Theatre buff finds drama (the good kind) in computer programming
A leap of faith landed Lexi Ross, A.B. ’13, in a computer science concentration at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and propelled her into a rewarding Silicon Valley career.
A theatre aficionado who initially pursued a psychology concentration, Ross came to Harvard believing that computer science was too challenging.
“I was interested in science and technology, but I had always considered myself more of a humanities person,” she said. “My high school was full of math and science geniuses, and I thought I’d never be smart enough to do that.”
Her first exposure to computer science was by chance. Rather than navigate through a calculus course, she enrolled in “Great Ideas in Computer Science” (CS 1), taught by Harry Leitner, to complete a math requirement. She quickly realized that computer science was not just for the programming elite.
“Every homework assignment was fun and exciting. It was actually something I looked forward to,” she said.
After some soul searching, Ross switched her concentration to computer science. Ironically, that meant she would need to take the calculus class she had tried to avoid. Feeling empowered by her new concentration, she knew she was up to that challenge.
An outgoing person by nature, Ross surprised her friends, and herself, by quickly developing a passion for computer programming.
“There is a stereotype that programming is a solitary activity,” she said. “That is definitely not the case. As my classes at Harvard got harder, it became more and more critical to work together in groups to solve some really challenging problems.”
While serving as a teaching fellow for “Introduction to Computer Science” (CS 50), Ross realized that she really enjoyed helping others learn. She was pleased to see an increasing number of women enroll in CS 50 and other computer science classes at Harvard. While stereotypes about the computer programming profession still exist, the supportive environment at SEAS encourages female computer scientists, she said. (During the 2014-15 academic year, women comprised 30 percent of computer science concentrators at SEAS, well above the national average.)
Her hard work paid off when she landed a product management internship at Google, where she worked on growing the user base for Google+. The Silicon Valley lifestyle appealed to her, so she accepted a position at Facebook after graduation.
While working in product management at Facebook, Ross took great pride in helping to develop a custom gender option for the world’s largest social network. The feature enables users to select a gender other than male and female. It was empowering to help improve Facebook’s inclusivity, Ross said, but she felt a strong desire to code. So she made the transition to the infrastructure team, supporting pages that promote brands.
Though Ross enjoyed the corporate culture and opportunities at Facebook, she recently accepted a new position at a startup that combines her love of computer programming with her passion for education. She is now a software engineer for ClassDojo, a San Francisco-based company that seeks to help teachers and parents develop students’ soft skills.
ClassDojo encourages students to engage in their own educations, the same way that Ross did when she chose to pursue her passion at Harvard. She is looking forward to being an integral member of the startup’s small team and helping the founders make their vision a reality.
Ross also hopes that her experiences at SEAS and in Silicon Valley will serve as a model for other young women considering careers in computer programming.
She gave this advice to budding women computer scientists:
“Don’t worry about having natural talent or being ‘meant’ to be a computer programmer. Some of your classmates have probably been programming since they were kids. All that matters is how much effort you’re willing to put in going forward. If you have passion for it and you put in the time, you’ll be able to accomplish your goals.”