Chanel Power

I attribute my success to three things. One would definitely be my relationship with Christ. I don't believe that I would be where I'm at, not knowing where my identity lies. The second thing would be my mom, Sherrie. She is and was a single parent that overcame a life of domestic violence and showed me that there's more to life than your circumstance. Seeing her thrive and being a wonderful, incredible woman, having her own business, and helping other women through that has been amazing. And then the last thing I would say would just be putting in the work. I feel like some people, or just in general, sometimes it's easier to say you want something versus just putting in the work to actually get it. I'm not afraid of hard work, I'm not afraid of learning, I'm not afraid of trying, but I know that that comes from me knowing who I am in Christ and having a great foundation with the family that I have.

Honestly, I would say it really is a Bible verse versus something that somebody has told me. And that one would be Ephesians 2, verse 10, and it basically says that you are a masterpiece created to do good works for the people that you were called to serve. I just believe that with the work that I do with Mentor Me Collective, we have over 40,000 people in our community across the world, across 120 countries, and the way that we have the ability to provide them with access to education for free, we have the ability to help them with getting jobs. We've placed 600+ people into tech jobs totaling $47 million in compensation. When I think about my life, outside of being an engineer, it's really being this visionary who has a heart for social impact and sustainable goals. So I would say Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, would be mine, for sure.

I would honestly say to be yourself. I feel like, as women, we have a lot of folks tell us what to do. You know, don't talk too loud, don't be too bold, don't be too vocal. But unfortunately, when you enter the tech space, you can't play by those rules. You won't win. Being yourself, if you get into that space, it's because they do feel like you have the competency to communicate with vigor, to drive impact, to create spaces of influence. So the one thing I would say is to, one, be yourself, to know that feedback is a gift, so be open to feedback, because feedback is what sharpens you. And who you are, your difference is your advantage. Being open to feedback, or taking constructive criticism, understanding that it is a gift and it is not a verdict. And I think the last thing would just be to just master your field. Skills, like, you being a master in what you do, you can't be denied if you're the best.

I think technology changes at the speed of light. So having access to those specific tools, to those specific research content, those research papers, and being in rooms where you may have to have invitation-only kind of thing, right? I think just creating spaces where we democratize these spaces and remove the social and economic barriers really will help drive innovation even more forward. In terms of challenges, being underestimated has definitely been one. I am a first-generation technologist, so I didn't really start with connections or relationships, I had to build them on my own. Coming into the field, I have been very largely underestimated, and thankfully my work has spoken for itself. Another challenge would be overcoming my own insecurities, mental insecurities. We go through life, and there's so many labels that attach themselves to us, and so we go through life thinking that we need to live in that kind of identity. The biggest challenge has been being underestimated, honestly undervalued.

My top three values would definitely be faith, excellence, and innovation. Faith keeps me grounded when the odds don't make sense. Excellence helps me, or means that I don't ship mediocre, so meaning I don't operate in putting out anything that's mediocre or less than excellent, and it holds me to being accountable to that. And then innovation helps me to always ask, what if we tried things differently?