Date: June 12, 2024

When I first got matched with Dr. Waisome at the University of Florida, I was a bit skeptical about how my computer science background was going to contribute to my mentor’s Civil Engineering background. But getting on campus and meeting Dr. Waisome and the members of her PRISEM lab, I immediately knew that this match was necessary. Touching down on campus, my first tasks were to get acclimated with the podcast from which we would be deriving data, “Modern Figures”. As a Black woman from an HBCU with only one Black Woman professor on faculty, this podcast instilled the confidence I needed to continue working towards my graduate studies.

With my technical background, I came into the project feeling unworthy since our research is more qualitative. But with the help of Dr. Waisome and the other members of the project, I was able to become more confident in my abilities to contribute to this project, and instead of focusing on my feelings of incompetency, I was able to focus on the content of the data I was analyzing.

So far, this project has truly been a blessing. I’ve been able to hear from many Black Women professionals through the Modern Figures Podcast and connect with professors within the University of Florida’s faculty to discuss further solutions to the lack of literature regarding Black Women in computing. I can’t wait to see what else is in store for this summer!