Diana Acevedo (she/her)

1. Where’s your hometown?

Valencia, Venezuela

2. How did you get into STEM?

Since I was a child, I was passionate about technology. I liked playing videogames, and I started to ask questions, like, “How is this world behind the screen created? How is it possible to create all this?”

My curiosity drove me to start learning more about computers just for fun, with the result of knowing very clearly that I wanted to be a developer from the age of 12. That small, I started to use different tools, like basic videogame constructors, to start designing little projects that came to my mind. Since then, I have been working hard so I could finish my Computer Science degree and be able to work now as a developer for a big company.

3. What is a piece of advice that you have found especially useful?

My advice is: Never give up your dreams and trust yourself.

When I started college, I was one of the only three girls that were in a class of around 40 students. From the very beginning of my career, I have been advised to quit, as I was not going to be able to make it. But after 5 years, only another guy and I graduated without failing any subject.

If you find yourself in situations where people never believe in you and keep telling you how difficult it is going to be to follow your dreams, always choose to never give up your dreams and trust yourself.

4. What’s a challenge you’ve faced, and how did you deal with it?

The situation in my country was extremely dangerous due to the political situation, but I endured it to finish my studies. Just 2 weeks after my graduation, I left my country. I was only 22 years old when I came to Ireland. I had moved to another continent, alone, without any working experience and with very poor English, just myself with only 600 Euros in my pocket. I faced this situation by not spending time being afraid. I focused on working hard in improving my English and learning how everything worked in a world completely different from the one that I was coming from.

And I did it! I improved my English, and I got my first job after 3 months. I have never stopped working since then.

5. What’s something you’ve done that you’re really proud of?

My girlfriend and I visited Morocco last summer. While travelling through the little villages deep in Morocco, we had the opportunity to share with the native Berber people and discover the wonderful artisan work that they do.

We were especially amazed by the rugs that craftswomen create with sheep wool, and when we saw the meticulous hard work behind each of those rugs, we made up our minds to launch a project together and create a company to support these wonderful local products and to empower local women.

As an enterprising couple, we have created a company called Moroccan Craft Rugs. We have built the entire company by ourselves: developed the entire website, edited all the content, managed the social media, returned to Morocco and agreed with local women to get the product directly from them, etc. We happily launched this site a month ago, and you can see all our project and effort in our website www.moroccancraftrugs.com.

We are especially proud of this project, as we, as women, have the opportunity to help other women, helping to provide value to a beautiful work made with natural products.

6. What is your favorite source of inspiration?

Joan of Arc, Ada Lovelace, and the girls from the movie Hidden Figures: girls living a world made for men, making the difference.