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“I was getting looks like ‘Are you sure you can do this?’” Venkatesh recalls. “Every time I was in a competition with two or three boys on my team, everyone would speak to them and not me. That’s not a good feeling.”

Intrigued by possibilities

After a year and a half in the program, Venkatesh was given the opportunity to try coding, and she realized that she had found her passion.

“They didn’t trust me with it because I was so young,” Venkatesh says. “But by expanding the limits of what the robots could do, I fell in love with tech because I realized there’s so many directions to explore.”

Venkatesh, who has lived in Dubai, India, and Singapore, continued her exploration through the club and a high school coding class. Realizing she wanted to pursue a Bachelor of Computer Science, she began looking at international options, and �鶹��ý emerged as her preferred choice.

“What excited me was there was so much research going on at Dal with so many aspects to it,” Venkatesh explains. “That gave me opportunities to figure out where I wanted to be.”

Support opens doors of opportunity

As an international student, Venkatesh was somewhat preoccupied with living expenses and paying her tuition. She considered a part-time job but was concerned it would compromise her studies, so she submitted several applications for financial support. Her hard work was rewarded with the WeAreAllCS Women in Technology Scholarship, a donor-supported fund that offers students access to both financial assistance and professional development opportunities.

“That took a major burden off me because I didn’t have to take several jobs on the side that might not have anything to do with tech,” Venkatesh says.

“I was able to explore my interests and achieve my goals, and I am very grateful to donors for that opportunity.”

Supported by the scholarship, Venkatesh became a student ambassador for , a student-led computer science sandbox designed to develop a new generation of innovators. “I got to plan and manage the entire , which helps students take their tech startup ideas to the next level,” she says. “That was a great experience for me because of the skills I got to learn.”

The scholarship also opened the door for Venkatesh to represent the Faculty of Computer Science at the Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing Conference in Toronto in October 2024. “That was a life-changing event because I made connections with so many inspiring and influential women in tech,” she says. “None of that would have happened without the support of donors because I wouldn’t have had the time to meet the qualifications.”

Inspiring a new generation

Inspired by these experiences, and the support she has received, Venkatesh is helping to mentor a new generation of women in computer science. She hosted a workshop to introduce high school students to the world of cybersecurity. “It’s a booming area but it’s barely spoken about unless you are paying a lot of money for a course,” she says. “Several students told me they had no idea how easy it is to enter the field, so it feels good to share these possibilities with them.”

Now in her second year, Venkatesh has found her place in financial tech and has lined up a work term at Morgan Stanley. She wants to help more women find their place too. “I want them to know it is easy and they can achieve whatever they set out to do,” she says.