A University of Houston College of Technology computational health informatics graduate student, Zhale Nowroozilarki, won the chance to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration, known as the largest worldwide gathering of women technologists. Presented by AnitaB.org in partnership with the Association for Computing Machinery, the Grace Hopper Celebration is expected to attract more than 20,000 attendees to Orlando, Florida, October 1–4, 2019. Zhale’s entire experience will be expense-free.
Opportunities to network and interact with peers in a technically, culturally, and socially diverse environment are golden for students. While working hard towards achieving her goals, Zhale is also making time to encourage others. She often represents the UH College of Technology as a spokesperson to high school students about career opportunities in STEM. Zhale sees this experience as one to strongly reinforce and give voice to dreams that she plans to share with other women. “Being in the world's largest gathering of women technologists will help me to build self-confidence and gain solid experience in encouraging others about how to stay motivated in this difficult yet enjoyable path toward being a successful, leading woman in tech,” said Zhale.
“She is brilliant, innovative and hard-working, sincere and intelligent with a strong sense of dedication towards her pursuits, said Fatima Merchant, associate professor, engineering technology and advisor to Zhale. “She embraces every opportunity to advance her career and research interests. Attending the Grace Hopper Celebration is a perfect venue for her to build self-confidence and broaden her experience.”