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Jaqueline Grandoit

Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.

Jaqueline Grandoit

Business Development Director @ Copeland Auto Group

Jaqueline is a new volunteer with Girlstart, but is eager to see a difference in the world. She works in the automotive industry coaching agents, driving traffic, and implementing new tactics to increase sales. Being on the business side of STEM, she still faces a lot of the disparities in the workforce, and is getting involved to see that gap close. 

What sparked your interest and made you want to volunteer with Girlstart?
I had always feared being challenged and change. I quickly learned as I got older that challenging yourself is the only way to grow and become the best version of yourself. I was always surrounded by strong women, but not women in dominating careers. I want to be that light for young girls that may not have that extra push around them or just need to be motivated to know that we are powerful together. We can do magical things together because girl power is one of the most amazing feelings. To have a support group or people to turn to when you feel like things are really hard makes progressing, changing and growing so much easier.

What are your favorite things about your career?
When you are helping people with one of the biggest decisions of their life it is such a great feeling to be honest and provide helpful information that will help make such a large purchase feel less stressful. I love that it is something new every day and I see more women joining the industry and moving quickly to management positions.

Do you have any words of encouragement, or advice, for young girls interested in pursuing a STEM career?
Having a support group, routines, and a program to help empower and encourage girls to create healthy habits and goals is important to a successful career. Never give up, always remember tomorrow is a new day, and continuous learning is key to be the greatest version of you! As girls we will always be stronger together.

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to STEM?
I have volunteered since the age of 13 in all different sectors however, the Women’s Conference 2019 helped me meet the STEM group. I have been on a journey for a number of years to bring women into industries that are male dominated. 

Why do you think that confidence in STEM important for girls?
It is very important that early on girls know how smart, strong and empowering we are. How much our stories can help another girl go through a hard time and empower her to work towards her dreams. The sky is the limit and girls have got to know that if they just work hard, never give us and support other girls around them they will achieve anything they want in life. Nothing is impossible and there are no boundaries as long as you believe in your dreams.

 

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Matsuri Rojano-Nisimura

Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.

Matsuri Rojano-Nisimura

Biochemistry PhD Candidate @ UT Austin

Matsuri became involved with Girlstart after hearing of her friend’s experiences with us. Wanting to make a difference and get more girls interested in STEM, she quickly joined us! We are so thankful to have her speaking about her journey getting a PhD in Biochemistry!

Briefly describe your career/field.

Microorganisms are able to live in many sorts of environments like soil, rocks, oceans and even inside our body (and they sometimes make us sick). They adapt to their environment by using a specific set of instructions called genes that are contained in every living cell. My research tries to study how bacteria decide which instructions to follow, or which genes to use, and what strategies they employ to use different sets of genes depending on the conditions of their environment.

What are your favorite things about your field?

One of my favorite things is being able to ask new questions and test my ideas in the lab. I like being able to imagine new experiments and carry them out to see an outcome. Even when experiments don’t always work out, it is challenging and exciting to think about what could have gone wrong or why it did not work as I expected.

Did any specific person or program influence your decision to pursue STEM?

My mom and dad are both clinical chemists. Growing up I would watch them go into the lab each day and help people. I decided I wanted to contribute and be a scientist like them.

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in a STEM career?

Let your imagination run and don’t be afraid to express your ideas!

Why do you think confidence in STEM important for girls?

A lot of what we do as researchers involves questioning and putting your own ideas out for discussion. I think girls in STEM must be extremely confident and believe in themselves because their ideas are, in the end, what will generate the next scientific breakthrough.

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Shefali Pearson

Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.

Shefali Pearson

Game Product Manager @ Electronic Arts

Shefali is passionate about seeing women/girls in STEM succeed, and got involved with Girlstart to make that happen. Today she is talking about her career in technology, specifically in video games!

Can you explain a little bit about what you do?

I work in Technology and it’s the most exciting space. Technology is so vast and my current industry is video games. Building games for people to enjoy and play is a fulfilling job. As a Product Manager; I need to know my product, guide my stakeholders, make data-based decisions and keep my users at the forefront of design. My favorite things about my career are seeing my users happy with my product and being at the helm of innovation and creativity!

Working with video games sounds so cool! Was there a specific person/program that got you interested in this particular STEM field?

I loved playing games on my PC since I was 12, I knew since then I wanted to be in the Technology space and at some point, in the game space.

Do you have any words of encouragement that you would like to share with girls who may be interested in doing what you do?

Who runs the world? Girls! STEM needs more women like you! Believe in yourself and your abilities. Work hard and hone skills that will help you get where you are going with your goals. Ask for help when you need it and have laser sharp focus. Most importantly, dream big and don’t look back. You never know what skills you pick up from sports, hobbies or anything that could help you along in your career/education.

Why do you think confidence in STEM is important for girls?

Being focused on your goals, having confidence and believing you can achieve as much, and more than, your peers is the key to driving forward.

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Sarah Kampman

Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.

Sarah Kampman

VP of Product @ Square Root

Sarah is a Product Manager that is getting involved with Girlstart to see a change in the STEM field. In her words, “STEM is more than just lab coats and hackers”, and we are excited to have her on our blog today to tell us about her career field!

What exactly do Product Managers do?
Product Managers figure out what customers need, and work with engineers to get it built. We often work with other teams (like Sales or Marketing) to make sure everyone knows all the cool things our product does. Some Product Managers build products for kids, or teachers, or restaurant visitors, but I’ve always worked in “enterprise software” — which means that my team and I get to solve problems for employees of large corporations.

Being the VP of Product must be challenging, what is your favorite part about your job?
I love solving problems, and the fact that you can build solutions so fast with computers is awesome. It’s one thing to solve a problem in your head, but to see it actually come to life, and make someone’s day easier, is really fulfilling.

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your STEM career?
My father was a high school biology teacher and then worked for our state’s Department of Education, and always loved gadgets & technology. Because of that, I had access to computers and the internet before all of my friends. This was during the 1980s and 1990s, it was unheard of, and then I was hooked! I didn’t know how to program, but I used art programs, games, and even started to write a book. Computers were just a regular part of my life and I loved using them.

Do you have any words of encouragement for girls interested in STEM?
The world of STEM is huge. SO HUGE. Even if you have one rough class or one tough teacher, keep looking for the things that make you curious. You don’t have to be perfect at something from Day 1 for it to be something you love. Explore and be willing to try new things! This way, you’ll bring your wonderful self to everything you do.

Why do you think confidence in STEM important for girls?
I think girls should be confident in all of their abilities. We are all smart, capable, and creative people who can do anything we put our minds to. Especially because TV shows and movies don’t show all the grown-up women out in the world rocking their STEM careers, it could be easy to think that it’s not for someone like you. Well — it is. Come join our club!

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