This is partly inspired by Fred Wilson’s recent blog about women entrepreneurs. Or rather, the comments. :) 

I remember the first time I really interacted with a Filipino performer. It was slam poet champion/activist/NYU artist-in-residence Regie Cabico. He came into my Performance as Cultural Criticism class at Emerson and I got ridiculously excited. It was a bizarre feeling. I asked him how his parents reacted when he told them he wasn’t going to be a doctor, lawyer, or businessman. My classmates laughed… but those are the preferred/parent-approved career choices for most first generation Filipinos (and a lot of other Asians out there).

I remember being electrified after class and my brain running wild with possibilites. I was majoring in writing, so of course I thought I could be a writer, but there was just this incredible boost knowing that someone that looked like me could be successful in the arts. 

From what I gathered from the comments on Fred’s blog, people were arguing whether or not a girl needed a woman as an example of success to be successful herself. Well, as someone who looked to her father as her biggest mentor, I’d argue no. I love and adore my mother, but I spent most of my time with my father growing up and a lot of his ideals stuck with me more than my mother’s. But… I clearly get the importance of being able to outwardly identify with someone within an industry you hope to go into. While my renaissance happened when I was 21, the earlier the better. 

I recently became a mentor for the Technovation Challenge which pairs women in tech with high schools girls to help them develop an app using Google App Inventor. I’ve definitely gone the bumpy non-linear route to getting where I am today, but hopefully I can inspire them in some way to get into the tech field.

And not because there should be women (and minorities) in tech, but because it’s what they would really love to do. :)