Sommer Cronck

Tell us your story.

I got my start back in the 80's with my Commodore 64 hooked up to my TV and programming rainbows and repeating text. My first ever "goto" loops! I moved on to an AT&T PC with a dot matrix printer and quickly began programming, disassembling and reassembling it. It just continued from there...

As for who helped me and who inspired me, I think first and foremost, it was my innate design to learn, build and create that was - and remains - my driving force. I started out with the manual from my C 64 and when I got that first PC, a friend of mine had a dad who worked for IBM. As such, he knew a lot about computers and started teaching me. It was great! Then I took computer science in high school which, at the time, was a lot of BASIC and PASCAL programming. I loved it.

I never thought to pursue an education in computer science and instead chose French. But every step along the way, I was learning more about technology it seemed. And there was always a friend who knew something about technology who would teach me what they knew. I just kept building upon what they were teaching me. As I craved more, I would search for classes, books and any other info I could find to keep me moving forward.

What do you most want other women and young girls to know about being a woman in our digital culture?

I think that technology is an amazing career choice for women! Especially those who are creative and like a challenge. Technology is continuously evolving therefore your experiences are evolving. It's a career where the potential for growth and education are limitless, and you will always be doing new and exciting things.

The Women in Tech campaign exists to help redefine what women in technology means in the 21st century. Started independently by a group of professional women who, after many impassioned discussions about women in tech knew we wanted to expand this definition beyond 'traditional' technology skills. To us, it includes most every current, emerging or evolving role within an organization. By featuring leaders and emerging leaders across industries who embody this we hope to collectively 'stand up', be proud of our place in the digital world and inspire young women or those new to the 'tech space' to get involved.