17³Ô¹Ï

Gain some tips for success in your first internship, no matter what the field. These are skills you can use for the rest of your working life!

with Christina Shareef, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Reddit, Inc. 

Christina has spent her career helping companies reach their potential as a global Human Resources leader who specializes in building inclusive workplaces and corporate value through market advantage, leveraging employees’ unique skills and perspectives, employee engagement, and workplace culture. Christina is currently the Head of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Reddit. Christina approaches her work with the understanding that each of us—every one of us—have ample opportunities to learn from, engage with, and support someone who is different from ourselves. When she is not working, Christina enjoys baking with her daughter, Leila, and fine-tuning her skills as a musician.

Did you know you are always networking?  But what are the differences you should keep in mind when networking digitally vs in person? Learn about the top considerations for both and consider crafting your elevator pitch.

with Dr. Miloni Gandhi, 17³Ô¹Ï Workforce

(If you're joining in, please download and set up your avatar in Room Key. Instructions provided )

Miloni has lived in Spain, Hawaii, Singapore, and Chile as well as worked extensively in India.  Her research interests include international development, global studies, international education, identity, and tertiary student mobility. She speaks fluent Spanish as well as conversational Hindi and Gujrati. Miloni completed her doctoral studies at the UCLA in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with a concentration in International Education. Additionally, she has Bachelor’s in International Development Studies as well as Geography.  Her favorite things to do are exploring different cultures through travel and food and documenting them on her iPhone. Her most memorable pre COVID trip was Antarctica which was her 7th continent.

Did you know that a brand isn't just for a company?  Who you are and who you want to be are incredibly important in the career development process. We will build on some of the topics from the Networking Session, such as your personal elevator pitch as well as how to showcase concrete examples that speak to your personal brand.

with Dr. Miloni Gandhi, see bio in previous session

Panel discussion - Hear from 17³Ô¹Ï alumni who are now working in various professions after having majored in a STEM field.

Camila Ramos Garzon, Software Engineer at Paypal / Founder of STEMTank. 

Camila is a software engineer with a passion for education and inclusion. Before working as an engineer, Camila worked with community orgs to develop and deliver STEM curriculum for K-12 students. In 2018, she founded STEMTank, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of Black and brown engineers through free after-school programming. Camila is now a dev rel engineer, where she splits her time coding and creating technical content to share with the greater community. Camila lives in Oakland, CA and in her free time she takes her surf van up and down the California coast, surfing all the best waves. You can find Camila on YouTube, Tik Tok and Twitter @camiinthisthang where she shares learning resources, technical tutorials and more.

Rebecca Eliscu, Data Analyst at UCSF

Growing up in the bay area, I never considered myself a STEM-oriented person. Having done poorly in math and science topics in grade school, I believed I was not smart enough to pursue traditional STEM topics as a career path. However, after dropping out art school, I decided to return to community college to study cognitive science, a topic that had always fascinated me, but I never considered a viable option. Throwing caution to the wind, I approached my studies with a fresh perspective and found that I could, in fact, succeed, and even found that I thoroughly enjoyed topics like mathematics and chemistry. After transferring to UCSD to study Cognitive Science, I discovered my love of data analysis, particularly when applied in the context of biology. I now work at a lab at UCSF performing analyses of gene expression data from the human brain. My goal is to obtain a PhD in bioinformatics, and ultimately provide another data point in support of the fact that girls can succeed in male-dominated fields.

Bryant Perez, Engineer at Artium Technologies,  Grad student in Electrical Engineering Master's program at SJSU

Bryant was born in Mexico but grew up in the Bay Area. He began working in landscaping straight out of High School and did that for almost a decade. However, he realized that in order to be able to provide a decent life for my family in the Bay Area he needed to change careers. He decided to return to school and pursue electrical engineering. He graduated from SJSU after transferring from 17³Ô¹Ï and is currently pursuing an MSEE also at SJSU. He is working for Artium Technologies as an Engineer and loves his job. Changing careers was a great decision for him.

Zoe Li, Software Engineer at Apple

Zoe Li is a software engineer at Apple who has recently graduated from Cal Poly SLO with a bachelor's degree in computer science. She came to the US as an international student from China and started her college education at 17³Ô¹Ï, where she spent three years studying Biomedical Engineering. After transferring to Cal Poly SLO, she found love in programming and decided to pursue CS instead. At work, she is passionate about using her programming knowledge and experience to solve challenging problems. During her free time, she likes to make music, go hiking and explore good food.