IT Girl of the Year: Melissa from KTH
Melissa Albert, one of our senior undergraduate IT students, has been appointed “IT Girl of the Year” for 2007. This award was instituted by Microsoft as a stimulus towards making young women apply for education programmes and jobs in the IT sphere; the Prize is thus given every year to a girl who has accomplished something noteworthy in the field of IT – for the benefit of herself as well as other students.
26-year old Melissa is one of the persons behind the ”Computer Girl” student conference. This aims to create networks among women who are studying IT education programmes. In reply to a question from the newspaper Metro Teknik why she thinks she was the winner, Melissa said:
– I´m hoping to give others inspiration, that was why! I want to inspire other girls to dare take that step – to tackle IT, and work with it, and make room for themselves in it.
This was the fourth time this award was given; Melissa is in fact the third winner who belongs to KTH. The award is a joint undertaking between Microsoft and consultant Universum Communications Sweden AB. Part of the Prize is a study visit to Microsoft´s Main Office in Redmond, Oregon and also a visit to their annual IT development conference, “TechEd”.