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Spring Lake Park High School senior Lily Yang has been selected as a Certificate of Distinction Honoree by The Minnesota Aspirations in Computing Awards Committee (MNAiC) for her engagement in a variety of technology and leadership experiences offered in her high school and community.
“Being named a Certificate of Distinction Honoree was exciting,” said Lily Yang. “I like knowing there's an organization that I can reach out to for help with my future career and knowing they have a great network filled with opportunities.”
Through the partnership between the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and MNAiC, more than 300 young women from Minnesota high schools have been recognized for their technical skills and interests, and well over 2,000 have participated in Aspirations supported programs. What they all share in common is the desire to develop and utilize technology to solve a host of community and social issues.
At SLPHS, Yang has been in leadership positions through school activities, sports and in the classroom. She has been a part of the LEOs Club and National Honors Society, in which she has performed over 40 hours of community service yearly. She also attended a Summer Leadership Camp, where she learned that the best leaders are those who lead by example.
Taking the leadership skills she learned at SLP and through SLPHS’s partnership with Genesys Work, Yang was able to attend summer training, after which she received an internship and was placed at Ameriprise Financial in Downtown Minneapolis, where she was able to continue developing her leadership and technology skills.
Yang, who will study Entrepreneurial Management at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities this fall, hopes to further her leadership and technology skills in a way that will help her community and the world grow.
In addition to furthering my skills moving forward, I hope to represent women because we are hugely underrepresented in the STEM fields. About half of the world consists of women, yet some think a woman’s opinion is not as valid as a man’s. One of the best ways to combat this thinking is by having women in technology and leadership roles. Lily Yang