Women in STEM: Morgan Vickery, Computer Science

Morgan Vickery is pursuing her degree in Computer Science degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Here she shares a little about her career and the inspiration behind it.

What is your specific area of STEM?
Computer Science

How would you explain your STEM field to young girls?
I study how to write instructions that computers can understand, interpret, and use to create programs.
 
What traits might a child possess that may indicate an interest or aptitude for your STEM field?
Personally, I always enjoyed puzzles, strategy games, Risk, poker, card games, video games, and all sorts of brain teasers!

What did you know about your STEM field when you were a child? 
I knew nothing! Nobody in my family was really involved in STEM - I discovered it after I came to college. 
 
Why did you choose your STEM field? Were you inspired by someone?
I was struggling to find something that I was passionate about. I was always very left-brained but enjoyed the arts, so when I accidentally enrolled myself in an 'Introduction to Programming' course, I felt like a whole new world of academia and creation had been opened up to me!  I found computer science to be the perfect balance of logic and inspiration.

What are some really cool things that people in your profession work on? 
You can make video games, make tools for students with learning/cognitive disabilities, program robots, and help people in other fields make groundbreaking research!

What inspirational message would you give young girls to inspire them to pursue STEM? 
Those who pursue STEM fields have SO many doors open to them to help people! With a STEM degree, you can truly make a difference in the world around you!
 
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Thank you for contributing, Morgan!

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