Borrowing a Seat at the Data Table

The first time I wrote a few lines of Python that actually worked, the screen felt like a small window cracking open. Outside it was the familiar world—classrooms, group projects, and the quiet assumption that “engineering” belonged to someone else. Inside it was possibility: patterns, logic, and the strange comfort of making a machine understand what I meant.

I didn’t know it then, but that moment would become my compass: I want to build a future where talent isn’t filtered by stereotype, and where data—cold as it can seem—becomes a language of inclusion.

Where I’m From, and What I Noticed Early

I grew up watching people learn to adapt. Sometimes that meant moving across neighborhoods, sometimes across cultures, always with the same goal: belonging. In school, “STEM” was praised like a golden ticket, but the images attached to it were oddly narrow—hoodies, late-night hackers, mostly male faces, and a confidence that sounded like certainty.

When I later read Techint E&C’s stories of three young women—Nicole Ekes in IT, Agostina Pascucci bridging Human Resources and systems engineering, and Florencia Sommariva bringing data science into supply chain—I saw something that felt unexpectedly personal. Their roles were different, but their starting point was familiar: the moment you step into a field you’ve been warned is not made for you, and you decide to walk in anyway.

The Unseen Barrier: Belonging Before Skill

My challenge was never just learning the material. It was learning to stay in the room.

I felt it in subtle ways: being the only girl at a table during a coding workshop, second-guessing questions before asking them, rehearsing my thoughts so I wouldn’t sound “too unsure.” Nicole described entering university with the prejudice that it would be “more complicated” because it was male-dominated—only to find participation more balanced than she expected. That one sentence hit me because it named what I’d been carrying: fear that I’d be evaluated not on my work, but on my right to be there.

Small Experiments, Big Shifts

So I treated confidence like a skill I could practice.

I signed up for projects that forced me to speak in front of people. I chose assignments where data wasn’t just numbers, but decisions—who gets resources, what gets automated, what gets noticed. Like Agostina, who found her vocation during the pandemic and now works with data and reports while envisioning AI agents that make tasks faster, I started to see technology as something that could reduce friction in everyday work, not just dazzle in theory.

And like Florencia, who uses statistics and Python to project scenarios in materials management—answering questions before a project even begins—I learned that the best use of data is anticipatory empathy: noticing patterns early enough to prevent problems, not just explain them afterward.

The Moment That Reframed the Story

Then I read about almost 4,000 secondary school girls in Ireland gathering to explore STEM careers at I Wish 2026. I pictured the room—buzzing conversations, bright posters, the hum of “maybe I could.” It was vivid because it was the scene I didn’t have often enough: a space where girls weren’t exceptions, they were the majority.

That image reorganized my understanding of representation. Role models matter, yes—but so do crowds. A crowd changes what feels normal. It changes what you dare to imagine.

What I’m Taking With Me

The conflict isn’t fully resolved in the world; bias doesn’t vanish because a few of us push through it. But it is resolved in me: I no longer treat belonging as permission granted by others. I treat it as a responsibility—to show up prepared, to ask the question anyway, and to leave the door wider behind me.

I’m applying to study and grow in a place where I can combine technical rigor with human impact, where I can keep learning the syntax of machines while staying fluent in the needs of people. If the future is being built at the intersection of AI, social systems, and opportunity—as this year’s Women and Girls in Science theme suggests—then I want to be one of the builders.

And I want the next girl opening her first “Hello, World” to feel what she should have always felt: not that she’s borrowing a seat at the table, but that she belongs there.

References (Source Links)

• Techint E&C — “More Women in STEM: young talent broadening perspectives” (Feb 11, 2026).
• CIF Ireland — “I Wish 2026: welcoming almost 4000 secondary school girls from across Ireland to explore careers in STEM” (Feb 12, 2026): https://cif.ie/2026/02/12/i-wish-2026-welcoming-almost-4000-secondary-school-girls-from-across-ireland-to-explore-careers-in-stem/