Community Spotlight: Gabriela Araujo
Celebrating 2025-2026 Fellow Gabriela Araujo! Gabriela grew up in Venezuela, and came to the US three years ago. She is a self-taught computer programmer who is currently studying Computer Information Systems at Berkeley City College, following a transfer-oriented path toward Computer Science. Gabriela is an excellent Badminton player who spent eight years on Venezuela’s national team. As an avid learner, she is “always looking for little classes to take.” She also enjoys painting, making art, spending time with her husband, family, parents and friends.
Gabriela is a highly determined, inquisitive, and creative technologist who is motivated to create technology for social good and to serve underrepresented communities. As she says, "I love to create solutions. Technology creates opportunities. I want to be a software engineer because I want to bring opportunities to people, including people like me, who had to take non-traditional and more challenging paths to higher education. I feel like technology can allow us to create solutions and bring opportunities to people in the medical field, in education by learning online, for people living in rural areas. I want to be part of the solutions.”
Gabriela became interested in technology as a child. “My dad worked in technical support with computers and one day he showed me a game with a snake in his phone. I was a little shy, and thought, how do we make these games?! My curiosity grew from there. When I got to high school, I was on the badminton team, but also learning programming by myself in my free time. I love badminton, but I also love programming. When we would travel for competitions, I would spend my free time looking into how to create different virtual games. I arrived in the US looking for opportunities to go into technology. I arrived here and learned the language. I didn’t know how to say anything except ‘hi.’ I knew I needed to learn English to be part of the tech industry. I found the AnitaB.org Apprenticeship Pathway Program, and from there, I found the Intuit internship opportunity.”
Code2040 helped Gabriela find community with other Black and Latine computer scientists. “When I entered the tech industry here, the first reality that I saw was that there wasn’t a lot of representation from my community. In my college there are a lot of international students, but Latine and Black students remain underrepresented. I felt alone. I want our community to have more representation in the tech industry because our community has a lot to bring to the industry, including our history and background. When I found Code2040, I was so happy! I thought, ‘Yeah! I want to be part of this community. I want to feel that I belong in this industry, and have community who will support me.’ This program is amazing. It’s been wonderful. I have support here, and all the workshops have helped me so much. I met other students, and we connected, worked together on projects, and formed a team for the hackathon! This program has been so supportive for both my studies and myself. I feel confident that I can go into tech and that I belong here.”
Gabriela wants to be part of creating pathways to enter the tech industry, “I want to encourage other people in my community, Latine women, to be part of the tech industry. [Through Code2040] I gained tools to navigate the industry, and when we are part of this community we can fight for our community and work in this industry for more representation. Racial inequity is a reality. It’s really sad, but now I feel I have tools to be more present and to encourage others to be part of this industry. We belong here, and if you want to be part of this industry you can. I have a lot of friends and family who are interested in the tech industry, but feel it isn’t for them. I want to encourage people in my community to enter the tech industry, and to show them from my experience and my background – I came to the US, I didn’t know the language – I did this, and you can too! I want to give what I’ve received back to Latine and Black people who belong here, in the tech industry.”
To prospective fellows, Gabriela says, “Go for it! If you want to be a software engineer, this program gives you support to go for your goals and understand how we can work together to have more representation in the tech industry. This is an amazing program to find community where you don’t feel alone, and where you can feel supported. You’ll learn a lot, so go for it!”
Thanks for being part of our community, Gabriela!