Janna Jalla Umetin (she/her)

Janna currently works as a Technical Recruiter, focused on bringing Software Engineering talent to Google. She is a first generation Filipino American, born in and raised in a small town in the Visayas region of the Philippines and now residing in Seattle, WA. She graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Diversity Minor. She spends her free time enjoying the unique cuisine around Seattle and practices Tahitian and Hula dance. You may find her personal blog at https://heyguesswhatbyjannajalla.wordpress.com/.

“I had no idea how I was going to go to college — no one in my family had done it before. All I knew was that I had to get there somehow, and have a job waiting for me at the finish line. I remember being a junior in high school and seeing all my friends start going on college tours, submitting applications, knowing how to do it all. I didn’t even know what the FAFSA was. So, I asked for help — a lot of it. My parents trusted me to be able to get myself where I needed to be, and they supported me emotionally. But everything else was through the sheer will of knowing a college education would open doors for me.”