This is one of the most inspirational Campus Celebrities I have ever done. Thais Correia ’16 is one of the kindest and most caring people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. In her interview, she talks about her amazing story from getting into Amherst, spreading the love of coding to young women, how to get underrepresented groups in the computer science field and more! A must-read for everyone!
Where are you from?: I was born in Recife, which is a city on the northeastern coast of Brazil. When I was 7, my family moved to Miami and lived there for 7 years. We went back to Brazil when I was 14, but I wanted to go to school in the U.S. so I moved back to Miami two years later.
How does the weather of your home compare to Amherst?: Both Miami and Recife have tropical climates, although Recife has a dry season, unlike Miami! So I’ve always lived in really hot and mostly humid places. Actually, I had never seen snow falling before coming to Amherst. Winter in Miami is the perfect weather in my opinion – sunny, breezy, and around 70 °F.
Why did you choose to attend Amherst?: It’s a long story. First off, I am an undocumented student. My ten-year visa expired about two and half years ago, right when I was waiting for college decisions to come out. I knew this would happen, so I applied as an international student to schools that were need-blind and full-need for international students. That’s only about eight schools in the whole country, and Amherst is one of them. I was either waitlisted or denied by all of those schools.
At the time, my dream school was MIT, where I was waitlisted. One day, they announced that they were not taking anyone from the waitlist. I was crushed, so I made a post on a college forum asking if maybe I should keep trying because if I didn’t go to school somewhere that Fall, I’d have to go back to Brazil. I explained on the forum that I was undocumented so I couldn’t work, and had no money to support myself so I couldn’t take a gap year.
Almost immediately, an admissions officer from MIT who frequently posted on that forum commented on my post. It said “Hi, I know who you are, I was the person who reviewed your application. Don’t worry about anything, I’m going to e-mail you right now.” And he did!
He e-mailed me, asked if he could call me, this was around midnight by the way, and we talked on the phone for an hour. He explained that the admissions office wanted to accept me almost unanimously, but MIT had a policy of not accepting undocumented students, a policy that this particular officer was trying to change. He asked me where else I had been waitlisted and I gave him the list, which included Amherst.
He didn’t tell me why he wanted to know, but the next day I was off the waitlist from Amherst! Honestly, this was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I think a smaller school that allows for closer relationships with professors suits me. That’s something I didn’t realize my senior year of high school. Also, the open curriculum is the BEST. I stayed in touch with that admissions officer from MIT and my sophomore year, he said he succeeded in getting the school to lift their ban on undocumented students and that I should apply to transfer. I never did. I’m pretty happy where I am!
What inspired you to pursue Computer Science?: I was extremely fortunate because my high school offered AP Computer Science. I was really involved in the math honor society at that time, and the sponsor for the club taught AP CS. A lot of my math club friends were also in it, so I decided to take it my senior year. I actually hated Computer Science at first! It was boring, confusing, and I was totally lost. My then-boyfriend (Henry Laney ‘17) and my friends helped me through that stage and eventually everything just clicked.
I know you worked with Girls Who Code this summer, can you tell me more about that?: Girls Who Code is a non-profit organization that aims to close the gender gap in technology. Currently, only about 20% of computer engineers in the U.S. are women. To help fix this, Girls Who Code offers free summer programs in several U.S. cities to teach high school girls Computer Science. I was a Teaching Assistant in the program’s pioneer Miami program which ran for 7 weeks, every weekday, from 8 am to 5 pm. It was a huge time commitment on the girls’ part but it was so worth it! They came out knowing more than a semester’s worth of college-level Computer Science (probably more like two) and with skills in Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery.
It was such a fulfilling summer for me too. At the beginning of the program, fourteen out of the sixteen girls in the class didn’t even know what Computer Science WAS! They just knew they had an interest in using technology to change the world. By the end of the program, all sixteen girls said they wanted to pursue Computer Science in college! They also came out of the program having built amazing projects – one group coded a facial recognition app to lock sensitive information on your phone. Another created a child car seat that texts parents if they forget their kid in the car and the temperature starts to rise. Another group used speech-recognition to make earphones light up and vibrate when someone calls the user’s name.
These girls were so inspirational to me. I still talk to them every day and hearing about what they’re doing with what they learned this summer, seeing how their confidence has grown so much, and being part of this awesome bond motivates me to keep striving for a more diverse and inclusive tech world.
What do you think it takes to get more women and people of color in the computer science?: This is so hard to answer fully, but I think we have to approach this issue from several angles. Here are what I think are the biggest problems:
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In a time where technology is a part of every minute of our lives, the number of elementary, middle, and high schools that even offer Computer Science or programming classes is ridiculously small. The ones that offer such classes tend to be in wealthy, white neighborhoods.
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In elementary school, boys and girls enjoy Computer Science at nearly equal rates (68% and 66%). As they grow up, girls are told in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that technical pursuits are masculine, boring, hard, etc. Only 0.3% of high school girls express an interest in Computer Science.
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90% of girls say they “want to help people” in their careers, but think that “Computer Science doesn’t help people.” Most girls also associate Computer Science with the stereotypical nerdy dude tapping away at his keyboard, alone in a dark room surrounded by piles of empty energy drink cans.
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Think of the ‘celebrity faces’ you associate with technology, Computer Science, or programming. The vast majority of the people you pictured are white and/or male, right? There are not enough prominent role models for women and minorities to look up to in tech. They exist! But they aren’t well known.
So, what are the fixes?
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Make sure everyone has equal access to Computer Science by pushing for schools to make it part of their curriculum. Have outreach programs, like Girls Who Code and All Star Code, which is a similar program aimed at young men of color.
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Teach Computer Science and programming in the context of social issues. I’ve seen my peers build amazing things with their programming knowledge, things like apps that feed the homeless and websites that raise funds for natural disaster victims. Recently, a team at a hackathon built a mobile browser that let’s anyone with an SMS-capable phone to access the internet – no data plan needed! This is huge for people in developing countries or countries that censor web traffic.
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Break down the stereotypes. Programming is an incredibly social pursuit, as well as a phenomenal creative outlet and, like I said above, a tool that is capable of effecting so much positive change in the world. But most people don’t see it like that.
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Along with breaking down stereotypes, we need to highlight the amazing women and minority engineers already in the field so that younger generations can know that “YES, you belong here!”
Would you participate in a program like this again in the future?: Short answer: YES! Long answer: YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! If you are interested in working for Girls Who Code next summer, e-mail me at tcorreia16@amherst.edu ! Dudes and dudettes and all other identities are welcome!
Speaking about the future, what are you future plans for the rest of your time at Amherst and beyond?: My time at Amherst is going by too fast. I can’t believe it’s been two years already! My plan is to enjoy every minute of the rest of it. As for after Amherst? I change my mind on that matter every day. Lately, I’ve been interested in the intersection of Computer Science and Environmental Science and how we can use computing to mitigate issues related to climate change. I’ve been looking around at grad schools with Environmental Computing programs, as well as at startups whose goals align with mine in this field.
Outside of your major, what other passions do you have?: I’m kind of obsessed with ‘being productive’ so I follow a lot of productivity blogs and read books on the subject. I read a lot about the psychology behind maintaining a focused mind, speed reading techniques, time management, things like that. To relax, I like to watch anime and play video games, mostly action/RPG’s. I LOVE tabletop games too, like Catan, Munchkin, Set, and my favorite: A Game of Thrones: The Board Game. I would also call my feelings toward Pita Pockets ‘passion’.
If you could give advice to large number of people, what would you say?: Every night as you’re going to bed, stop for a bit to think about all the good things that happened that day and everything that you’re thankful for. Maybe the weather was beautiful, or you ran into someone you hadn’t talked to in a while, or Val had ice cream. Maybe a stranger gave you a compliment, or you read something thought-provoking, or a new season of Orange is the New Black came out. Then, think of someone in the world and wish them the same good fortune you have. It could be someone you love, a friend, that guy in your calc class whose name you know but have never really talked to, someone you despise, or a someone you’ve never met (I like to send good thoughts to the president of Uruguay). Do this ESPECIALLY if you had a bad day.