Introducing the Newest Addition to the Femgineer Team: Jasmine Lee

Hello Friends!

I’m excited and honored to participate in building Femgineer as your new community management intern!  My name is Jasmine Lee and I’m a freshman undergraduate student at UC Berkeley majoring in Computer Science.  I’m new to the technology entrepreneurship scene and look forward to sharing with you my musings and insights gained from working with Poornima, our CEO, over the course of these next few weeks.

Months ago before starting college, I would never have imagined I was going to go the STEM route, much less become interested in computer science.  My childhood consisted of going to dance class, visual arts classes, and music lessons.  I attended an arts magnet high school, where I trained for a minimum of three hours every day for the past four years to become a professional actor. I also spent my time planting native fauna and restoring natural habitats for the Parks Conservancy, leading tours as a docent at the local aquarium, competing in pageants, and participating in a vast array of other unSTEM-ey, non-technical activities. I didn’t pursue STEM-related fields and interests frankly because I wasn’t good at them, but that’s another story that’s yet to be told.

It was my decision to explore new interests and resources my university offered, such as checking out the Hackers at Berkeley student group (aka H@B), that changed my life!  After spending my first semester learning and gaining exposure to the world of software and hardware hacking, I completely pivoted my interests.  Hackers at Berkeley taught me how to use an Arduino to implement an RFID transmitter.  I coded my first dynamic site in Javascript.  I learned to build webGL 3D graphics using ThreeJS. I had no programming experience, never mind the week long ‘Geek Camp’ I attended in 7th grade in order to learn web design and to play video games (not joking). While I was at the H@B workshops, more often than not I had no idea what I was doing. But as I look back now that I’m writing this blog post, I’ve come a long way from starting at zero not knowing anything about programming.

I now know I want to pursue programming and technology entrepreneurship.  The two are, as my Hacker friends describe them, “two sides of the same coin.” Exactly what the two together entail is something I have yet to discover.

I sought Poornima’s mentorship and guidance because of many reasons. I want to gain perspective into the Startup World.  I seek to better understand the Valley’s culture. I want to create and sustain a work-life balance that working at a start up provides.  Like Poornima and our fellow Femgineers, I encourage women to pursue STEM related fields and professions. I respect Poornima’s passion for public speaking and want to improve my own public speaking skills, minus having memorized a playwright’s script.

I’m excited to make new discoveries over these next few weeks and am honored to have you share in this experience with me! Follow me @jjjjjjjasmine.

Until next time,
Jasmine

Jasmine is a freshman undergrad at UC Berkeley majoring in Computer Science. She is a Hackers @ Berkeley club officer and also works as a webmaster at the UC Berkeley Boalt Law School. Jasmine is humbly inspired by the hackers and builders around her and is excited to learn more about the field. Not only does she like sharing her passion with everyone, but she wants to learn how to play the ukulele and says “Carpe diem! Seize the day. Also, I like bubble milk tea.”

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