Engineering the Change S1 EP 3

previously on engineering the change the program was amazing my career is completely changed from barely being able to you know, hold down a job to now being sought after by some of the biggest tech companies in the world. Boca code has billed me up if you grant me the scholarship. like I said I will share my knowledge.

with people with women or immigrants Dreamed of having an opportunity to show the world. You know how great you know, I can be I feel that anything I do I do my best in so what wherever I end up I'm going to do the best I can to make sure I'm making a positive impact. So this scholarship would definitely assist me in changing the trajectory of my life.

here you Know I'm really excited to tell Carly about winning. She is so pumped to Mark our careers and software engineer. All right, probably we got the whole camera crew with a all right.

Come on in guys are coming in Harley. So your name here? Yes, so we're making this treasonation of 10,000 dollars today.

Oh, you get some puppies just radiant. This is sure. Donald we're here.

How are you? I want to present you with this we We had a tough time. We couldn't pick up the final if you guys are all great.

He's really great Engineers. So you're in my guys. Awesome.

Thank you so much. This is a very awesome opportunity and I look forward to Start thank you. You'll be a great engineer.

Thank you so much. You know, this was our this was my father's strongest class of people we had who applied for the scholarship. We were able to get it down to three finalists, but then in meeting with the judges we couldn't We couldn't pick a winner.

So what we decided to do is just pick all three finalists winners. And and so we want to make this kind of your life and we're gonna reward Stephanie Sanchez is one of our three spring 2022 winners of the engineering the change scholarship. Stephanie congratulations Hey everyone.

I'm Alan schumel CEO of tech strong group. We are a tech Media company based here in Boca Raton, Florida, and we have been for eight years. I've been a resident of Boca Raton for 20 years now, and it's always been one of my Hopes, that's Inspirations is that South Florida would become a tech cup.

So we opened this program. It's called engineering the change to underserved communities including women people of color, but any underserved community in the tech space right when I look back and we have some of the past winners here with us, and I look at the difference. It's made in the community in their lives.

Something to be really proud of so, you know, one of the things that Boca code really takes is Partnerships with companies like Tech strong and other local companies because we need them to you know to help support the school and we need them to you know to hire and interview our students as well. I'm going to in troduce our past winners and just have them briefly talk a little bit about your how their life has gone since taking this class. When I received the scholarship, I had a lot of mixed emotions.

I was a scared but excited for this new chapter. Um, I had worked in the tech industry, but I had never been in an engineering role. You know, the people that Boca code Todd who I affectionately call Coach because I kind of think of him as the coach in a game.

The Guiding guide me step by step the whole process, um, when I graduated from the cohort I had over 10 offers from tier two and tier one tech companies and I had my my pick which was the first time in my life. I really had to make a choice where it was completely my decision the scholarship changed my life really from zero to a hundred as I said before I was in a state that I was really lost in terms of my career. I had a neuroscience degree from FAU but I couldn't get a job once I got this scholarship and I did the ten weeks at Boca code.

A completely changed my life to better because now I have found actually my passion which is not just Tech but being able to help women. Get into this field within the scholarship. It was once in a lifetime opportunity to change my career.

The program at Boca Court was amazing. I started a lot of fundamentals of software engineering and I approved myself that I'm capable of being successful developer that at that time I couldn't even imagine how I would need this job in three months when the war hit my homeland Ukraine and this salary of software developer gave me opportunity to help Ukrainian people in this hard time. So this year We wound up with three finalists for the scholarship and we brought them into our panel of judges.

And each of these finalists were interviewed. And then the judges got together and we had a picture one. We thought we tried to pick just one and we really couldn't pick just one and they were three outstanding candidates.

And so what we've decided is to give all three of them scholarships. First person is Carly doorless. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.

So I'll hold the check for you. I will do my best. to be successful and to help other women and other people our next winner of the hearing the change scholarship for Is the gentleman named Donald will tell you his story Donald?

Come on up? Okay, actually evidence. First of all, I want to thank Tech strong Todd for introducing me to the scholarship.

And you know, this is an amazing opportunity coming from Haiti and I hope with this opportunity that text strong and tired introduced me to I hope to like, you know, introduce it to others just like myself and get back to my community and show them that you know, Software engineering is cool. It's not just for nerds. I started winner.

For this year's engineering the change scholarship is Stephanie Sanchez. For this opportunity and congratulations to my fellow recipients. I know we're gonna make a significant change in the world.

I come from a background of Social Work. And so I hope to be able to continue to put the people aspect in technology as we help others around us. I'm so grateful to be able to be a part of this.

Yeah. Thank you. here