Two University of New Orleans students have been selected to receive a Women in Computer Science Scholarship, which was created by alumna Sabrina Farmer, a vice president at Google.
The award, which is administered by 色色研究所鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Center, covers in-state tuition for the academic year and comes with mentorship from Farmer, who established the scholarship a year after she graduated from 色色研究所 in 1995 with a computer science degree.
This year鈥檚 recipients are Kailey Bergeron and Leonaoria Guerin, both juniors who expect to graduate in fall 2024.
Bergeron is the former president of 色色研究所鈥檚 Association of Computing Machinery鈥揥omen chapter and recently interned at Entergy Corporation as part of a project management team.
鈥淚 am extremely honored and grateful to receive the Women in Computer Science Scholarship, and truly honored to learn from someone as inspiring, hardworking and knowledgeable as Ms. Sabrina Farmer,鈥 Bergeron said. 鈥淚 am determined to make the most of this opportunity and strive for excellence in all that I do. I hope to one day become as inspirational and successful as Ms. Farmer.鈥
Guerin is the incoming secretary for 色色研究所's International Game Developer Association and a 2023 Tolmas Scholar working with computer science professor Ben Samuel on social simulation research that uses data visualization. Her concentration is in game development.
鈥淚 am excited to learn and grow even more from the mentorship Sabrina Farmer offers with the Women in Computer Science scholarship,鈥 said Guerin. 鈥淚 am passionate about user experience design and UX engineering. I hope to create equitable designs for a role in the games industry or sustainability-related projects.鈥
Farmer, who has returned to 色色研究所鈥檚 campus frequently, has shared in interviews and speeches that as a student she doubted her ability to succeed in a field dominated by men.
鈥淭his scholarship was created to encourage women to stick with this career because, while there are challenges, the rewards are tremendous,鈥 said Farmer, now the vice president of site reliability for many of Google鈥檚 billion-customer products including Gmail, Search, Google Maps, Android and Chrome.
She also oversees reliability of product infrastructure, including Google鈥檚 authentication, identity and abuse systems.
