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.
Audrey Nelson
Security Compliance Program Manager @ Dell Technologies
Audrey has been interested in STEM since a young age, and has since had a strong career in security technology. She is joining our blog today to share her story in hopes of encouraging more girls to follow their passions, especially in STEM.
What sparked your interest and made you want to volunteer with Girlstart?
STEM, as a term, has been around for ~20 years now; and yet, many young girls are still growing up without knowing or being encouraged to pursue knowledge and careers beyond traditional gender norms. I love that one of Girlstart’s goals is “to be the national leader in designing and implementing innovative, high quality informal STEM education programs that inspire girls to transform our world”. To have a national organization, who partners with STEM companies and integrates in local school programs, while also offering camps and at home activities, is a tremendous feat — all of that is just amazing, and I really admire and support what Girlstart is doing.
How did you become interested in STEM as a whole?
My dad has always been interested in computers and technology, which influenced me a TON as a kid. Growing up the 90’s, technology was changing and advancing at a rapid pace. And while we definitely couldn’t afford upgrading with every technological advancement, that didn’t stop my dad from keeping up-to-date on all the latest capabilities for microprocessors, storage hardware and SSD’s, RAM speed, etc. And bear in mind, this was when breaking news was still read in physical newspapers, Facebook newsfeeds didn’t yet exist, and Ask Jeeves and AOL were the preferred search method over a very young Google. Information was not heavily pushed out to the general public, especially very technical news, so those who wanted to know about technology advancements really had to search for it.
But while my dad could have let his interest be his own thing, he chose to bring my brother and I along for the journey. Computers and technology were more than a hobby to him; he really wanted us to understand what these advancements meant to us as consumers, and how technology would continue to grow and change over the next century. Needless to say, we were heavily interested in technology by the time we became adults, and now my brother is a computer engineer, while I’m explaining robotics process automation (RPA) capabilities and system processing to internal and external stakeholders at Dell.
What has your career trajectory looked like?
In college, I majored in Business Information Systems, which simply means that I learned about how technologies and systems work together in a business environment. This was a great foundation for my first job at Ernst & Young (EY) as an Information Technology Advisory Services manager, where I helped many companies identify and remediate security, process and technology gaps. And my experiences at EY helped prepare me for my current role, where I manage one of Dell’s global security compliance programs and help internal teams meet regulatory requirements efficiently and effectively.
What would you like to tell girls who are interested in pursuing a STEM career?
Embrace all the wild and crazy ideas you have – write them down, throw them out there, and test them! And above all else, have grit and perseverance to see your ideas through to completion, if they are important to you.
Why do you think confidence in STEM is important for girls?
I’m fortunate that from a very young age, I’ve been surrounded by strong women (family members, friends, teachers) in STEM-related careers. I looked up to these women – wanted to be as smart, successful and respected as them – and they all encouraged me to follow my passion for technology. Young girls can be very impressionable, so it’s incredibly important to remind them that they are capable of doing anything they can dream of, even in the more male-dominated fields of science, technology, engineering or math. Men may have dominated these fields in history, but many women have changed and continue to change how science and technology are applied in the real-world today. Young girls need to know that their thoughts and opinions will continue to transform the world and their future.
