 It's The Cube. Here is your host, Jeff Crick. Hi, Jeff Crick here with The Cube. We are on the ground at Santa Clara, California at the Anita Borg Women's Division Awards 2015. We're really excited to come down and talk to some of the participants, but also some of the award winners. And so we're really honored in the tech segment to have the Student Division Award finalist, Julia Edwards from Smith College, almost an alum right in a week or so. You'll be an alum. Congratulations on being the finalist. Thank you so much. So talk a little bit about what is this contest? What is the student vision and how did you get involved? So the Student Division Award is aiming to celebrate students across the globe who have visions for how to improve the state of women in tech in general and how to recruit more women students to start studying CS. So I got involved because I founded Smith College's first computer science club. And I've been so inspired by it that I decided to make a video, which is how we all applied, showcasing what we did this year and the success we've had. Awesome. So when did you start the club? What year were you? I was a junior, and it was 2013, and we became an official Smith College organization later that year. Okay. And your senior, your CS major, I think you said before we came on air. And how many people are in the club? So right now we have over 120 members in the club, and we started with around 30 of my friends. 120? Yes. Smith College. 2,400. That's pretty good, from 0 to 120 out of 2,400. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Very proud of it. Yeah. So talk a little bit about, you're so enthusiastic and bubbly before we went on air. You said really that you were excited about this because computer science really changed your life. How did it change your life? Why did it change your life? So I had never studied computer science in high school. I had a hunch from one experience that I might like it. But I learned everything I know about computer science from my education at Smith. And since then I've had countless inspiring experiences from internships at Google and Box where I'll be working after I graduate to attending Grace Hopper in 2013. And I just felt like I found my passion and I just want other women to have that experience because I think a lot more people would like computer science if they just gave it a try. Right, right. And so you went to Grace Hopper last year. We were at Grace Hopper. It's an incredible event. I think they said there was 8,000 women in tech there. Talk about that experience, you know, there's probably more people than there are at Smith College to be surrounded by so many kind of like-minded professionals in the technology space. Oh, it's so cool. So I was there in 2013 in Minneapolis and I was presenting my research actually that I'd done with my advisor. And that was really cool. I ended up actually taking third place in the research competition and to just have the support of all the women there, people coming up to me and just saying, you know, good job. And knowing that these were people who were changing tech and changing the face of tech, we know that we have, you know, an issue with the gender gap. So for these women to be there and to get to meet them was truly inspiring, shedding kind of light on what I want to do after college and how I want to make my own impact. It was just awesome. That's great. So another kind of topic of conversation is when should women, girls, you know, kind of get involved in tech? Is there too early? Is there too late? Is there an ideal time? It sounds like you kind of got into it late in terms of undergrad, which is in strings. That's what Maria Clavie said the same thing. Not too early. Let me get her in a great CS class early on and really change it. Talk a bit about coming into it when you did, obviously it worked for you. Why did it work for you? What advice would you give for others? So for me, having no prior background, it really worked to first, this is a technical thing, but to take that class in Python. Python is a very beginner friendly language and that made all the difference. I would often feel like I was actually procrastinating my homework as I did my computer science assignments. That's how fun they were. So that was crucial. That made me declare my major after that first class, which was good that I had done that because the classes do get harder as you go along and you might doubt yourself as a computer scientist. Everyone has, I have. And I was so glad to have that first really, really fun class that showed me, no, this is what I love. And then as for, I don't think there's any, I mean, any time that it's too early to start programming, you know, we see a lot of boys programming at ages as young as, what, five? Yeah, they were in Raspberry Pi thing, right? Exactly. And there's absolutely no reason that girls wouldn't also be interested in that. They just need to be marketed, too. Right, right. Talk a bit about your internships, your summer internship. She mentioned you're a Google, you're a box. How did those things kind of impact your decision to stay on this career path? So, I was a software engineering intern at Google and that would, I learned so much that summer. And that was, I learned, for example, I learned how to do JavaScript and web apps. And that was really cool. It was awesome to get the experience of a professional code base and seeing what professional style code was like. And then also seeing that I was able to write it. That was a really big boost of confidence. I also found my technical passion, which is program or product management where you're involved in the strategy of the product and where it's going to go. And you help the engineers figure out what to build. And I did that last summer at Box as an engineering program management intern and I had a blast. And I just totally know what I want to do with my career at this point and where I want to take you. So, what are you going to do at Box when you start in the summer or are you taking the summer off or are you getting right into it? I'm taking the summer off. Okay, good. Where in Box will you be headed? So, I'll be headed onto the partners team in Box, which is involved with kind of making sure Box works with some key software that our customers are also using, which is heavily involved with strategy. And ultimately, I really want to be involved in the strategy of Box and into this future. Love your enthusiasm, really. Love it. Congratulations for being a finalist. I don't know, I think we'll call you a winner. Really a terrific story. Good luck to you at Box and trying to find a house in San Francisco. That will be the hardest thing that you will ever face. That's true, that's true. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. Julie Edwards here, she is a student of vision award finalist here at the Anita Borg Institute, women of vision awards in Santa Clara, California. I'm Jeff Rick, you're watching theCUBE. Thanks for watching.