My journey in the tech world started in 2014, when I was a student in the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program. The highlights in my life since then are:
Went to Cornell for my B.S. (2020) and M.Eng (2021) in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where I also:
Was the founding president for the Beta Chi chapter of Alpha Omega Epsilon
Was a board member for Women in Computing at Cornell (WICC)
Was a TA for multiple ECE classes
Interned at #BUILTBYGIRLS, ASK Applications, Girls Who Code, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Lyft, and Samsung
Co-founded multiple hackathon organizations:
def hacks( ) hackathon, by high school students for high school students
ProgramHers and the PixieHacks hackathon for women in tech
FwdCode hackathon for unity and social good
Gave a TEDx talk, was a mentor for multiple tech programs, and acted as a judge in several hackathons, all in the purpose of bringing diversity, equity, and inclusion to tech
Tech and advocacy are both important parts of my life, but I’ve diversified my interests since then. Now I spend my time:
Running races
Putting together my zine, Pore Gunk (you can buy physical copies here!)
Volunteering as Treasurer for North of the Panhandle Neighborhood Association (NOPNA)
Volunteering for Alpha Omega Epsilon sorority
Participating as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, SF chapter
Raising my dog, Jeepers
My first taste of the tech world was in high school through a required Introduction to Computer Science course. That entire semester I was bored and listless, not fully able to grasp the power of programming without concrete examples of applications in the real world. The closest I got to understanding how code could be implemented in the real world was building Fruit Ninja in Racket.
I’ll eventually write about the end of my senior year of college, my summer, and the start of my Masters program, but I don’t feel comfortable doing so until I address the virus that has been plaguing the country (and the world as a whole!) for centuries. Racism.
While most students have left Ithaca, New York, the quaint city Cornell is located in, due to an administrative order for students to move out of on-campus housing — a proactive measure against the COVID-19 crisis — and as the spring term comes to a close, Caitlin Stanton stays in her apartment near the campus. Since the university has transitioned to online classes, Caitlin has had to grapple with the dichotomy between social distancing and a normally collaborative engineering environment.