The annual EQUALS in Tech Awards recognize initiatives from around the world that help imagine a better digital future for women and girls. Every year we give awards recognizing work that helps girls and women get equal access, skills and opportunities online and in the tech industry. At the 2018 awards, we asked this year’s winners to tell us a bit about how the recognition that goes with winning the award might impact their work.
Laboratoria's Marisol Alarcón answers questions at the 2018 EQUALS in Tech Awards
Laboratoria was our 2018 Skills category winner. They manage an initiative called "Giving Women from Underserved Backgrounds a Career in Tech," a social enterprise that empowers young women from underserved backgrounds in Latin America by giving them access to education and jobs in the STEM sector. The students only have to pay the program after they find a job. Laboratoria Partner and VP of Partnerships Marisol Alarcón spoke with us after the 2018 award ceremony:
EQUALS: What does winning the 2018 EQUALS in Tech Award mean to you?
Marisol Alarcón: Winning the EQUALS in Tech Awards means so much to us. First of all, it validates the hard work of Laboratoria and our amazing team, but also it validates the amazing and incredible talent that women have. This talent is even more important because in our case it comes from places where usually it doesn’t come from. We work with women from underserved backgrounds who usually don’t have access to work in technology, so this award is a recognition to their work and their capabilities.
EQUALS: What would your one piece of advice be for future award applicants?
Marisol Alarcón: My advice to future applicants would be to keep doing their work, to keep doing their job. We have to focus all of our energy, our team, our talent, our resources to our work, to what we’re doing. And if you have quality work behind with data that validates the impact that you are generating, applying for the EQUALS in Tech Awards should be a natural step and winning would also be natural… with a little bit of luck, of course.
Laboratoria, like all the partners in the EQUALS Skills Coalition, works to make sure that women and girls have equal chances to learn the tech skills they need to succeed in an ever-more digital world. We are proud to support their work with the 2018 EQUALS in Tech Skills Award.
Want to find out more about more EQUALS in Tech Award winners from the past five years? Check out Winners’ Wednesdays, our ongoing series of profiles, to learn about where our winners are now, the work they’re doing, and how they are reimagining the digital future.
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