Written by: Pau Castillo Interview by: Audrey Pe
A Young Woman Inspiring Other Women: Sofia Ongele Urges You to Fuel that Spark of Interest
Ever wondered how great ideas came about? Some say it’s all due to countless trials and errors. To some, it’s because of the consistent pursuit of a certain fuel that drives them. Yet there are others whose great ideas spring up from a random, mundane activity that could have gone past any normal day. Whether it’s humming a random tune, scribbling down a few words, or in one specific case, tapping a few keys on a graphic calculator, there are some seemingly plain acts that can actually become the spark of something great. And that’s exactly what happened to Sofia Ongele, a young, passionate woman who discovered the joys of tech through her calculator.
Background
Sofia Ongele’s journey began when she randomly discovered the PGRM button and made her graphic calculator sing ‘Hello’ by Adelle. It would’ve been a simple, momentary act but this actually drove her to become more involved with tech. This led her to be a Kode with Klossy scholar for 2 years, taking up HTML, CSS, Ruby, and Sinatra on the first year; and Javascript, p5, A-frame, and Drone Programming on the second. She used what she learned from this women-powered tech camp to teach other girls. In fact, she is now the youngest traveling teaching assistant for Kode with Klossy! These achievements led her to win the NCWIT (National Center for Women & Information Technology) Aspirations in Computing Award and gave her the chance to attend Apple Engineering Technology Camp on the actual Apple Campus.
On Being Inspired by a Woman and Inspiring Women
The woman behind Kode with Klossy is also the woman behind Sophia’s greatest inspiration. She finds Karlie Kloss a woman to look up to because of how she established Kode with Klossy at such a young age. For Sofia, this gave her the strong idea that women, even at such an early age, can do great things. Like Karlie Kloss, Sophia is also pursuing her tech ambitions while she’s young and just like her inspiration, Sophia aims to inspire the younger generation of women to give tech a try. She sees that women are outnumbered by men in the field so, for her, women should stick together and prove a point – that women in technology are just as good (or, dare we say, better) than men!
Envisioning the Future
Sofia envisions a future of equality in the tech industry. According to her, if tech is an industry that is limited to only a few privileged men, then the whole world is missing out on other innovative ideas. Quoting her, “With the world being shifted into the technological age, it’s important now, more than ever, that the power code holds is in everyone’s hands, rather than a select few’s.”
Words to Live By
Driven to create a difference in the industry, Sofia wants to continue guiding young women to pursue the desire to try out tech. The name “computer science” may be intimidating but it’s much less a science as it is generally a medium – a contemporary way of self-expression that can be used to make your voice heard in any industry. Sophia urges the women, young and young at heart, to simply go for it. You’ll never know what’s in store for you if you don’t take that first step. So go ahead, fill out that “Hello, World!” page, and let the world of limitless possibilities unlock your greatest potential.
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Pau Castillo is a digital marketing specialist pursuing a creative lifestyle on writing and personal branding.
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