STEMinist Spotlight Week 4 - Kelly Focht

Hello readers! In honor of March being Women's History Month, I wanted to take a moment each week and highlight a female in my network that embodies leadership, creativity, collaboration, and strength in the STEM industry.

The fourth and final spotlight I am eager to share with you all is a good friend from high school, Kelly Focht. Kelly is a senior associate software engineer at Capital One.

Take a moment to read Kelly's story and connect with them professionally!

Tell me a little bit about what you do!

I create and maintain APIs as well as streamline code and infrastructure deployment processes. I do some work with data analysis as well.

What's your education background?

I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The Ohio State University

How did you got interested in your industry?

I did robotics in high school which got me interested in engineering. I then signed up for a Women in Engineering RISE camp where we got to explore different types of engineering and found Electrical and Computer Engineering most interesting.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

I raised over $1000 for the Richmond SPCA by doing a video game-a-thon.

Real Talk - What is something you wish you could tell your 13 year old self?

I would tell myself to explore more clubs and extracurricular activities.

Finally...what do you like to do outside of work?

I like to do a lot of different crafting like painting and mosaics as well as tinker with electronics. I also enjoy volunteering with cats at the local shelter.

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Stay in touch to see a new STEMinist spotlight every weekend this month! As well, follow me on TikTok at @steamambassador to see my month long campaign of Badass Women in STEM (global).