Interview: Marizza Delgado, Information Science Student, STEM Diversity Advocate, Fashion Model

By Angela Tai

You’ve held several Data Science Internship roles at various organizations. How were you encouraged to get into STEM? 

So my dad is actually an infrastructure engineer. Growing up, I always heard buzzwords like “kubernetes” or “the cloud.” I grew up in the silicon valley so I was surrounded by technology in my community and that’s how I got into tech because I was very fascinated by innovation and wanted to create things that improved peoples’ lives. My dad would test me at the dinner table about different functions and variables so he was definitely a big supporter of my career. 

You went to a community college prior to completing a bachelor’s degree in Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management from the University of California, Santa Cruz. What was that journey like for you when you were considering going to college? 

Looking back, I’m very thankful for my unconventional educational path because I got to embrace my different passions. Right after college, I started doing pageants and I won the title of Miss Pacific Coast Teen USA and that’s actually how I got scouted for modeling and now it’s my career and one of my main sources of income. I’m glad that I was able to have that flexibility of community college because I know that with traditional universities, you would have to live in the dorms; I never lived in the dorms and didn’t have a very traditional college experience because of Covid and transferring to UCSC. I do appreciate that when transferring to UC Santa Cruz, I never had a strong, passionate community of women in tech and I found that at UCSC through clubs like Society of Women Engineers and Girls Who Code College Loops. I had a very unconventional college experience but I’m very thankful for it and wouldn’t have changed it at all. 

The field of data sciences and machine learning is always evolving. How do you keep yourself informed and up-to-date?

I actually graduate in eight weeks! I’m a senior at UCSC but I’m most excited about data analytics being a core business function because at my last company that I interned for, they didn’t really have a technical team. My last company that I was working for was home to the world’s first magnetic eyelash, very random and not really a tech product at all, it was a direct-to-consumer brand. I’m excited that every industry can benefit from technical experience and instead of having your standard operations team, customer service team, marketing team, etc, Data analytics can also have a place as a principal business function. I keep myself updated by reading books and medium articles- I recommend following Towards Data Science such a great resource! I’m actually very passionate about ethics in tech, some of my favorite books for your listeners/viewers that I’d recommend are Brotopia by Emily Chang, she talks about how to break the boys club of Silicon Valley and she’s brutally honest about how the community is kind of like finance bros but for tech bros and what it’s like to be a woman in STEM. I’m also a fan of Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’ Neil and Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Noble, all of these books are written by women of color in tech.

What have you discovered to be effective in helping connect girls and women to STEM studies and careers? 

First of all, as a STEMinist and an advocate for women in STEM, I don’t want to force any young girls to go into STEM but I do want to show them that there’s nothing stopping them if this is something that they want to pursue. I found this great community through Instagram and you can just look up #womenintech. As for finding a mentor, I love the BUILT BY GIRLS WAVE program - it’s completely free and you meet with a mentor from huge companies. My last mentor was from Uber, he was Head of Transit there and connected me with the Senior Data Scientist on his team so even if they don’t have the career path that you want to pursue, they can connect you within their network. I really like BUILT BY GIRLS, it’s very manageable with any college/high school schedule. For younger girls, my little sister just got into Girls Who Code and I’m so proud of her! She was deciding between Kode With Klossy and Girls Who Code and I wish I had these resources growing up because I think it would’ve sparked my interest in STEM/tech way earlier because I always loved science and math so if I knew about coding, I would be a master by now. 

During your time as a Data Science and Business Intelligence Intern, you optimized the “Make an Offer” feature with a data science solution utilizing different Python libraries (to suggest offers to users on the largest marketplace and created data visualizations on the breakdown of the dress inventory with regression models). What’s attractive to you about this work?

I actually worked for Queenly because they were a part of my pageant network and the CTO Kathy Zhou worked directly with me- we would pair program at her apartment. That sort of mentorship is something that I really value and moving forward when I’m applying to jobs, growth within a company is something that I’m definitely going to be looking for. That is something that attracts me to the field because there’s endless possibilities in what you can learn. When I first joined Queenly, I didn’t have a lot of coding experience, but I left with experience in React, Javascript, and Python technologies. I learned so much on that job than I would’ve in any other college course. Thank you Kathy!! So, having endless possibilities and having the opportunities to grow is something that I value about this industry. This project especially is what I’m most proud of from my time at Queenly because I wrote a Medium article for their engineering blog! Bridging a business perspective with the data and having the communication skills to ensure it adds value for stakeholders is an important quality of any Data Analyst. It’s all about having that end product too - I don’t love coding but when you finally get to the end of your project, it’s so rewarding when you finally debug your code - you can’t compare that feeling to anything else.

You were featured in Women of Silicon Valley for Filipino American History Month. As a full-time college student and part-time fashion model (represented by Stars Model Management in San Francisco and ONE MANAGEMENT in NYC), how do you juggle your coursework and photo shoots for renowned brands? 

Time management for me is all about balance and making sure to have time for myself as well. I love lists, I’m very Type A - things have to be scheduled by the minute every single day. I use my Google Calendar and I’ve recently been trying to convert my physical planner to Notion so time management tools like these are how I balance everything. Having supportive agents and professors is great too - my agents are very understanding and understand that my exams and lectures come first before my photoshoots. My professors will also understand if I have photoshoots so that coordination allows me to do both. Multi-faceted women will make it happen if they want to pursue their other passions beyond tech, I remember after my classes at UCSC, I would drive two hours up to San Francisco to get to a modeling job and then I drive back down to my Santa Cruz apartment to finish my programming assignments so if you really want something, you’ll make time to make it happen. 

Your school’s engineering department asked you how you were introduced to STEM for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. In 2018, it was reported that females only fill about 15% of data scientist roles. What efforts (whether it’s through companies or schools) have you seen being made to improve female representation in this industry?

I was featured on their Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and having articles like that on a school website really helps. They also have a Baskin School of Engineering day, and they had a women in tech panel which I really enjoyed. At a hackathon I helped in high school, I loved having a women in tech panel and whenever there’s a women in tech panel, I fangirl on the inside because I would love to do that in the future. Putting the spotlight on more women who are excelling in these fields is something that universities should definitely do more of. I do see it in the clubs that I’m a part of at UCSC, everyone is so supportive of each other and there’s no questions that are off the table. So, having that sense of community is very fulfilling and it gives you more certainty in your path. UCSC sponsors the Grace Hopper tech convention and when I went to Grace Hopper, I loved my experience there and met so many women. There were over 20,000 women in tech there and it’s so inspiring. I definitely encourage a bunch of women to go. They have a limited amount of tickets and I remember when they opened, it was like getting the Covid vaccine, you had to keep refreshing the page to secure your spot. The tickets are very expensive, I think they’re around $500 dollars. At the time, I was still in community college so I funded everything myself but now I know that you can have a sponsor, your school can fund you. If more schools did more outreach programs or sponsored girls to go to these events, I think that’s just one more way to encourage women to get into STEM. 

You were recently featured on the Engineering Gals podcast where you touched on mentorship and cold emailing. Have you personally ever dealt with imposter syndrome? 

Going back to when you said your friend went to community college before going to NYU for medical school, I was initially admitted at UCSC as a computer science major. When I changed my major from computer science to information technology management, I experienced heavy imposter syndrome because I was asking myself if I was truly a woman in STEM and if I should even change my major. Honestly, I’m way happier in a more data-driven major because it’s something that I can see myself doing outside of school and as a career. I just felt that being outnumbered by my male counterparts in my computer science courses didn’t really help with whenever you have group projects or even just collaborating. I didn’t feel like I was very welcomed in the computer science department to be frank. If I had joined these clubs like Girls Who Code and Society of Women Engineers early on in my college career, I definitely would have a steady support group because I strongly believe that having a community of women improves your quality of work and life in general. Unfortunately, I joined those organizations after I changed my major so maybe I still would’ve been a computer science major but honestly I learned more at internships than I did in data structure classes so I’m happy I switched. 

You co-host Interesting Thots Podcast (with Ernestine). What skills or attributes do you currently possess that you feel like have helped you to be a better podcaster? 

My co-host and I are both very organized and driven, we don’t put out an episode if we don’t love it 100% and if we’re not proud of it. I like that we both have similar work ethics. I wanted to create a podcast because I did have a YouTube channel but I feel like podcasts are way more manageable since you have to edit less. I’ve always had a passion for content creation so this is my medium of connecting with my audience and I’m just brutally honest. People listen to podcasts that are more relatable. I feel like there should be more podcasts about the journey after post-grad because a lot of podcasters are already in their 30’s or already have an established career and I just want to document the journey to get there and tell people that they’re not alone. 

Has there ever been a time when you’ve faced a challenge as a female professional in this field where deep in your gut you know you’re being treated differently because of your gender? If so, how did you overcome it? 

A little microaggression happened where when you pick group projects, you won’t even be addressed sometimes. There’s a TikTok on this - someone will reiterate what you just said and take the credit- that has happened to me before on Zoom meetings. It recently happened to me on my senior capstone project. It’s little microaggressions like that where I feel like that’s when my male counterparts threaten me. At the time, I probably just let it go but now that I’m much self aware, I would speak up for myself. 

Where do you draw your inspiration from whether it’s through your personal or professional work as a “Steminist”?

When I’m putting out content for Instagram and for my career, I love Lindsay Scott - she’s a model and IOS developer. She’s in the top 1% in answering questions on Stack Overflow which I think is very impressive because I always wondered who these people are answering the questions on Stack overflow. She’s my role model because she balances both careers and I learned about her career path while I was at Grace Hopper- they had a whole presentation about her being a multipotentialite which I also resonate with. It’s good to be really committed to your career but if you have other passions, then you should pursue them too if that’s what feeds your soul. Having non-STEM interests shouldn’t threaten your credibility as a woman in tech. One of my mentors, Zara Chiara, is also another source of inspiration because she talks all about time management and intentional productivity. She was my mentor that actually got me onto Notion, taught me how to prevent burnout, and translated my goals into tangible, quantified goals so those are the two inspirations for women in tech. 

What's the best advice you've ever been given - personally or professionally? 

My motto in life is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable because you grow from uncomfortable situations and if I hadn’t done all of these things, I would have regretted it and complacency is my number one fear. Always learning and unlearning. Everyone should embrace the unknown and those uncomfortable feelings.