OrganizeFISH

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videoblogging, podcasting, comic drawing, etc.) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.

Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited.

When I first decided to do the technology thing, I hadn’t given much thought to how I was introduced to the field.  Computers hadn’t always been around my home, because I remember when my family got our first computer.  It was normal though, and before long we had a kid computer and a parent computer.  My dad was the one who set up all our computer stuff (actual computers, printers, scanners, home network) and even installed some hardware.  So when I got to school, I considered my dad technical since he did the hardware thing just fine.  I just considered my mom more with the times, since she takes on new tech much quicker than my dad.  (She’s wanted texting for ages at this point, and we’re forcing my dad to get it to make our lives easier.)

It wasn’t until within the last year or so that it finally dawned on me just how technical my mom, Brenda White, is.  When I was in elementary school, my mom worked as a director in the medical records department of the local non-profit healthcare system.  This was back when everything was on paper, microfilm, and microfiche.  I remember the stacks upon stacks of manila folders, like the stacks of books in the quiet sections of your local public library, with the colorful tabs bearing the beginning initials of the patient’s last name.

While I was in high school, my mom switched to a job that had to do with implementing new systems.  She had to coordinate downtimes, training, making sure the new systems worked with other systems that communicated with the old system, etc.  She tested things and broke things, to work out the kinks before going live in the hospital.  “Go live” dates meant times where my mom would leave for work in the middle of the night and times where she was extremely busy and possibly very stressed if things were cutting it close.  Despite the stress, these were very important dates that she was very happy about when the project was successfully implemented.

When it got around time for me to enter college, there was a reorg at my mom’s work and she had the opportunity to apply for a new job.  This was bigger than her last change, when she was still working in the medical records department; her new job would be in the IS department, and she would be reporting directly to the CIO!  How sweet is that?

She now spends her days in charge of a ton of software solutions, which makes me feel even more silly about it being such a surprise that my mom is a technical woman.  I think part of this is because when she was first implementing applications, it was before I began my official foray into technology, so it was just a part of my mom’s job.  You know, nothing notable.    Also, you have to cut me some slack; she went to college for music management.  Since she returned to school early on in my childhood to receive a degree in health management, I got stuck on the management aspects of her director positions.

Now I cannot wait until we attend a technical conference together, because my mom totally gets how much fun they are.  I love that!  She is an awesome example of not needing to enter college or even the workforce as a computer loving geek to become a technical person.  It was something she learned on the job and embraced, and that approach worked just fine!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.