Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Jade Burns. Jade is a junior at Albemarle High School enrolled in their Math, Engineering, and Science Academy (MESA). She is a member of the Computer Science Honor Society and Math Honor Society and is active in the Math Club, Chemistry Club, and Key Club, where she is the webmaster. She is a Tech-Girls volunteer and a previous Bio-Med Tech-Girls participant.
How do you work with technology today?
During my freshmen year, I volunteered with a student help desk called Patriots (our mascot) Assisting with Technology or PATS Desk. PATS Desk is in our school’s library and at the beginning of each school year, the librarians would recruit students from several study halls to volunteer with PATS Desk, rather than go to study hall. While I volunteered with PATS Desk, I learned a lot about the school-issued laptops, like troubleshooting tips and how to build/rebuild them from scratch.
During my sophomore year, I became an intern with the PATS Desk; the librarians and IT workers were my supervisors. As an intern, I applied my technology skills by creating instructional screencasts to be shown to the entire school, re-imaging all school-issued laptops alongside the IT workers, and other technology-related activities that gave me a taste of the IT world.
Currently, I am in my junior year and both of my MESA classes are engineering, which requires one to become more adept with technology. For instance, we were assigned several build projects such as the marble spring canon and mousetrap car this year; both of these projects required me to create several detailed 3-D drawings on CAD. Prior to this year, I had hardly any experience with 3D drawings, but after these projects, I could practically call myself an expert!
What drives your interest in technology?
My interest in technology was set on fire after experiencing the way that society chose boys for computing and technology rather than girls, who were not expected to thrive in STEM. This inaccurate notion upsets me and is a driving factor for why I have come to love STEM so much.
After personally encountering the obstacles society had for girls interested in STEM, me, being the rebellious individual that I am, obviously, became even more impassioned about STEM because I wanted to prove the ignorant people wrong. So, I decided to venture down the STEM pathway, a journey many of my girl friends fear to this day and was ecstatic to realize that I actually enjoy STEM and am good at it, which definitely hooked me!
What do you remember about your first coding experience?
My first coding experience was last year - my sophomore year - in AP Computer Science A at my high school. The first time I came to this class, I discovered that most of the other students were upperclassmen and that my gender was a serious minority. Girls made up about a 1/4 of the class, but it did make me happy to see that my APCS teacher was in fact a woman, so that helped keep my hopes us for my gender's involvement in STEM. Throughout sophomore year, APCS was definitely one of my most challenging classes - AP World History being the most out of all! I think I struggled with APCS because sophomore year was the first time I took AP classes and I was not used to the workload, fast-paced environment, and I was especially not ready for the fact that my AP classes would require me to pursue my learning independently to some extent. I had been so used to relying on my teacher, that I did not realize I would have to be more in charge of my education in an AP class.
What was your pathway to working in technology?
I became part of the close-knit community of MESA within my school and this community has been really valuable to me throughout each school year. It has been so nice forging friendships with people who have similar interests as me and are just as passionate, if not more about STEM! Being part of the MESA community definitely inspired me to work more with technology. It was definitely a big reason for why I decided to be a PATS desk volunteer my freshmen year, and why I became a PATS desk intern my sophomore year. Being part of the technology scene is normal for students in MESA and pushed me to become even more involved. In fact, it is the director of MESA who told me of Tech-Girls in the first place and is how I came to become a mentor at Girl's Geek Day as well as a participant in the SPARK! Hackathon and a Bio-Med Tech-Girls program last year! As my high school career comes to a close next year, I know that MESA will remind me to continue working in technology.
Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology?
I think it is important to get more girls and women interested in technology because adding their new voices and perspectives is necessary to the further advancement of technology. Technology itself is meant to help all people, which means both genders, so it would make sense if the creators of said technology were comprised of both genders on a more balanced scale. Since females are around 50% of the whole population using technology, shouldn't the creators be comprised of at least 50% females so that input from both sides is used for technology meant for males and females? Regarding technology specific to women, it just makes more sense for women to be creating that technology since it relates to them on a level that men just can't attain to the same degree.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
I would tell myself to not be discouraged by the gender-based obstacles that come along with being a girl pursuing STEM. In actuality, applying for the Math, Engineering, and Science Academy (MESA) at Albemarle was a major decision for me and was ultimately a decision that would determine whether or not I was passionate enough about STEM to keep pursuing it. During the decision of applying to MESA, I was very indecisive at times because I was scared I wasn't smart enough to venture down the STEM pathway since I was a girl. I have now realized that was a stupid notion, but society had impressed that upon me. After receiving my acceptance to MESA, my fears evaporated and I grew to be more confident about my self-worth and what I could achieve. Now, I can tell my younger self with conviction that it's not gender determining whether or not you're good enough, it's yourself.
I think it would be safe to say that my life revolves around anything STEM-related. It's been that way since I was born and I wouldn't have it any other way!
