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Jennifer Parker

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.

Jennifer Parker
Software Engineer Sr. Manager @ Forcepoint

Jennifer is passionate about helping others find doors of opportunity, just as mentors and supporters once did for her. She sees volunteering with Girlstart as a way to have a positive effect on someone’s journey through STEM, and we are excited to have her here today to give us some inspiration!

How would you describe yourself in regards to your career?
Experienced, technical leader with proven track record working with US and International based teams, delivering on-schedule, high quality program objectives for industry leading cyber security and embedded design corporations. Recognized ability to establish strong productive relationships with colleagues, customers and functional managers, while exercising significant independent judgment within broadly defined policies and practices to determine best method for accomplishing work and achieving objectives. Multi-talented Project Manager consistently rewarded for success in planning and operational improvements.

What is your favorite thing about what you do?
The technical innovation and mindsets I get to work alongside on a day-to-day basis is fascinating.

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your STEM career?
In 6th grade, my teacher introduced me concept of engineering, specifically civil engineering and while civil was not the path I took, just becoming aware, set the trajectory that I am on today.

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in pursuing a STEM career?
You got this!! Be creative! Study/work diligently. You get out what you put in. Be your authentic self!

Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?
STEM is a powerful field and girls are a powerful force. The two combined means the sky is the limit.

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Sarah Strobhar

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 Strobhar
Worldwide Applied AI Services Specialist @ Amazon Web Services

Sarah found Girlstart after previously volunteering with other female STEM organizations and wanted to get more involved. She is one of many amazing Women In Tech, and we are excited to highlight her story today as part of our Computer Science week!

Briefly describe your career trajectory.
I’ve spent much of my career in business development and sales strategy for technology companies, from early stage software startups to global tech giants. I’m currently a Worldwide Applied AI Services Specialist at Amazon Web Services for a machine learning service called Amazon Forecast. My role involves working closely with the product management team to build and execute a go-to-market plan, identify the right target market segments and use cases for the product, and accelerate adoption of new AI / ML services at AWS. Prior to this role, I was Head of Sales at Onera, a VC-backed Bay Area startup that leverages machine learning to enhance decision making across the supply chain for enterprise retailers and brands. I have an AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification, that enables me to help customers architect and migrate workloads to AWS. In 2019, I received my MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Was there a specific program in your life that led you to your career?
Early in my career, I worked in sales for a small IT company in New York that sold hardware, software, and implementation services to small-and-medium size businesses. In order to better serve our customers, I decided to do a training program at VMware that dove deep into virtualization and the infrastructure stack required to run private and public clouds. I received my VMware VTSP technical certification, and found that I really enjoyed the technology industry. I also found that an important and valued skill in the market is the ability to explain complex technical solutions to customers in a clear, digestible way. 

What is your favorite thing about being in the technology industry?
Frequent innovation and fast pace of the software industry.

Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?
Confidence in STEM opens the door to a plethora of options for girls, from joining big tech companies, to joining innovative startups, to launching their own company. Skills in STEM are highly valued in the workplace, and will give girls the confidence to believe they can conquer the world and be captains of their own ship. Learning in-demand skills builds confidence, and provides choices. Choices provide freedom. 

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in pursuing a STEM career? What words of encouragement would you share with them? 
You are better at this than you think. Don’t give up, believe in yourself, and know that these skills will help you WIN in a competitive world. Investment in learning STEM now will pay off for the rest of your life. It will make you feel strong, independent, and powerful. It will give you the ability to be the master of your own fate. BE BOLD and know that you can do anything you set your mind to. 

Anything else you want our readers to know about you?
In my free time, I enjoy reading, hiking, mountain climbing, skiing, and race car driving. I have two cats, Oliver & Dodger, and a German Shepherd puppy named Willa who looks adorable but likes to get into trouble.

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Sam Marcellus

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.

Sam Marcellus
Bioinformatics Fellow @ Texas Department of State Health Services

Sam began volunteering with Girlstart at our Back to School STEM Saturday event where she loved hearing girls explain to their parents what they were learning. We are so grateful that she is back volunteering her time with us today and telling us about her career in Bioinformatics!

 

What sparked your interest and made you want to volunteer with Girlstart?
When I was a freshman in college, a fourth-grade girl from my hometown asked me what I was studying. I told her I was studying science and she replied, “Like a boy?” Since then I’ve been volunteering with groups who expose young girls to the vast array of STEM careers available. 

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your STEM career?
I worked in a genetics clinic in undergrad and worked with patients who had been diagnosed via newborn screening and patients who were diagnosed later in life. The drastic difference in outcomes between the two groups made me want to pursue a newborn screening related career. 

What are your favorite things about your career?
I love that we give kids the best opportunity to have a long and healthy life. 

What exactly do you do as a Bioinformatics Fellow?
I write computer code to process and analyze DNA sequencing information for the Texas Newborn Screening Program. 

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in pursuing a STEM career? 
You have a unique voice in the world. Whatever career you decide to pursue, STEM or otherwise, the field will benefit from your life experiences and your voice. STEM fields often only have men speaking, so women joining the workforce bring new ideas and can spark big change. I have a quote on my desk from Shirley Chisholm for when I’m feeling discouraged, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t belong. 

Why is do you think confidence in STEM important for girls?
Confidence in STEM is important for girls so that they aren’t discouraged away from pursuing their passions. There’s always going to be people that think women aren’t qualified to work in STEM, it happened to me on a conference call last week, but if you’re confident in your abilities you can stand up for yourself and persist.

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Dr. Serena Hon

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.

Dr. Serena Hon
Family Medicine Doctor at Austin Regional Clinic

Dr. Hon initially got involved with Girlstart to show girls that they can be doctors, too. We are excited to have her on the blog to talk about her journey to becoming a doctor!

Briefly describe your career.
I’m a doctor who sees patients of all ages– we see you when you’re sick and when you need regular checkups, and also help everyone else in your family as well!

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your career?
My own family doctor growing up, Dr. Ou, showed me that a girl who looked like me could be a doctor someday.

What are your favorite things about being a family medicine doctor?
I can help people when they’re feeling really bad and get to celebrate with people when they’re feeling good. I get to know the whole family, which makes me feel like part of the family.

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in pursuing a STEM career?
It may take some hard work, but so do most good things in life. It’s worth the effort you put into it, and keep the faith– you can do it. After all, who rules the world? Girls!

Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?
Science, technology, engineering, and math make the world go ’round. Feeling like you have the ability to learn about those fields gives you the ability to understand how the world works, and therefore better understand your place in it.

What is your favorite Girlstart moment?
I loved presenting at the “Scrub In” summer camp program for girls interested in medicine. Everyone was so involved, had great questions, and had a lot of fun exploring the medical tools.

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