Black in Technology, Back in Technology, Back in Technology? Why black in
technology? In technology? In Technology? On this episode of the Big Tech
Talk podcast, our guest is a Malia Baxter. Malia Baxter is a student
at Housing University studying computer science. In twenty twenty two, Malia founded the
student group's Sister Scripts, which supports undergraduate African American women in technology and computer
science by providing them a community to help them achieve their personal, professional and
educational goals while raising leaders and STEM advocacy. Malia regularly collaborates with other organizations
on and off campus to provide a safe space for women of color to pursue
their tech dreams. Her goal with Sister Scriptures is to help amplify black woman's
voices and technology, encourage the participation of other Black girls to join tech,
support the curiosity of STEM education, and educate black women on the career readiness
skills needed to land jobs and internships in various tech environments. Upon graduation,
she plans to apply for nonprofit status for Sister Scripts to continue growing the organization
and expand its reach to different organizations and universities nationwide. And now, our
guest, Malia Baxter Hey Malia. Welcome to the showy. Thank you so
much for having me my pleasure, my pleasure, as we typically do,
Can you give us a little bit of information about your background, kind of
where you're from, a little bit about your education, things of that nature.
Yep. Well, I'm currently a senior at Telsa University and I'm actually
set to finally to my Bachelors of Science and Computer Science in exactly ten days
on a May twenty six at three o'clock PM. So I'm very exit.
Congrats, thank you. I am counting dot but I'm from Maryland and I
actually grew up in Charles County, but I currently reside in Peg County.
Okay, so how did you first become interested in tech? Well, actually
in middle school. I went to Summers Middle School and Charles County and they
had this thing called Our of Code where students were introduced to coding by using
a website called code dot org. I'm not sure if you're familiar with code
dot org, but yeah, I've heard of it. It's similar to scratch
if you're familiar with that. Okay, yeah, yeah, So we were
using block code and we were able to create our own little games and so
in eighth grade, in my math class, I got really into the coding
portion because I just had this realization that I was able to be like super
creative with coding and I could really create anything that I wanted and that really
blew my mind, honestly. And also my classmates would ask me for help.
And when I went home and I continue to explore cade dot org on
my own, you know, my mom she was affirming me, telling me
that this was cool and I was doing a good job. So with that,
I was like super duper excited to continue pursuing something. And I was
also excited that I finally found out something I was really interested in, something
that allowed me to not only be creative, but something that also challenged me.
So that's really my story. It all started really in middle school and
then I just continued with that in high school. Nice. Yeah, early
exposure is definitely key, and then having your mom and your corner to support
you is It's key. And I say it because you know, in some
households, sports or or some other you know, extracurricular activity usually takes the
forefront. Usually that's in the forefront of a parents' model, like hey,
you know, get my kid, you know, active and getting them some
some type of so to have a parent to say, hey, like this
is something you're interested in, that's great, I'm going to support you.
I think it's a fantastic thing that helps a lot. So you got into
it in middle school? What would tell me? What was the first program
that you done on your own? Did you code it in middle school?
That was a It was like a Star Wars game. So the theme for
the code for the Hour of Code was like a Star Wars theme, and
so it was like a basic platform game that basic, you know, you
just take the character and you move it around. So that was my first
one, and then I just kept playing got Home and as you kept playing
with it, kept making different games. And Yeah. The Bit Foundation has
established featured partnerships and programs with company such as Amazon, at and t comp,
Tia, tech Stars, and more to provide our members with the resources
we want and need to thrive and succeed in this tech ecosystem. To learn
more, visit Foundation dot blocks and Technology dot net. Join now and remember
membership is free. What type of languages were you learning in high school?
So in my first introduction to programming course, I was using Java, and
then when I took a Computer Science Principles, then we moved back to the
block coding seems kind of backwards a book, yeah, so okay, okay.
And so during that period, you know, I know you had your
mom as as your support. Were there any other influences that you had along
the way? My high school computer science teacher, mister Stone, was actually
a huge influence on me. So during my sophomore year. Actually I was
taking a general computer science course in between the time of middle school and a
little at the beginning of high school, I kind of forgot about the coding.
But then we started to do scratch again, so well not scratch again,
but we started to do scratch in the general computer science course, and
so my excitement about coding peaked again. And so I told my future that
I wanted to learn more about coding, and she introduced me to mister Stone,
and so I went to Saint Charles High School and we had these different
pathways you could get into. My junior year, I started the computer science
pathway, and I remember on the first day of school of my junior year,
I entered my first introduction programing course as I mentioned before, and immediately
like my heart saying real because I saw a room full of men and that
was the first time I had ever stepped into like a classroom like that.
Yeah. So I saw a room full of men and it was only maybe
two other girls including me. I suppressed at the front, and I think
mister Stone could honestly see the panic in my face, and he came up
to me and he asked me if I was okay. I just I just
whispered to him. I was like, yeah, I'm dropping this class.
Wow. Yeah. But he encouraged me to stay, and I'm very grateful
that encouraged me to stay. But he encouraged me to stay because he said
that I would do great. I did. I definitely did do great.
I did. I sailed again. During this time, mister Stone was also
like the faculty advisor for Girls who Code. I'm not sure if you're from
with that, but it's basically an organized yeah grows who Code. So I
joined that and I got to work on some really cool projects with him and
the other two girls that were in my class. So mister Stone made me
feel super comfortable about technology and he helped me to be proud to be a
woman. Studying technology, and he just like really made room for me,
and he appreciated. He just appreciated, Like I don't know, he just
like advocated for me and and I really appreciate him for that. Like I
he was so much of the influence that I actually wanted to become a high
school teacher just like him. Oh wow, that has definitely changed. You
don't want to be a high school teacher anymore. But that was my first
initially, Like if my first initial goal was like, Okay, I'm going
to get this dis bachelor's in computer science and then I'd a high school teacher.
But that has definitely changed. Shout out to mister Stone, No for
real Stone, And it's so important because that he that he did that because
you know, representation matters, but when you don't have that representation, having
someone there as an ally and who can advocate for you is really really huge.
And he took it upon himself. He noticed from your you know,
maybe facial expressions and body language, and he came over to you and he
reassures you that this is where you belong and that's you know, that's that's
that's so powerful because that's the mission of of bit as a as a whole
is that we belong in this space too. Uh, And so we just
try to encourage people black people to to uh, you know, get into
this into the space. And you know, who knows if you were weren't
for mister Stone. You know, I'm not saying that you wouldn't have picked
up code, but it's always helpful to have that person that you know that
can champion you. So shout out to mister Stone. Yeah, you'd shut
out. You know, you you leave high school, you you go to
the university and in your bio you said that you you won the hills Is
at Lopez Hill Loops hills Lopes Scholars Program. Telling or you you were able
to get into the Hills Lopes Scholars Program, tell us a little bit about
what that program is and how it assisted you and at the university. So,
the Hillops Hilloes Scholars Program is designed to support woman's STEM. The program
offers um like course work, research, seminars, mentorship, um personal professional
development. So many different good things come from this program. It just really
helps you to get the professional skill, the professional academic skills that you need
or to be successful as a woman in STEM. And so for me personally,
like Hillops has just played a huge role in my college career. So
I actually joined as an incoming junior, so you can join as an incoming
sophomore, but I joined a little bit later as incoming junior, and it
has given me the community, mentorship, sponsorship that I needed to become the
person I am today. Really, when you're so used to being one of
one in a classroom or one of three in a room, you start to
honestly feel like you don't need a community, Like, you know, you
get this pride that like, oh yeah, I can do it myself,
Like you know, you kind of get this like stern type of demeanor to
yourself. But then you know, you come, you see these group of
women and you're able to commute these groups of women, and it's just so
incredibly refreshing to be able to speak to a community of women after being around
the men all day. You know, I've nothing wrong, No, no,
I get it, I totally understand. I mean, community is is
huge, and that's what you know, that's what blacks and Technology started out
as. It wasn't we didn't have membership the type of membership that we have
now. We weren't doing podcasts early on or anything like that. It was
more or less to conveying a community so that we can support one another and
help one another um and just have that community to fall back on, especially
when there are there are incidents or there are situations that don't necessarily involve tech,
right, Like there's there's social you know issues that that happen, there's
issues at the workplace. Uh, there's issues with you know, uh different
in different circumstances. And to be able to have a community and say and
you know, kind of get the opinions of the community and how to handle
a matter m is huge. And I can only guess then when you're in
a woman in technology, not only is it majority white, but it's majority
male. It's now dominated. And so to have a community of women where
you could go to just you know, the technical side is one thing,
right, just supporting each other on that side is huge. But then to
be able to come in and say, you know, I have this incident
with this you know, this other, this man and made me feel this
way, and then they can chime in and say, you know, hey,
you can handle it, or we're just here for you. We're just
here or listen. That's huge, and it could it helps people from being
dismayed and disheartened about the dynamics and the makeup of the industry from a demographic
standpoint. Um, you know that that could be daunting alone, just you
know, having to deal with that, you know, and you being a
black woman, you're at this intersection of being a woman and being black.
Yep, that could be a lot and it can turn you off from tech
as a whole. You know, it almost did right you came to the
classroom and it was just like WHOA, I don't know. I mean,
so just having that community is huge. I'm glad you were able to you
know, to have that community. Yeah, and I'm thankful that, like
I'm talking, I get to speak with you because the fact that you,
you know, you recognize that I have two strikes against me. I don't
know, I don't want to call them two strikes and yeah, but you
know, I'm a woman and I'm also black. So you know, I'm
happy that you record because you know, I have to sometimes I have to
just explain that to people that Okay, yeah, you're a woman, but
I'm also black, so it's a little bit different. But like you said,
like it's just honestly refreshing because not only is it just you know,
women in tech, but it's women and it's not just black women, you
know, it's women in STEM. Who are you know, it's a super
diverse group of women in STEM. And so we get to see how you
know, tech connects with biology and chemistry and physics and like, you know,
the stuff that they're going on, I mean, the things that they
have going on and the stuff that they're experiencing in their departments. It's just
a breath of fresh air. Yeah, I really honestly encourage every woman studying
stein OTAs University if you're able, definitely endeavor to join the Hello Scholars program.
And I just want to throw this in here, like you run across
these certain paper not that you should listen to them, but you're run across
people that, oh, why do you need a woman scruple? Why do
you need a for black people? You know, and people think that it's
an exclusive thing, but actually what you're doing is you're advocating for inclusion.
The more a community, like you know, a tech community of women,
grows, the more inclusive tech becomes as a whole. So it's like,
give us this space. You've had this space for decades, so allow us
to have this space. Allow us to grow and and make tech as a
whole more inclusive. Like that's what it's really. It's not about excluding anyone,
It's about including us, right. So BIT is always focused on forming
new partnerships and opportunities to assist the community and our members with their continued professional
growth and development. If you'd like to partner with us, send an email
inquiries at blacks and Technology dot net. So tell us a little bit about
what a sister scripts. Oh well, sister scripts is. It's the way
I love the play on the lines and it starts with both of us are
so I love the alliteration of it. Yeah, scriptures actually came from it's
just scripting, as you know, a quoting language that doesn't have to be
compiled. So that was the idea from that. But it's it's a student
led organization that supports African American women's studying technology to achieve their personal professional educational
goals and to support them on their tech journeys. So you know, by
supporting these young women, we in turn are raising a community of STEM advocates
in order to work towards that diversity inclusion, you know, to diversify the
tech spaces, which is our mission. And what motive readied you to start
the group. I mean, you're already part of you know, the Hillslopes
scholars program, so you had a community there, So what motivated you to
start this group to cater towards African American women? So just in addition from
like my other experiences like high school and my influences, it really just came
from a desire for communities. So when I started at Housing, it was
still named a predominantly white institution. So my sophomore year, I kept seeing
the trend that I was, you know, one of three black women in
my classes, and I just noticed small things, you know, like being
overlooked, whether that just be my ideas or my thoughts, or honestly being
completely ignored. Like I really literally stood in front of somebody in one of
my classes my junior year and I was like, hey, can I be
a part of your group? And I was completely it was like I was
invisible, just completely not seeing you know. I know I wasn't the only
woman experiencing that at Chilton because you know, I see a few of us
as just a sprinkle of us, and you know, I get outside of
my classrooms and I'm like, oh, you're studying, Like oh crazy,
kay? I know you know, so I honestly I went home one night
and I said the prayers to God and I asked God to use me to
make a difference, and Sister Scripters was born. And honestly, I always
say that say this, that the mission statement, the vision statement, even
down to the color palette that we use on our Instagram, that all came
from a prayer. You know, it all came from the Holy Spirit.
And I just really took that vision and I just honestly ran with it.
That's that's amazing. There's something about what you just said as far as being
ignored and being overlooked, and you mentioned something about, you know, it
just being your thoughts or it's so funny because and it's also you know,
it's it's it's exhausting, but it's something that as as black people that we
have to deal with, and that's to have these antennas up and you know
there's people out there to be like, oh, you're just always looking for
you know something to pen race on. It's like no, like we There
was a quote that James Baldwin said and in a documentary I watched, watched,
and he said something about like h and I'm paraphrasing here, like if
we don't have these antennas up, we can die. Going into a store
and being you know, waited on and then being told something that I wanted
behind the counter that it was a different price than what was advertised, and
I was just like, you can't do that, like you have to honor
the price. And this guy was just being you know, I rate with
me, and I'm just like, I don't understand what's going on here.
And so I was explaining this to a white colleague and I was like,
I was like, I feel like that was a racist thing to do.
Like he you know, you have this price advertising all of a sudden,
on the whim, you want to change it because you see it's me And
he was like, well, how do you know it's racial? Blah blah
blah blah blah. I started going into all that, and I'm just like,
man, I've been black all my life. You know I can tell
when when attitudes and behavior change because I have that intent up. And it's
because I've had to have that intenta. It's not that I want it,
Like I'd love to not have to worry about stuff like that. I love
not to you know, have that on my on my mind twenty four seven,
whether or not you know, someone did something to me because of race,
Like who wants to? I actually live like that, right, uh,
And it's exhausting because some things aren't as blatant and as as direct as
you know, some people think they ought to be. They think that you
know, hey, you know if they didn't call you to any word,
and how can you say it's race? Like, that's not how that works,
right? So I found that you know what you were saying about that,
like I've had that happened to me in workplaces before, where someone would
come and ask me a question and I would give them an answer with confidence,
and they would go right next and ask my white counterpart and they would
say the same thing, and they just you know, okay, cool,
Yeah, it must be right, And it's like I just told you that.
So that's that's so definitely right, I mean, And that right there
is why community is important, because you could vent about those things and then
you can also understand and learn how to how to deal with that as well.
So let me ask you what what does support look like within the group?
What types of things are you all doing to help one another. We
are sisterhood and that's what we pushed the most, So we support each other
as a sister should. So I loving one another, encouraging each other,
two rejourn goals, you know, whether that be by offering wisdom, mentorship,
sponsorship. In our slack community, we have Internships and Opportunities channel where
we just post internships, like people send me stuff, people send other people
things around campus events, networking opportunities, job opportunities, whatever it may be.
We're posting that there, like we are letting you know, each other
know what's going on. We're keeping each other on the up and up.
Yeah. I love it. Yeah, I mean that's that's important, UM,
because sometimes it's it's not about you know, sometimes it's not just you
know, the tech part of it. It's it's about the other things that
come along with it, like letting each other know about an event or a
job or an internship or you know, any anything like that. UM.
And that's huge because that alone can bring other opportunities to that person and the
group as well. Yeah, so let me what are some of like any
major achievements like with with the group, some of you know, a story
or something that you feel that was just like, oh wow, that was
incredible that happened with the group. Well, honestly, for one, just
being able to gather black women, you know, all the black women are
a good amount of black women studying technology in one room is a huge accomplishment.
I honestly cannot tell you how many times I've heard, wow, I
didn't know there was this many black women studying technology, Like oh, that
makes me feel so good that people are seeing people are seeing you know,
and it's just shocking because, like I said before, it is a lot
of us studying technology at Towson, but for some reason, we just don't
be seeing each other in our classrooms. And I don't really know why that
is. Honestly, what I will say is, as you get higher up
in this major as house university, you know, you start to see yourself
less and less. When you start offering your introductory classes, you know,
you see other people that look like you, You see other black men,
other black women. But then as you get higher. It just seems like
they start, they drop off, or they switch their majors to especially when
it comes to the retention rate of computer science, like people will start with
computer science then drop offs to it or I asked, and there's something wrong
with that, But like we want to see, you know, we want
to help that retention rate with black women studying CS and engineering. You know.
So that alone this is a super big accomplishment. But to add on
to that, last year, I was invited to speak out at Game teenth
event that we that Test University held and so I presented our goals and we
were able to choose all three of our goals, some more, some a
little bit more than others. So one of the goals was to grow our
sisters professional brands, and so we posted various workshops to help grow their professional
brands like LinkedIn workshops, resume workshops, at an application party. One of
our biggest accomplishments from that was we had a speed Networking event. And the
speed Networking event is where students were able to enter our competition and they were
judged on how well they networked with a variety of employers. So we had
employers there from g D I t Uber mid Atlantic like. They were also
like some of our huge sponsors, so we were able to give away scholarships
to for winners of that competition. So that was a huge, huge accomplishment
and honestly, the our vice president at the time did an amazing job with
that. In addition to that, we also extended our outreach to about to
our country public schools, working with K through twelve students to support STEM education.
And then we also extended our community to support other majors. So we
have a sprinkle of different majors that aren't tech. So we have some math
majors, we have UM like uh, political science, communications, nursing,
biology, We got a sprinkle, and I want to definitely try to expand
that. That is very good. Congrats on all them. Yeah, thank
you so much. And I love that you are are reaching out to other
professions or other other industries as well, because you know, nowadays the way
you know tech is as prevalent as ever. I mean, there's there's a
tech in all those industries, UM, and so you all can help one
another like there. It's so funny because I worked for a retail company and
during that time I got to see like the inner workings of you know,
the technology infrastructure that they were using, and also you know, some of
the things that they were working on coming down a pipe, things to research
and development. And I had a person I was mentoring. They hit me
up one day and said, you know, hey, you know, I
want to get your opinion or your advice on something. I interview for this
this retailer and I interview for this other one. He was like, but
I don't know about this retailer, like that's all they do is sell groceries.
And I was just like, oh no, Like, you know,
tech is incorporated in just about every industry nowadays. And I was like,
you'd be surprised at the technology that they're using at this place, So don't
write them off because you think, you know, on the face of it,
you look like that all they do is sell groceries. On the back
end of it, like, there's a lot of technology and a lot of
uh like groundbreaking stuff that they're doing. And with that advice, he ended
up you know, going and taking taking a position with that with that company.
Me. But I say that to say, you know, when you
bring in other industries and other people from other industries, they can actually you
know, open other people's minds to these industries and the technology that they use
within those industries. Yeah, and I feel like there's gonna come a time
when coding is going to be something like one in the basic like a basic
language we have to learn, like in addition to us learning reading, writing,
you know, math, Like, we're gonna have to start learning some
basic coding. So everyone, everyone will benefit from learning something about tech.
Yeah, I agree, I agree, especially with AI. Uh yeah,
but that also gives people an opportunity, you know, with AI on a
rise, like, it gives people an opportunity to utilize the AI to help
them learn how to code as well. Yeah. You know this the United
States globally, but here in the United States specifically, you've seen cities that
have really changed as far as the industry that they rely on for their their
economy. Right. You know, you have towns and our cities and in
southeast areas that were coal mining towns that have been hit really hard because you
know, coal mining isn't what it was, you know, fifty sixty years
ago or even twenty years ago. Right. Then you have you know,
with automation everything like that, and then you have cities that were you know,
relied on you know, the automotive industry for a lot of their things,
and now since that becomes more automated, now you need people in these
positions that can fix the machines and you know, code the machines that actually
are took their jobs, so to speak. Right, So that's only going
to continue. And I mean that's only been within the past twenty or thirty
years. Just think how it's going to be just in the next ten years.
Things are to change dramatically because tech, you know, builds upon itself
and begins to grow exponentially. So all the technology that we have now,
the tech it's going to becoming in the future is going to build off of
everything that we've established. If people, you know, there's people out there
that may think that certain sect of people are taking my job, so to
speak, like that, it's it's really a lot of automation. Yeah,
and you can see that just and and I went to us that Pania the
other day. Oh okay, so you know, like Pania used to used
to have several cash registers open and things like that, and now I walk
in and there's four kiosk Really, yeah, like you you just people come
in and you touch used the Kiosk to touch screens to enter your order,
You pay for it there and then you're just go and pick it up,
like there's one person that at the register and that's it. You know,
it's not again people, it's not people taking it's like it's it's automation.
It's computers, it's technology. And the more that grows, the more we're
gonna need, you know, people to be able to code code them.
So what's up everyone? We hope that you're enjoying this episode of the Blacks
and Technology BIT tech Talk podcast. Do you or someone you know have a
dope story that they want to share with our bit audience? Blocks and Technology
is seeking guests to be on our podcast. We're looking to highlight the journeys
and experiences of black women and men in the tech industry. So if you
know of someone, send them our way, shoot us an email to contact
us a Blacks and Technology dot net, or click on the link in the
show notes and fill out our form. We're looking to hear from you,
so tell us a little bit about you. Know. You stated that you
work with other orcs on and off campus to provide a space for warm and
a color attack give us some details to into that world. On campus.
We actually partnered with this organization called to Use Stem Excellence to STEM Excellence and
so they support STEM education as well. And so this is actually the last
month. Yeah, a few weeks ago we partnered with them to teach high
school or to really mentor young high school UH African American girls to build mygal
robotics. And so they were a part of you know, Baltimore Counting Hi
Schools and so me and a few of my other sisters we got to sit
on a small panel and do a Q and A with the girls to help
them, help guide them on their journeys and to STEM, but also just
being able to be there to you know, mentor them while they're building their
robox and like coding them and seeing them explore or just that, I don't
know, that's super exciting to me. That's I don't know, maybe that's
the teacher at me. But also who we partnered with the b Org and
so the b Organ is a youth development program actually founded by Tony Lawson and
she was a TAUS and alumnu. And so they hosted an event here on
tauson called tech called tech Con, where middle school and high school students were
able to come and build you know, robot car. So this was a
little bit more advanced than legal robotics, but because not only were they building
the robots, but they were also programming them. So they had like actual
CPU chips that they had to place, you know, on the actual robots
and then that moved you know, of course that made the robots moving things.
And so I don't know, the kids, you know, enjoyed this
activity as well. And I just, like I said before, I really
love working with KI through self students because you get to see their faces really
like it up when they're doing something that they enjoy. And then like you
know, I would ask them like, oh, it's just something that you're
interested in. It's just something that you want to do, and they're like,
yeah, this is what I want to do. And I'm like wow,
like you're in middle school, Like this is exactly where I was,
and I got interested and I just know, like you know, from that
interest, from that peak being able to do super cool activities and events like
this, like they're gonna be able to They're just gonna ride off that momentum,
and that's always going to be something that comes back up in their mind
as they're growing and you know, before they get into their college career and
it's like, oh, yeah, this is something that I did that I
really enjoy and this is something that I also might want to study. That
is that's what motivates me. I love that. That's incredible and that's huge.
It's earlier exposure is so important. And not only do the exposure,
but to just provide them with options to you know, to decide whether or
not they want to go into you know, stam um and a lot of
them you know, probably would if they were exposed to it. That's the
issue is is that a lot of our young black kids are are not exposed
early um. And then not only that, you know, having you teach
them is a totally different experience. It's it's there is someone there that is
that represents me, who is teaching me, and now they see you as
you know, they might they might view you as a genius at that like,
oh this person is a genius. Wow, I could be a genius
I could, you know, like and then that right there is the spark
that's needed, uh to allow them or to enable them to pursue or even
just have that the notion that I can't pursue this. So, you know,
being involved with the youth is a huge thing. I'm glad that you
know. That's something that you're also doing. So you so you recently accepted
a position as a systems engineer through the North north Where does that Northrop Grummans
Pathway program? Yes, tell us a little bit about that program, and
you know what, tell us a little bit about you know, what type
of work that you're expecting to do us as a sistems engineer. Well,
honestly, supers were very excited to work at North Rope, like I'm excited.
So I actually got the job. At the data conference in February.
I got connected with some really cool connections. The team just amazing. I
think they also actually I'm not even gonna say that because I don't want to
say I don't want to say they got the wrong award. But anyway,
yeah, so I met them at the data conference and I made some really
cool connections and they really helped me to um, you know, receive this
opportunity. So the Pathways program is a through your rotational program and it's for
entry levels engineers to help you acquire the text field. Those are the foundational
professional skills that you need in order to be a successful engineer at north Front.
And so, you know, I'm as a systems engineer. I'll be
working with hardware and software and that is super exciting for me because you know,
I tell something, you don't really get that opportunity to work hands on
with like hardware, you know, like that heavy engineering equipment, and that
is really exciting. You know, I'm computer science major, but I'm more
interested on the I'm interested on the higher level computing or the more engineering heavy
stuff. So I'm very excited about that. And I'll be working in the
mission systems sectors. So yeah, very cool. That sounds pretty exciting.
Um, I was a systems engineer for a number of years, so you
were definitely, especially if they have a lot on TRAM on premises equipment,
like you know, they have that data center and things like that, you'll
definitely get you know, quote unquote get your hands dirty with with that.
And then hopefully they're they're they're doing stuff in the cloud as well. Right,
They're like they're building infrastructure in the cloud and you get to experience UH
that aspect of it because there there's a lot of cool things that you can
do with UM with infrastructure that is hosted in the cloud. So there you
can bring your your development chops into play when it comes to that, because
you can now build infrastructure using UH certain tooling tools that they call infrastructure as
code UH and and all it is you writing code on how to provision UH
this infrastructure in the cloud. So you get to you know, stay on
top of your you know, your cop side development UH skills as well as
you know, get your hands dirty with actual hardware. So that would be
pretty Do you have a product or service that you would like to share with
a bit audience or maybe you'd like to support the bit community and do your
part in helping us with stomping the divide. Start by sponsoring one of our
podcasts. Please email us at contact us at blacks and Technology dot net.
So tell me what's what's next for you? What's next for our sister scriptures?
Where where do you kind of see that in the future. So in
addition to working out North Rope, I am actually growing After I graduate,
I'll be worked on growing sister scriptures into a nonprofit organization, which we'll be
able to help give back to our members financially. So you know, there's
not a lot of grants and scholarships, at least at House University that support
black woman and studying technology. Actually, um there's none specifically for African American
women's the name technology. And so I want to be able to just really
help our members in that way. But I also want to you know,
expand the organization to other campuses, Accrostination. But at first, I want
to start first. I want to start in Maryland. In addition to that,
I'll be working on getting my masters in math, not immediately after I
graduate, but maybe a year or so down the line. I want to
get my masters in math and then get my PhD to become a professor,
so the high school teacher turn into a professor. Yeah, that's very cool.
Well, I'll say this if you if you have any questions about nonprofit
stuff, you can always hit me up, email me. I'll be happy
to share knowledge that I have so that you know you are armed with with
with the knowledge because right having a nonprofit is not it's not easy. But
like that, there's a lot of things you you need to have in place
to protect yourself and protect the organization. So just hit me up if you
need any any any advice, right, thank you so much. Like I
don't know, this is I have a tendency to be like, oh yeah,
I want to do this, like even just getting a masters in math,
Like I tell people these things, and like what a masters in math?
Like I know what i want to do, and I know I'm going
to do it, but I don't know all that I'm getting myself into.
Well, that's gonna happens. That's that's the beauty of a journey, right,
Yeah, you don't know. It's like, um, I'll say this,
you never know what's going to become of what you do. All you
can do is kind of dream big and then try to take the steps to
make that a reality. And I say that because when I when I found
it Blocks and Technology. Initially, the first iteration was a blog. It
was me just wanting to get out there that hey, there are black people
in this in this industry, and this is some of the cool work that
I'm doing. Right, I just wanted to kind of put a stamp on
on that. And then as it grew and went from that to a community
site. So we were, you know, just had an online community with
a where you could post questions. We had like a forums, and we
had an embedded chat. There was a social media aspect to it where you
can come and create a profile, all that type of stuff, and it
was really just to kind of just build community. And at the time,
I was like, you know what if I get about two hundred and fifty
maybe five hundred black people as part of this community, I'll see that as
success. Now, dude, I want us do something even more. Yeah,
of course I did. But you know, the idea that has to
be like an initial idea, and then there's you just kind of see where
things fall, right, and as things started to grow, you started you
know, making adjustments and changes to the growth. And then you know,
I wanted to I had this idea to say, hey, you know,
if we did a conference, this is kind of how I would want this
conference to go. But I never thought that I would. I should have
never thought. I didn't know how to get there. And then these opportunities
just started coming my way. And you know, you can you know,
say that that's the energy out there, that's God happening, right like it
was like, oh, like somebody presented the opportunity to me. I'm like,
you know what, I've been thinking about a conference for years, and
this is how I wanted it to go. And Okay, that sounds great,
let's do it. And those things just tend to tend to happen.
So you you, you know, speaking it into existence to me is real.
And so for you, you know, saying hey, I want to
you know, I want to get around. I don't know how. Yeah,
just just say it and you'll figure you'll figure it out along the journey.
And now you know, ben Is is global. We have seventy something
chapters and twenty something countries with over twenty five thousand plus members, right,
And I was something that you know, it just started as me just wanting
to have two hundred and fifty to five hundred people. So you know,
you have to start somewhere. You have to speak into existence and then along
the way, you know, as long as you keep that positive mindset and
you keep that growth mindset, you're you're fine. How to do it?
It'll So I want to. I haven't done this in a while, um,
and I thought it would be cool to to kind of start this back
up with you, uh some lightning questions? I have what one, two,
three, four, five of them? The first question is your favorite
tech movie? Definitely Hitting Figures, Definitely Hitting Thing Okay nice? Yeah,
yeah, favorite tech person in history. Her name is actually doctor Amafadon,
doctor Amory Amafadon. She's actually from London. She's a faund of stems and
she's worked Basically, she has the same a very similar misius statement as the
Subscriptors, where she's empowering the next narration of women stem She also has a
book called She's in Control that I love. It is how women can take
back amazing Okay, I'll have to check that out. Or a person that
inspires you the most, Honestly, I would have to say Jesus, Like
my faith is huge, My faith is huge? Yeah? Nice? Nice.
What is your dream job? It used to be NASA, but now
it would be working as in the Space System sector at Northrup. Okay,
very cool. And your dream place to live? I would definitely stay in
the DMB. But I want to own a farm. Really, yes,
I want to own a small farm. Wow. It's funny that you say
that, because it's like, you know, people usually think as farms as
super low tech. So being a techie person and just I just want a
farm that's pretty that's pretty cool. It's kind of the opposite. But well,
I guess not like it all depends. Like I went too way a
place up in Columbus, Ohio called Kosi. Uh it's a it's a like
a science like institute like slash museum. Uh, and they had a display.
I took my son, my wife and my son's up there, and
they had a display of uh these this farm equipment that was self drivable farm
equipment, right, and they were huge, like huge tractors and whatever,
balers and all that stuff. Uh, and they were all autonomous. I
thought that was so farms, farms probably aren't as low tech as I as
I'm saying, but I'm pretty sure like nowadays, you know, I'm uh,
I know it's probably depended upon you know, the money that you have
to run a farm things like that, but farms getting you know, autonomous
you know, tractors and all that stuff. They're here already. And that
was a few years I was probably like in twenties eighteen or twenty nineteen.
So I'll tell them how far they've come now so good Yeah, good luck
on that far far. Yeah. I just I just love animals. I
loved how I lived behind a farm actually, oh really like a huge farm.
Yeah wow wow, Well, Malia, I want to thank you for
for joining us on the bit tech Talk podcast. It was it was great
speaking with you, great hearing your journey, um, you know, hearing
about Sister Scripts and the mission that you have there. Uh. And I
wish you nothing but the best in the future. Thank you so much for
having me. Thank you, Take care, luck in technology, in technology,
lights and technology, white wax and technology, lights and technology, white
wacks and technology,