Reedhima Mandlik, a cybersecurity expert and public speaker, offers three pieces of advice learned in her tech career — among them that to be noticed in this field, you must demand to be. This is our HOW (“Her Own Words”) column for January.

Switching majors from sociology to computer science can be daunting enough, but that wasn’t the only challenge Toni Raggs faced in college. In this Their Own Words column, Toni talks through the obstacles they surmounted and shares advice for other students who might be facing the same ones.

The lows and the highs of studying computer science have both proven worthwhile for Tomi Okunola, who is adding a CS minor to her economics major at UIC. In this HOW (“Her Own Words”) column, Tomi explains how Break Through Tech Chicago helped her to consider computer science and where she sees the subject in her future.

For many students, choosing a college major feels like finding your way in the dark — it’s scary, but sometimes you stumble upon great things. In this HOW (“Her Own Words”) column, Monse Castillo tells how some helpful resources and a willingness to try new things led her to the right place.

Tomi Babalola happened upon a college major that wraps together two things she loves — creativity and math — and that saved her from a career she never really wanted (dentistry!). In this HOW (Her Own Words) column, hear how she feels about her new career path.

Imagine asking your sixth-grade self what they think of your chosen college major. That’s Charlotte Andry’s jumping-off point for this HOW (“Her Own Words”) column, which takes you through her journey as a tech student from high school to her current courses at UIC.

Sometimes you find a natural home for your aptitudes in a place you never thought to look. In this HOW (“Her Own Words”) column, UIC student Linda Mansour explains how letting go of her initial conception of her academic trajectory led her to something better.

Five UIC students worked at the intersection of technology and health during their Sprinternship at GE Healthcare, which designs and manufactures MRI machines and other medical imaging equipment.

PEAK6, a financial services company in Chicago, offers its Break Through Tech Chicago Sprinterns™ a “can-do” work experience. You can program. You can work in a successful team. You can make lasting professional connections. And … you can bluff and bet with the best. Find out what a Sprinternship at PEAK6 was like for our summer 2022 team of five students.

UIC students taking their first computer science course, CS 111, put a tech spin on the classic Rube Goldberg-style machine. They each designed and programmed one component that could be linked to their classmates’ creations to make one giant chain reaction.

Computing skills are important in so many fields. Finding the right area to apply them is a key part of planning your future work in tech. Danielle Cartagenes discovered at UIC that connecting technology and language was the right path for her.

If you don’t yet know our Sprinternship program, this UIC announcement — created to introduce our 2022 Sprinternship hosts — is a great primer. Read it to find out what Sprinternships are, why they’re crucial for future gender diversity in tech, and which 17 Chicago organizations are on the forefront.

For chemical engineering major Astrid Vargas, getting involved with Break Through Tech was her key to discovering a lifetime of possibilities—and a support system to match.

UIC computer science alumna Devina Dhawan started Devi-Labs to see more women and nonbinary individuals pursue careers in tech. Read about what she believes will make the biggest difference in diversifying the field.

UIC student Grace Pnacek is finding success where her interest in computer science crosses paths with her interest in language.

The reasons to pick a computer science minor in college are as varied as the people who pursue them. Read about how the program is helping UIC junior Ashma Pandya to achieve her research-oriented goals.

UIC students who did their Sprinternship at AbbVie, the Illinois-based pharmaceutical giant, had a chance to meet company executives while learning about the interconnection between tech and business.

U.S. Soccer brings one of the world’s most popular sports to this country. In May 2021, five UIC women brought a concept for a staff intranet to U.S. Soccer. Find out how this Sprinternship allowed the students to work on technology that supports a sports powerhouse.

Sprinternships definitely can help your résumé. Can they also help Chicago communities? The five UIC students who held Sprinternships with Cisco Systems in 2021 can answer this question with a resounding “yes.”

Pianos: wood, strings, and metal? Not in the computer science division of UIC’s Engineering Expo. Three women showed how an instrument that has stood the test of centuries could be updated as a tech project.

It’s not just the work you do that’s important — it’s the place where you do it. Reem Jaghlit talks about the benefits of finding a workplace culture that celebrates you, no matter who you are (or who you want to be).

Arpita Kumari details how involvement with a student organization at the University of Illinois Chicago provided the valuable insight that computing and technology were indeed the right place for her.

Data scientist Fran Berman held an online visit with Break Through Tech Chicago participants and other UIC students to talk about the range of ethical and logistical issues that concern developers of autonomous vehicles.

Chicago women and nonbinary individuals will get a head start on tech work experience in May 2021 thanks to these committed partner companies and organizations.

In this HOW (“Her Own Words”) column, computer science graduate student Johnnalee Kutzke breaks down her reactions to other people always pushing her away from tech.

Always a scientist and now a community college professor, Doris Espiritu has found ways to integrate technology into her own research and has opened up the process of data-driven investigation to new generations of young people.

Sometimes, the best mobile app isn’t about the flashiest tech or the loudest bells and whistles. It’s about keen knowledge of the wants and needs of your app’s users. Winter Guild participants brainstormed their way to apps designed with real people in mind.

Avila will work in a team to develop a technological solution for a challenge faced by underrepresented groups in tech, especially women. She is excited to make industry connections and experience the mentorship that comes with the fellowship.

An unexpected conversation in her college academic advisor’s office changed the course of Naomi Kaduwela’s career. Read about that fateful day and the experiences at GE Healthcare and Kavi Global that followed.

In this column in our HOW series, Sarah Ather, a 2019 UIC computer science graduate, tells the powerful story of how she discovered that she needed tech and, perhaps more importantly, tech needed her.

Girls Who Code, a nationwide program for secondary school students, offered Gina Gerace a door into tech. Now she gives back to the program at UIC as a college-level mentor.

Amita Shetty, an experienced strategy executive at the rail leasing company GATX, seeks to create more space for women in technology in Chicago by achieving sustainable change at scale.

Heather Kuhn knows what it’s like to be the only woman in the room. It’s a situation that made her want to work harder and defy all odds.

In this first-person column, Nimeesha Chan talks about what it was like to work with students from all over the Chicago area on a city-wide challenge to improve economic opportunity and financial security.

Food insecurity is a wide-ranging problem, affecting the people who need better access to food, the organizations that seek to provide that access, and more. Summer Guild participants considered how tech could help to address several of those aspects.

In our inaugural HOW (in “Her Own Words”) column, Hilda Mendoza-Avila traces the roots of her interest in tech to a small town in northern Mexico called Santo Domingo.

In an exploratory UIC computer science course called CS 100, Break Through Tech Chicago students simulated a “network” to learn about the history of the internet.

Break Through Tech Chicago students explored “threat modeling” in the exploratory introductory computer science course CS 100.

Music can be code. Code can be music. Break Through Tech Chicago students enrolled in UIC’s exploratory computer science course, CS 100, discovered how.