Her Story
About Monika
Monika Basnet is a junior at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, pursuing majors in computer science and biology. This past summer she interned at Salesforce, where she worked on the MapResponse project that connects health seekers, volunteers, and organizations during disasters to improve response times. She utilized technologies such as Postgres, React, Express, and Node.js along with publicly available APIs. Monika founded and serves as president of the Fisk Biotech Club, which explores intersections between biology and computer science. She is a provost scholar and honors student at Fisk University. Her achievements include attending the Harvard WeCode conference, receiving an invitation to Eli Lilly Discovery Day, and winning hackathons such as Design for Good, the Google Tech Challenge, and the JP Morgan Data for Good Hackathon. Monika attributes her success to the women in her life, including family and friends, who instilled values of curiosity, kindness, and problem-solving. She advises young women entering tech to explore boldly and lead without fear, noting the importance of greater female representation and shared experiences in the field.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Monika
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would like to attribute this success to the women in my life, as I mentioned earlier, like, I would not have been in this position without my family, like, are the women in my family. And also, like, my female friends, like, my other friends, and also, I think the values they taught me. To be curious, to be kind, and to find solution.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice that I would give is, don't be afraid to explore, don't be afraid to lead, don't be afraid to do anything, like, you can do anything you, like, put your mind into.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In tech, there are a lot more guys, so the thing I saw was, like, we approach things differently as a woman. In a lot more spaces, there are, like, really few women, and I think I still look for, like, some womanly bond when I'm doing my work in tech, so it'd be a lot nicer if I could there could be more women, and we could share our experiences.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
It's going to be curiosity, creativity, and my family, for sure. And I think kindness. Kindness and empathy.
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