Her Story
About Esperanza
Esperanza Baquedano is a third-year information technology major with a computer science minor at Montclair State University in New Jersey. As a first-generation college student, she conducts software engineering research and serves as a CSAM ambassador representing the College of Science and Mathematics while also acting as an Amazon ambassador who teaches K-12 students across multiple states. She has participated in Harvard Recode, the NVIDIA developer program, ColorStack, Girls Who Code, and the Society of Cybersecurity for Women, and she holds ambassadorships with Capital One and Saturn. Her experience includes an internship as a software developer engineer at Amazon, computational research, and work as a Capital One scholar developing resources for first-generation students. In high school she attended a selective STEM school and captained her robotics team. She is a member of Sigma Delta Phi sorority, where she supports breast cancer awareness initiatives through the National Institution of Breast Cancer and works with the Life for Good organization.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Esperanza
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
First things first is to never give up. There are so many times I've doubted my capabilities and compared myself to other men in the room and being like, wow, like, I don't think I could do that. But definitely would be just to never give up and, like, to keep going for your goals. Like, at the end of the day, it's really just you. And you just have to push through, and like, if you need help, like, if anybody needs help, I always tell them this, like, just to reach out to me, find your own people, find your own, like, collection of what makes you really happy, and just keep pushing forward, because at the end of the tunnel, like, everything gets so much better, and as time progresses, things get easier.
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