MINNEAPOLIS — A University of Minnesota student is one of five women set to lead a hackathon for college women in tech this weekend.
"The idea of building something from nothing is just really interesting to me," said Governess Simpson, a U of M senior.
Simpson didn't see herself pursuing a career in STEM. She thought she would major in vocal performance.
"It wasn't until at the end of my high school where I was taking a chemistry and physics class that my teacher told me I would be a really good engineer. That was the first time that somebody ever told me that I could go into this field and I haven't looked back since," Simpson said.
Simpson is studying Industrial and Systems Engineering with a minor in Computer Science.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women earn only 18% of computer science bachelor's degrees in the U.S.
"I didn't think that someone like me would be in this field, and so I'm hoping 10 to 15 years from now, younger women and girls don't have to feel that way," Simpson said.
In 2019, she got involved with Rewriting the Code (RTC) — a nonprofit that supports and empowers college, graduate and early career women in tech. From there, she learned of RTC's Black Wings. The group provides students the opportunity to build community with fellow Black women across the nation who are pursuing computing degrees. It's currently made up of more than 1,300 members from more than 200 universities.
Simpson is now one of five Black Wings leaders.
As first reported in the Star Tribune, Simpson will now be helping lead a virtual hackathon that will have women coders participating from across the world. The second annual Black Wings Hacks runs Feb. 4-6.
"We give them a prompt; the prompt is going to be 'Build for Social Good.' We give them about 72 hours just to build whatever product they want, whether that be a web application or mobile app. My job is going to be facilitating the event. We're going to have tons of workshops with a lot of our company sponsors, a career fair and just getting the students engaged, involved and really interested in coding," Simpson explained.
The hackathon is free to register and open to all college women in a tech major.
"It's extremely important. We are very underrepresented, even in my coding classes now. Typically, I'm the only woman of color and there are very few women in the courses, as well. Not just in computer science... in engineering as a whole. So being part of this hackathon means a lot because that allows me to change that and hopefully get more women to know that they can have a seat at the table and they can be successful in this field."
Simpson is also a 3M Diversity Scholarship recipient which aims to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups in the College of Science and Engineering.
After graduation, she wants to work in the field of software engineering with an emphasis on global health and health equity, as well as sustainability and engineering.
Simpson added, "I want to make an impact in this world and I think I can use technology to get there."
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