Native American Women in Computing and a Community Engagement Intern at the Anita Borg Institute. She is working toward completing her Master’s degree in Computer Science. Andrea recently collaborated with Google and Udacity on a course for the Android Basics Nanodegree program at Udacity that uses audio and content in her native language, Miwok.

---

var GailCarmichael
GailCarmichael.job = 'Manager of External Education Programs @ Shopify'
GailCarmichael.twitter = @gailcarmichael
GailCarmichael.favQuote = 'Ask, ask, and ask again. The worst they can say is \'no.\''

Gail is a computer scientist, educator, and blogger. She currently manages programs that promote computing and entrepreneurial literacy through education, outreach, and research at Shopify in Ottawa, Canada. She previously worked as a faculty instructor at Carleton University, where she has also completed three quarters of her PhD. She is passionate about convincing everyone – especially underrepresented groups – that CS is fun and awesome.

---

var GehanaBooth
GehanaBooth.job = 'Security Operations Engineer @ Shopify'
GehanaBooth.favQuote = 'Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer. - Randy Pausch'

Gehana is a security operations engineer at Shopify, an Ottawa-based e-commerce company, where she currently focuses on new approaches to anomaly detection and network security. She has become involved with outreach initiatives, such as her local Technovation chapter, after being inspired at her first Grace Hopper Celebration several years ago. In her spare time she enjoys rock climbing, dancing West Coast Swing, and flipping upside down in acro yoga and aerial fitness.

---

var RosalindMcCullough
RosalindMcCullough.job = 'Network Systems Engineering Researcher @ JHU Applied Physics Lab'
RosalindMcCullough.twitter = @bluflame
RosalindMcCullough.favQuote = 'Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. - Mae Jemison'

Rosalind is a PhD student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville studying Computer Science. She works part-time for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab researching network security strategies. Rosalind credits her current career path to being a Grace Hopper Scholar in 2014. She is passionate about supporting and creating paths to education in STEM disciplines for underrepresented groups. She volunteers at game-development workshops for children and serves as a regional judge for the National Center for Women in Information Technology’s (NCWIT) Aspirations in Computing Awards. In her downtime, she enjoys attending wine tastings and traveling.

---

var ChinaemereIke
ChinaemereIke.job = 'GHC Community Intern @ Anita Borg Institute'
ChinaemereIke.twitter = @chinamereabi

Chinaemere Ike is a Computer Science student at Texas A&M University. She is a GHC community intern with focus on GHC community and volunteer support. Chinaemere brings various experience to the team by her volunteer roles at Youth for National Change for state of Texas and Black Women in Computing gaming workshops. You will see Chinaemere at GHC at many of our community events and supporting the GHC community committee and many onsite volunteers. She is a Syster and Black Women in Computing member and active in our community.

---

var TamaraWashington
TamaraWashington.job = 'Patent Examiner @ United States Patent and Trademark Office'
TamaraWashington.twitter = @TamaraYWash

Tamara Y. Washington is a Patent Examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She completed her BS in Electrical Engineering from Tuskegee University and her MSEE (optics) from North Carolina A&T State University. She also holds an MBA (finance) from Wake Forest University. Tamara is passionate about learning object oriented languages as well as full-stack programming languages. She is energetic about S.T.E.M. education for women and a huge advocate/supporter of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). She is actively involved in efforts to search out and uncover all of the super smart and talented technology people and companies that the DC/MD/VA area has to offer as well as bring together those people and companies to technical community groups for education and collaboration.

Introducing Jewish Women In Computing Community

Going through a GHC is an overwhelming and awe-inspiring experience.  One could think that being at a women’s engineering conference would give enough focus and common grounds with all the other members of the conference.  However, Aubrey and Rebecca both felt amiss. Small nuances took shape in other communities that allowed their members to come about a common denominator. Aubrey understood that while there are communities representing many different religions and opinions, she could not find hers and began her journey of defining a community that can be home to Jewish women in STEM.  Rebecca later joined forces with Aubrey to create Jewish Women in Computing to give other Jewish women the community they wished they had seen at GHC themselves.

For many years, Aubrey has been passionate about topics in STEM and arts.  She showed her passion by joining the robotics team at her high school and continued to study computer science at UC Santa Cruz.  After going to GHC ‘14, Aubrey was more determined and inspired than ever to show people how important it was to balance technology and arts.  She decided to change her major to Games and Playable Media so she could use technology and arts to bring people together.

Rebecca started her career in computing as an IT intern at her high school. As someone who loves using technology and dissecting electronics, she wanted to get a better idea of how everything comes together in the first place. She started college at Drexel University as a computer engineering major and added on a major in electrical engineering to fill in the gaps on the physical side. She is looking forward to graduating in the spring and seeing where her engineering career takes her.

Women in computing fields of study or work face many challenges, including the challenge of finding a community for themselves in a male-dominated field.  Even more challenging is finding a community of women who share the same heritage and culture.  JWiC wants to provide this space for Jewish women around the world.   Our community can deliver the networking opportunity for women who seek to balance their careers in computing with their Jewish heritage and culture.  JWiC was created with the intent of giving Jewish women in STEM a safe space to collaborate and connect with each other through their shared experiences.

Aubrey and Rebecca want to share this space with other Jewish women and hope to inspire them to reach their goals.

Join and Strengthen the Community

At GHC 2016, Rebecca will be on a panel describing JWiC and will be excited to meet and greet new members. We are as strong as our community. Come meet, join, and have an impact
within our community!  If you are attending GHC ‘16, you can connect with the community:

Panel: Expanding Systers Communities
Globally and Culturally

October 20, 2016

9:00 am - 10:00 am

GRB 371 A-C

You can also connect with
them on their:

• Twitter:  @jewishwic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/abi.jewishwic/
• Email forum:  http://systers.org/mailman/admin/jwic

Dalia Karmon, Aubrey Isaacman, Rebecca Cargan

NAWIC Events at GHC 2016

  By Andrea Delgado-Olson

              We are so excited for another Grace Hopper Celebration! NAWiC has had a phenomenal year and we can’t wait to share it all with you today. Last week, a NAWiC member shared a blog with the GHC Bloggers about her perspective on diversity vs. candidacy in a tech company, and this topic may hit close to home with any woman of color in any industry. Our community was glad that she shared her experience and desire to work on increasing NAWiC membership to provide support for other indigenous women.

              Now I would like to share with you another accomplishment! As indigenous languages grow closer to extinction, I am proud to say that part of the Miwok language will survive. Through the Systers Community, I was able to connect with Katherine Kuan, from Google, and her team at Udacity. We all collaborated on a recent course that was released in June,  The Android Basics Multiscreen App. This course’s content is in the Miwok language, my native language. There are four categories that provide English word translated to Miwok, with an audio clip that plays when you click the button. There are roughly forty words for this course. I hope some of you will check it out! Here is the Introduction to the course.

              During the conference you can reach out to us at our Community Booth hours on Wednesday, October 19^th  and Friday, October 21^st, we will have two hour time slots on each day. We will be asking for donations for t-shirts, $5 and $10, which will go toward a scholarship fund for indigenous women to attend Grace Hopper next year. Here is a link to the Communities Booth Schedule during the conference http://bit.ly/ghc16-community-booths.

              On Thursday, October 20^th at 2:30 pm, I will be moderating a panel on How Women Learn Computing Through Nontraditional Curriculum and Community in room GRB 371 A-C. It will be an interesting discussion about curriculum and support for each learning atmosphere. Here are the bios for the panelists:

 
 
 

Can’t wait to see you all (y’all) in Houston!