 Live from San Francisco, it's The Cube. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. Hi, Jeff Frick here. We're on the ground at Pure 48 in San Francisco. We're at the top coder open 2014. The event's been going on for about 10 years. They get a bunch of really smart people together and basically have like a hackathon and solve hard problems. But that's all fine and good. But we came up today because they had a new program as part of the panel where they brought 200 girls in from the local high schools to talk about women and STEM. And specifically, these are girls. I think most of the ones that ask questions were sophomores, juniors, seniors. I don't think they're many 18-year-olds. And really to get a group of women together on a panel to talk about their journey in technology, how they got there, to be regular gals, you know, not superstar, rock star, CEOs. But to really help the girls get some mentorship and see that potentially this is a path for them. So really psyched. We got the whole panel on. So Ashley Menel, consultant from CRM Strategy at Imperial. So welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having us. So did you ever get an opportunity to participate in a panel like that when you were in high school? Absolutely not. I didn't even know that these type of career opportunities existed when I was in high school. So being able to be part of this and deliver that message is super meaningful for me. And you're a great one because you are not a computer science undergrad, right? Right. So I started my career design and architecture and it wasn't until I finished school that I started realizing that my passion was actually in working with the software and not just using it. Right. So that's great. So again, I think it's just terrific for these girls to see lots of different examples of how you can get involved in technology. And the technology is a really broad field. Absolutely. So one of the things you talked about why you like technology is a constant change. I mean, expressing that to them, you just don't know what you're going to be doing day to day, what you're working on. It's an interesting part of the whole technology field. Yeah. There's always a new opportunity, not only a new solution to be working on or a new product to be working on developing, but just the day in and day out, every day can be a different part of that process. Whether it's gathering the requirements up front or actually executing and delivering the product in the end, it's always constantly changing. Talk about the role of mentorship. Either that you're a mentor to some of these gals, not the ones today, but some that you may be working with or did you have any particular mentors that kind of looked out for you or you looked up to you that really kind of helped guide you through some of the curves and twists on your path? Yeah, absolutely. So as far as being a mentor, there's several programs in Indianapolis where I'm from that I volunteer with. Through Ball State University's Computer Science program, I've spoken at conferences for women working in technology and formed relationships with graduate students, actually helping them write resumes and prepare for interviews, which has been a great experience. And then also through IUPUI, they have a power camp every summer. And so I've gotten to volunteer on panels there and meet middle school and high school aged girls that are interested in technology. So that's been a really meaningful part of my career. And I definitely have had mentors along the way. I think for me, the most important part of having a mentor was realizing they don't have to look like me, talk like me, or have the job I want. It's just somebody that can keep me accountable, talk to me about my goals and help push me to get there. So trying to be that person for other women in technology as well. And do you sense that things are changing in all these different organizations that you're involved with, that girls are being better at seeing that this is really a great opportunity for them to pursue? Yeah, I do. I think year in and year out we're seeing more and more women interested. I think one thing that we have to be cognizant of is that the marketplace is always changing as well. And so just keeping the opportunities available in front of girls who are, as they're studying and letting them know what the next big thing is and not necessarily what the big thing is today. Right. And I thought the questions are interesting because the scope of what technology means is much more than just working at Google or just working at Facebook. Absolutely. The car question I thought was a great one. Can I be involved in technology? I'm passionate about cars. Yeah. And I had a great gal come up to me and she's interested in sports and technology. And she wanted to know how she could marry her love for sports, specifically basketball and technology. What a cool opportunity to be able to talk about that. Yeah. We were just at a show the other day and one of the keynotes was all about basically some of the newest latest technology in sports and they highlighted some of the World Series plays. So there's definitely a lot of opportunities. So talk a bit about the breakout. How did that go? What were some of the questions that happened in the breakout session? Yeah. The breakout was great. This group of girls has been so interested and so involved throughout all the conversations. A lot of the questions we got were about that merriment of interest. So there's another gal who was interested in biology, so looking at how she can marry biology and technology together to form her career path. I've had a very meaningful conversation with a girl about wanting to pursue a double major but also wanting to be an athlete in college and how she can balance that kind of schedule. So they're really thinking ahead about their future and it's really exciting to get to talk to them at this phase. That's great. So I'll give you the last word for we cut out. Again, you said you're very involved in the space. Are there any particular organizations that you'd like to highlight and give a shout out to that people can get involved with? Yeah. Aperio, we have a silver lining organization which is our philanthropic outreach part of our business and I've been able to serve as a regional chair on that over the last two years and we actually have a huge project coming up called Giving Tuesday on December 2 where corporate-wide we'll be volunteering across the globe and we've invited our customers and our partners to participate with us so that's going to be a great way to give back to the community. Where do they go for more information on that? Aperio.com. We can get you the information. Alright, super. So, Ashley, thanks for stopping by. Thanks for spending the time with these girls. It's really, really important that the girls get good role models and as we talked at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing with Maria Claude, she said, you know, Zuckerberg, she loves them, but he's just not the guy, right? He's not the guy that these girls that are 14, 15, 16, looking up to see themselves in that position. So good for you for coming out and spending time and a period of making the time for this panel. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Our pleasure. So, again, Jeff Frick here on the ground, Pure 48 at the Top Coder Open 2014. You're watching theCUBE.