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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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Yvonne Hawthorne

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.

Yvonne Hawthorne

Senior Manager of Infrastructure Engineering @ Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Yvonne has been involved in Girlstart for many years, beginning when her daughter attended our camps. Seeing how much her daughter enjoyed our programs, while also learning about STEM, she decided to get involved herself. We are honored to have her speak with us today about her career in IT Infrastructure Engineering!

What sparked your interest and made you want to volunteer with Girlstart?
I love that Girlstart provides girls with hands on experience on what STEM is, eliminating the stereotypes and assumptions. It allows girls to see how beneficial STEM is and how fun it can be as a career.

Do you have any words of encouragement that you would like to share with girls wanting to pursue a STEM career? 
Don’t make any assumptions about the type of person it takes for a particular career. You are the future of our technology transformation, you’re already ahead of where all the adults started. During my life time, I had to learn to use a computer, and then laptop, and even a cell phone. By nature, you’re more technical than you could imagine; so pursue your interests, and use the support of other girls and women doing the same thing. And don’t be afraid to break the glass ceiling for generations to come!

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your STEM career?
There was a leader I had early on in my career that provided me the opportunity to learn about IT Infrastructure and it opened my eyes to a new world of opportunities. We hear more about developers/coders, quality assurance specialist, or other careers focused more on product delivery. However, there are many opportunities in IT Infrastructure that don’t always get spot lighted. This leader provided me the opportunity to learn more about this type of career and it’s been the best thing I ever did!

What are your favorite things about being in IT Infrastructure?
I love that things always change; I get the opportunity to learn new things all the time. My career demands working closely with different people, I love team work and relying on one another to ensure we successfully finish our projects and resolve issues. It’s an exciting time to be in Infrastructure because there are so many new technologies to learn and provide to the company to increase collaboration and capabilities.

Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?
In IT Infrastructure there are very few women, and I am normally the only woman in the room in meetings, conferences, etc. I believe diversity in every field is important, and STEM is a place where we don’t see it enough. I also believe that girls need to understand what careers are available and chose based on that. Many times, I think if someone doesn’t like math or science in school, they assume a career in STEM is not for them. But breaking down these barriers will allow girls to grow up and choose these careers and help us continue to adopt technology to help the world.

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