The Spark behind WinC
- whotellsyourstoryu
- Jun 26, 2018
- 1 min read
Name: Pravallika Devineni
PhD Candidate in Computer Science, UCR
When I started as a PhD student in Computer Science at University of New Mexico in 2012, we had about 7 women in about 90 Ph.D. students. I was new to the U.S. and dealing with personal and grad life was extremely stressful. I was TAing a class of 50 grad students and taking on a full course load. UNM CS had four female professors who were successful and supportive. I remember going to a professor and crying because I felt like an impostor.
As time progressed, I co-founded Women In Computing (WinC) with my friend Amanda. During our first meeting, we discussed how some of us felt like impostors and it felt good to know that I am not alone. Then, I moved from UNM to UCR.
With encouragement from my co-advisor Vagelis, I wrote the objectives for WinC@UCR. Together with Computer Science undergrads, Karen and Katie, I co-founded WinC, which is now an active community at UCR, thanks to their efforts. WinC has speakers, events, and a hackathon among other activities, always with a side of pizza.
In a world where women are expected to be natural nurturers and words like feminism and ambition get a bad rep, my goal is to bring people together to support one another. I am constantly amazed by the people I meet and proud of their accomplishments. I hope the community we’ve formed thrives while helping people in the process. It definitely did help me. Check us out at wincucr.org & on our social media @winc_ucr.
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