Her Story
About Grace
I work as an executive assistant at City College of San Francisco, where I've been for 19 years in the education industry. My job requires me to be a people person and a problem solver - I really love the problem-solving part. I've been the assistant for probably 11 or 12 chancellors in the last 10 years, which shows how stressful the job can be at the district. I always work well with my superiors and want to really support my boss. Six years ago, nobody wanted to take the board clerk job, which required sitting through 6 to 8 hours of board meetings and finishing the minutes. I stepped in to support my chancellor, and I told myself there should be a better way to finish the minutes compliantly. That's where I started developing the app that's being used right now by a lot of my colleagues in California. As a developer, I've been developing apps for about 7 years now. Even though I'm an assistant, my love is really to develop and build something. I refuse to believe that I'm stuck - there are a lot of people who think that if you work in an admin, that's it, your life is over and you just have to wait for retirement because of the golden handcuffs, but it's not true. You can always search and be good at your hobby and actually be useful. Most recently, just two weeks ago, I was chosen as one of 500 people out of 20,000 to compete in a hackathon and develop an app for a whole week. My app was one of only 200 chosen by Anthropic, and I had to compete with people from 76 countries. I'm proud of the patent I developed for the app I built - that's my most notable professional achievement as a developer.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Grace
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Being persistent is actually a really good thing to have, or as a quality to have. Because sometimes, when you want something, it's almost impossible that you get to, you know, you get it in such a short time. But if you're being persistent, like, especially when it comes to learning and getting what you want, eventually you're gonna get what you want. I just think that even though I'm an assistant, if my love is really to develop and build something, anybody who's there just like me, we can do this. There's a lot of people that thinks that if you work in an admin, and that's it, your life is over, and you just have to wait for retirement because of the golden handcuffs, but it's not true. You can always search and be good at your hobby, and actually be useful.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Paying it forward is really important to me. I didn't grow up rich, but when I was growing up, I hoped that there would be somebody who could just believe in me and support me, and all throughout my life, I found those people. Those people didn't really want anything back from me, and so I told myself that to pay them for all the goodness and how they supported me, I'll do the same to the women. I can see how it can get so addicting - I'm kind of proud of myself every time they finish. One is going to be graduating as a nursing next year, so I'm kind of excited about that. I always work well with my superiors and want to really support my boss - being a problem solver and a partner for the chancellor is what they really want.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · California
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.