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S OF WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY

What began as a simple Instagram project for Zainab Ghadiyali ’09 has grown into a nonprofit with a powerful message for women in technology: “Own your story.”

Ghadiyali, a software engineer at Facebook in San Francisco, California, and coworker Erin Summers established the wogrammer website in 2015 to tell the stories of women engineers and women in technology. Since then, wogrammer’s reach has expanded, showcasing the accomplishments of women engineers on every continent — and, in the process, breaking the stereotype that engineering is a man’s world.

“Wogrammer offers a perspective that’s been missing and highlights the amazing work that women in tech are doing across the world,” said Ghadiyali. “We want to break the stereotype of what it means to be a female engineer.”

The world has taken notice: In December 2015, Foreign Policy Magazine named Ghadiyali and Summers among the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2015. Fellow honorees include advocates, innovators, artists, government officials and visionaries around the world. During Facebook HQ’s annual Women Leadership Day in January 2016, Ghadiyali shared the wogrammer story with an audience of more than 3,000. Self- confidence, she said, is vital in helping women take ownership of their journeys.

“There’s no such thing as a small act because we have no idea how the dots will connect,” said Ghadiyali, adding that one woman’s story has the power to inspire others.

That’s a message the Mumbai native wants to share with young women the world over as wogrammer continues to grow. In her personal journey, Ghadiyali took the long way around, discovering her passion for engineering after switching careers. Ghadiyali, who earned her B.S. in chemistry at Winthrop, worked in public health and started to pursue a Ph.D. in health economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She changed courses after participating in — and winning — an

on-campus hackathon competition hosted by Facebook. The experience persuaded Ghadiyali to switch to UWM’s industrial engineering and computer science graduate program. She immersed herself in the world of engineering and never looked back.

Ghadiyali credits her Winthrop experience with opening up a world of confidence-building research opportunities. “Working within a liberal arts culture gave me exposure to do many different things,” she explained.

She volunteered for alternative spring break community service trips across the U.S., and, during her junior year, she received a German Academic Exchange Service scholarship to study in Germany. Ghadiyali spent an academic year at The Charité- Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where she

Zainab Ghadiyali, at left and above, shared the wogrammer story at Facebook headquarter’s annual Women Leadership Day in January.

researched alternative medicine techniques to treat German patients with post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Each opportunity helped Ghadiyali build her confidence, eventually helping her discover a career path she’d never imagined. Now Ghadiyali is happy to return the favor through wogrammer, where story by story, she helps women in tech share their accomplishments.

“It’s not who you know, it’s not what you know — it’s who knows what you know,” said Ghadiyali. “Be confident and share your accomplishments with the world.”

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