Over the past year, more than 2 million women left the workforce at a rate four times higher than men. COVID-19 and its effects on the economy, the school system, and family dynamics have taken a disproportionate toll on working moms.

In August and September 2020, there was a sudden drop in the number of women with children in the workforce. The two groups with the largest workforce decline were women with two children and women whose oldest child is 2 to 6 years old.

As a female-founded and majority women-owned firm, Access Sciences strives to be a champion for working moms and their ability to balance work and home life. Our team would like to show support for all the dedicated, hard-working moms by highlighting some of our own:

THE WOMEN WHO CODE

Ashley Schilling, Project Manager | Houston, TX

Ashley grew up in a small town in Texas where her only exposure to the STEM field came from her older brother. Since he was 13 years older and already in the STEM field as a chemical engineer, he always pushed her to understand the more technical side of things.

“My interest was really based on my brother,” Ashley said. “From early on, he would always get me into gaming and show me things – like, ‘I’m making this.’ Or, ‘This is how this works.’”

While her brother inspired and shaped her interest in technology in the early years of her childhood, Ashley was first introduced to coding, specifically, when she joined her first social media platform – Myspace.

Instead of settling for a normal Myspace page, Ashley picked up on some HTML code so she could customize its background, add pictures, and move widgets around.

Even though Ashley became somewhat familiar with coding through the social media platform, she didn’t consider going into computer science until she was touring colleges to decide where she wanted to go.

During her college tour at Baylor University, she found out the school would offer additional scholarships for women interested in STEM majors. After hearing that, she decided to explore those majors a little bit more.

Then, when she visited the University of Houston (UH), she attended a computer science meeting, met people, and found out that program would also offer scholarships for women who wanted to join.

After that, Ashley made the decision to pursue a degree in Computer Science (Business Option) from UH, kicking off her career path.

“The computer science group did fun things – we would have a little booth and have student-made games set up,” Ashley said. “There were teams and some people would do the graphics and then others would design the actual game. It wasn’t like Pacman with just one little thing on the screen. It would be all decked out.”

Ashley had two internships during her time at UH – one at a software development company which was very coding-oriented, and one at Access Sciences where she helped conduct research on all the functions of SharePoint.

After graduation, Ashley’s internship with Access Sciences turned into a full-time position. Nine years later, she’s serving in a project manager position where she’s able to leverage her coding background to approach problems, think outside of the box, and find solutions.

Keli Pisciotta, Project Manager | Baton Rouge, LA

Growing up, Keli always liked math and problem-solving, but the option of computer science didn’t cross her radar until much later when she was looking into her potential college majors.

“I remember being lost because everybody else that was a senior knew exactly what they wanted to do, and I was kind of left there not really knowing what I wanted to do,” Keli said.

Her dad wanted her to be an engineer because (1) there was a shortage of chemical engineers and (2) she was good at science and liked it. And even though that was true – she was good at science and she did like it, she really enjoyed math and problem solving.

“When I was a senior in high school, we had an advanced math class where our teacher also taught us some programming,” Keli said. “I remember at Open House, I was so proud because I designed this little face that had these eyes, and I made them blink. I just thought that was the coolest thing.”

So, Keli and her dad started looking at computer science which had two options – a business option and a scientific option. The courses offered in the scientific option included chemistry, physics, a lot of calculus, and a lot of math which, of course, Keli loved. So, that’s what she went with.

After graduating with a degree in Computer Science (Science Option) and a minor in math from Southeastern Louisiana University, Keli’s been able to do it all.

She landed her first job out of college at a chemical plant where she was a technical team of one, doing everything from splicing wires to programming to installing applications.

Her second job was a big shift as she joined an IT team of 100+ people at a mortgage company. There, she learned project management skills through leading her own team.

After that, she became a portfolio manager for The Shaw Group. Not only did she get back into programming, but she also managed aviation, legal, safety, business development, and more.

Now, Keli’s still cultivating her project management skills as a project manager for one of Access Sciences’ client projects in Baton Rouge, LA.

Shermaine Haymer, Project Manager | Baton Rouge, LA

Throughout Shermaine’s elementary school, junior high, and high school years, there weren’t any programs or clubs available to spark interest in technology apart from a standard typing class. But she wishes there had been.

“I think that’s why I volunteer so much for those types of programs now because for me, there was nothing,” Shermaine said.

Her decision to pursue a Computer Information Systems degree (CIS) from Grambling State University was, at the time, purely based on potential salary. When she was considering her options, someone had told her, “CIS is really cool – You can graduate with a bachelor’s degree and make a really great salary.” And that was enough to spark her interest and look into it.

After graduating, Shermaine went on to her first job at State Farm where she started her development experience which was intense but a great experience for a new programmer. The company had a development boot camp where she had to go through a six-week program to learn all about State Farm’s different environments. After that, there were more lessons to learn along with weekly programming tests that she had to pass in order to keep her job.

Then, Shermaine took a break to get her master’s degree in Computer Science from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge before entering her next position with Lockheed Martin. There, she worked on the Paperless Manufacturing Engineering System (PMES).

“That software was so cool – It managed every single component of the space shuttle down to even a tiny nail,” Shermaine said.

After that, she did a lot of work for the State of Louisiana in Baton Rouge before joining as a File Net Subject Matter Expert and then moving into a project manager role for one of Access Sciences’ long-term client projects.

In the early days of her career, Shermaine found that there weren’t that many women role models – or women in general – in her field. But over time, she’s seen things get better. She’s seen more and more tech-related resources and programs become available. And now, if you need a mentor, it’s easy to reach out and find one because of that.

Since Shermaine didn’t have those available to her growing up, she’s become passionate about volunteering and helping those who may not have access to those resources and programs.

In fact, a few years ago, she helped a friend set up a Girls Who Code chapter at a school in Baton Rouge.

“I have a good friend who volunteers at her children’s school and she said, ‘I want to set up a Girls Who Code chapter, but I have to have a developer to be our sponsor.’ And I was like, ‘I would love to do that.’ So, we filled out all the paperwork, she received her certificate, and they became an official chapter.”

Shermaine also spends a lot of time with Futures Fund, an organization in Baton Rouge that provides coding classes to kids who are financially unable to afford those classes on their own.

“Unless you’re in a really great school district or private school, you don’t necessarily have a coding class,” Shermaine said. “So, every Saturday, they spend five hours learning how to code, learning life skills, and listening to speakers. We’ve had students who have gone to college, won science scholarships – It’s really changing lives.”

ADVICE FROM THE WOMEN WHO CODE

Since Ashley, Keli, and Shermaine have entered the workforce, more and more resources have become available to introduce young women to the tech field and, hopefully, spark an interest. Organizations like Girls Who Code are a big part of that shift.

And even though things are continually getting better, there’s still work to be done to close the gender gap in tech, so Ashley, Keli, and Shermaine offered their advice to young girls and women interested in the field:

Ashley: “I’ve noticed recently that they have a lot of board games and computer games out there now for kids as young as six years old that introduces them to concepts of coding. They can learn how to follow a code or learn how to program something super tiny just so they understand the concept behind making something electronic work. I think it’s so cool that they have that out there. So, I would encourage anyone who has the slightest interest to get some kind of game like that and just see if it’s fun – if it sparks anything in you.”

Keli: “There are a lot of plusses to this field. One, it’s very portable. It doesn’t matter where you are, you can improve their processes. And the fun thing about it is you get to meet people from all the different walks, and you get to learn a little bit about what they do. So, not only do you learn what’s in your field, you also get to learn about other people and about their walks of life. It’s pretty well-rounded.”

Shermaine: “Young ladies always think that it’s going to be too difficult, that you need a certain background – to be really focused on math and science your entire life before you enter the field of development or coding. That’s not true. I came into this from a completely different path. And now, what I love about what I do is that I can solve problems every day. You get to come up with really unique solutions to very interesting problems that a lot of people don’t understand.”

For more on Project Manager, Shermaine Haymer’s journey as a woman who codes, her thoughts on ethical computing, and what it’s like to be a parent in a pandemic listen to Episode 6 of our Access Answers Podcast.