Career Opportunities in Technology for Single Mothers

This month’s guest contributor is Andrianna E. Hamwright, a graduate of AWF grantee Women in Technology’s technology training program for single mothers. Andrianna shares her story of how, during a period of instability, she found WIT’s Single Mothers Program and how it provided her the opportunity to find not only employment, but a career.

Women in Technology is part of the Women’s Pathway to Success grantee cohort.

My name is Andrianna E. Hamwright and I live in Georgia. I am originally from South Jersey, NJ, and relocated to Atlanta, GA in 2013. I am a twin sister out of five siblings and the third oldest. My elementary years were mostly spent in the suburb of Gloucester County, but later moved closer to the city in middle and high school in Camden County. Given an opportunity to move to another state, I chose Georgia and now live north of Atlanta. What made me relocate to a state so far from “home” was that I heard of the many opportunities and advances for women and technology. Specifically, how Georgia was becoming a booming state of STEAM, science, technology, education, art and math.

Through my hard times of instability and poverty living in Georgia, I was introduced into a program that supported women of my statue, called the Single Mothers Program, wanting to break the barriers of women in the workplace, specifically in technology. In my opinion, Women In Technology used the appropriate tools to uplift and rehabilitate me back to the person I knew I could be. I successfully graduated from the program as one of the top students in the program and obtained employment with a substantial salary increase. Not only did I graduate from a very effective and stimulating program in Cybersecurity and Information technology at Emory University, but I won the Mother of the Year award, 2021.

I now work for one of the top tech companies today, Macy’s, as a Software Engineer in Computer & Operations, concentrating as a programmer and developer. I continue to push myself and strive for what I was taught from my ups and downs in life.

The completion of programs like Women In Technology’s Single Mothers Program continue to cast away the bias percentage of Women In Technology in the workplace. One of the major lessons I have learned in life is that it is never too late to make things right. If anyone is suffering or going through any type of negative phases in life: age, economics, poverty, lack of education, or going through a without stage, just know there are available resources. Resources to help you want to help yourself and succeed.