Written by volunteer writer Adithya Ganesh
On Technologist Talk radio, Bob Dirks talks with Sarah Johnson, The first-ever winner of the CompTIA/ChannelPro Cecilia Galvin scholarship award. Cecilia Galvin was a technologist who strived to involve more women in the male-dominated technology field. Sarah Johnson exemplified what it meant to win the Cecilia Galvin award. Sarah interned at the African American Heritage Museum in Atlantic City, where she digitized marketing processes. She also aided has an instructor for STEM-related classes for summer camps in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She also ran a TechGirlz workshop, where she taught Blockly. In school, she is studying electrical and engineering.
“She hasn’t slowed the pace on her fanatical learning even with her busy schedule,” said Bob. She is even interning at a startup business that produces autonomous drones. When she was asked how she got into technology, she answered that she was a tinkerer.
“When I was little, my mom would take me and my siblings to Home Depot and took us to a hardware class where we would build all sorts of different things. We built a birdhouse and made potters. I just loved the hands-on activities,” said Sarah. She joined a robotics program in middle school at the Franklin Institute and loved it. She mentioned how doing all of these things sparked a trail for her future, and that engineering was the career choice for her.
Sarah loves the work that TechGirlz is doing and is grateful that young girls now have a place to communicate and express themselves at such a young age. She also expressed that when she taught her first class, she loved watching the girls create their code and watch it run. Sarah says that it is important to be patient with the girls and with yourself.
Sarah is also an inventor. After she noticed a problem in her town, she made an invention to solve it. After noticing that kids are getting lost on the bus, she made a precise GPS tracker to combat the issue. Her advice to all future and aspiring engineers is to stick with it. She says that even if there may be roadblocks and difficulties in your path, you keep sticking with it.