October 12, 2015/MasterCard

President Barack Obama shared my story of triumph over adversity in March 2015. Thanks to an apprenticeship program for engineers with non-traditional backgrounds, I was placed right here at MasterCard in the Windows Server Technical Services team. After a couple of months, I was offered a full-time position with that same team as an Associate Engineer.

When the founder of an LGBT technological conference heard about my story, she asked me to speak during their New York summit in October.

I decided to focus my speech on growing up in an underprivileged neighborhood, and how I had limited opportunities during the beginning of my life. I listed four rules that I followed to be successful: 

1. Step outside other people’s comfort zones.

2. Find people like you (they’re out there).

3. Invest in your future.

4. Share your story.

After my talk, many people told me that they connected with what I said and I saw retweets of my speech from audience attendees!  People who were familiar with the area where I grew up thanked me. I was overjoyed with having the opportunity to share such a personal and rewarding story with so many people.

And even better than that, I was able to connect with women from all over the country, share my story, and listen to the stories of others. I really did find people like myself — queer women of all different skin colors joined together by one thing: Tech. So go out there, be brave and stay focused on your goal.