"I want to contribute all my skills and knowledge to either teaching other people code or to participate in the public sector..."
-Asmi Jafar
Author: Sumyrah Khan
August, 2021.
Maths just made sense to me. My brain’s mechanisms worked in binary codes and algorithms to solve problems. In school I only liked maths intensive classes or an extension of it, such as Computer Science.
Computer science fits perfectly between the Venn diagram of maths and creative problem-solving. I started intensively learning code and participating in various hack-a-thons and our team came into the top ten in the competition. Exploring more skills I got the opportunity to develop a web Application for one of News laundry's projects “Gender representation in Indian newsrooms” sponsored by UN women.
In my final year in college, I was awarded the “Grace Hopper Celebration India 2020 Student Scholarship' and that added to my confidence as a coder.
Being a young Muslim woman in tech forces, one has to proactively search for spaces and companies that are diverse and inclusive in workplaces. They also create a conducive environment for you to keep evolving and learning in this dynamic industry. Still, in the long run, I want to contribute all my skills and knowledge to either teaching other people code or to participate in the public sector and working on research papers and developing software that are altruistically motivated.