Janay Nunez
What did you do for WICS? (events, new ideas, etc)
Katie Khuu and I switched the Projects committee to the Community Outreach committee, and at the end of our tenure made the position require two people to head it. We had a board retreat over the summer to plan events, and when we interviewed people for committee, we opened it up to the rest of board members to interview them as well. We also applied for and got a $22k NCWIT grants (student seed fund I think it was?), as well as secured Google and Facebook as corporate sponsors for the first time.
Why do you think WICS is helpful?
I was scared to send emails when I first started, going from that to becoming president and having to send emails all the time was a huge journey for me. I also learned a lot about leadership and working with others, both from being led and then learning what I liked/disliked from that, and then applying it as Marketing chair and then President.
I also didn’t know I could be a president until I was. I was scared of running because of the public speaking aspect of being a president. But then the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I really had something to contribute, and that if I didn’t try, I would be doing myself and club a disservice.
Were there any memorable events that you felt were a huge success? What did you like about them?
I’m totally drawing a blank – everything? There were a lot of events we already carried on from previous years like WICS Games and Mock Tech Interviews that I really loved. Oh wait – I was super proud of our first WICS Retreat that we did in Lake Arrowhead (I think that was the place…). That felt like a huge accomplishment because we had always wanted one and never had one and the trip actually went well and people liked it!
What do you do now? What are some achievements you’d like to share?
I work as a software engineer at Google on the Play Store for Android TV. Our redesign just got announced at Google I/O here: https://9to5google.com/2019/05/07/android-tv-play-store-redesign/
Do you have any words of wisdom to share to females in STEM?
Believe in yourself! I almost didn’t apply to Google because I was terrified of the interview process and didn’t think I could get in. I really mean that – I did not think I could make it AT ALL. But then I thought, what do you have to lose? And boom, I did it.