Episode 18 – A woman who codes is a woman who rocks

Sara’s Bio:
Sara Inés Calderón is a journalist and writer who lives between Texas and California. Follow her on Twitter @SaraChicaD.
Episode Transcript and Show Notes:
Arsalan: Today we have Sara Ines Calderon with us. How are you doing today?
Sara: Hi. I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me.
Arsalan: It’s exciting to have you here with us today because you went from being a journalist who transitioned into software development. You are going through struggles just like we all do, but you have your unique struggles. I want to talk about that and about your role with Women Who Code. But, before we do that, I want to know about you. How do you see yourself?
Sara: Sure, so I started out as a journalist and I’m currently a software developer. But, like most people, I have many layers. I grew up partly in Los Angeles and partly in Texas. So, I think that gives me a really unique perspective on culture and things like that. I work with Women Who Code and consider myself a kind of community organizer. A few years ago, I also started a platform to talk about Latinos who work in stem and technology called MasWired. I also love nail art and dangling earrings. I am currently a software developer in Austin, Texas and I freelance for different outlets like Bice and TechCrunch. In my spare time I do a lot of community organizing with Women Who Code. I have a really great group of awesome tech women here in Austin who keeps me on my toes.
Arsalan: I’m thinking about all the different things you’re doing currently. It’s one thing to say “I used to do this and now I do that,” but you’re doing all those things. Clearly, you don’t need to sleep.
Sara: I’m also super organized.
Arsalan: Well, you would have to be and that something that’s really amazing. I wish I could be that organized. How did you organize yourself so that you can do all these different things? Clearly, you have a secret that we would all like to know.
Sara: Okay.
Arsalan: First, I want to talk to you about how you encountered programming for the first time. Why was programming even a thing that you wanted to do? How did you get started?
Sara: I think back to when I first used the Internet back in the 90s. That was when AOL was mailing all of those CDs so that people could get a dial-up Internet connection pretty easily. I was only 12. I think of all of these kids these days. When they are 12, they are often starting up million-dollar Internet companies.
Sara: Fast-forward to when I was in high school. I was a nerdy AP honors kid here in San Antonio. I had friends in my classes who were in AP computer science. I remember hearing them talk and thinking to myself “what is that?” Then, I went to Stanford for my undergrad and one of my jobs was to record proto-online education at Stanford’s Instructional online Television Network. So, I used to be a kind of booth operator for those cameras for these classes.
Sara: I was exposed to these different computer science classes and I was only half paying attention when I was trying to do my reading or whatever. I thought maybe I should try computer science. But, I now know that the number one major for women at Stanford is computer science. But, when I was there, my 18-year-old self was already far away from home and kind of on my own for the first time. I was trying to figure things out. I have this job and I need to pay these bills and all that kind of stuff. It really wasn’t all that realistic for me to foray into something so foreign and what I perceived to be unwelcoming at that point in my life.
Sara: Fast-forward more than 10 years later and I’m working at a digital media startup. I come to the conclusion after almost a decade of working in journalism and digital media that media had become technology and that was the direction that I needed to go. So, I started fiddling around with Code Academy.

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