Meet Rose Niousha, GDSC Waseda Founder & WTM Ambassador
Posted by Takuo Suzuki, Developer Relations Program Manager,
Japan
Rose Niousha wanted to create a community where
students could explore their technical interests without being held back by external factors
or stereotypes. A passion for inclusion set her on a path to growing her
Google Developer
Student Clubs
chapter and discovering the
Women
Techmakers
(WTM) program.
After majoring in Computer Science at Waseda University, Rose realized many students had
difficulty applying what they learned in school to practical environments and internships.
Seeing a gap between theory and practice, she aimed to tackle these problems by founding a
Google Developer
Student Club (GDSC)
on her campus. Through her leadership, the club became the
largest chapter in Japan, with 177 active members. This post highlights how Rose created a big
impact in her community and then became a WTM Ambassador.
How GDSC Waseda emphasized inclusivity in their community
Rose wanted the Waseda community to champion diversity and inclusion.
When Rose selected her core team members, she aimed to ensure diverse
perspectives and different educational backgrounds were represented. By recruiting members
from other majors, people didn't feel like outsiders in the community. As a result, the
members of GDSC Waseda consisted of both technical and non-technical majors, with 47.8% being
female students, marking an inclusive
50-50 gender ratio that is
not typical among tech communities.
|
The 2021-2022 GDSC Waaseda core team (Tokyo,
Japan)
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After building a
core team for the chapter, Rose decided that breaking the language barrier could establish a
more inclusive community. Rose wanted students from all backgrounds to be able to communicate
with each other so she chose English as the main language for the chapter. Since her
university is home to an international community, this helped address a common challenge in
Japanese universities: students' lack of confidence to discuss professional fields in English.
This brought students together and helped everyone improve their language
abilities.
Hosting programs to educate, inspire, and connect
students
The chapter hosted over 30 activities
like speaker sessions and hands-on programming workshops where students gained a practical
understanding of tools like Flutter, Google Cloud Platform, and Firebase.
Flutter
sessions were
taught to students so they could create natively compiled mobile apps and submit to the annual
GDSC Solution Challenge.
Firebase
sessions helped backend teams handle user databases as
well as get a basic understanding of NoSQL databases. Students then could implement this
technology and strengthen their project’s scalability and data security.
Through collaborations with other companies, GDSC Waseda helped students to experience
different disciplines like coding/programming, team management, and design thinking. These
workshops helped students find internship opportunities and even students majoring in
non-technical majors, like humanities, secured internships at tech firms in roles such as
UX/UI design and PM roles since they were exposed to a practical side of the industry.
|
Event Participants from GDSC Waseda (Tokyo,
Japan)
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Leadership in action: GDSC Solution Challenge efforts in
Japan
As a GDSC lead, Rose encouraged
participation in the annual GDSC Solution Challenge. She approached it as a starting point,
rather than a goal. With this positive attitude, four teams from the chapter submitted
projects and team
mimi4me
, a mobile safety application using Machine Learning,
became the first team from Japan to be selected as one of the
Global Top 50
. The team is continuing to scale their solution by
planning to publish the application on Google Play.
|
Rose Niousha gives certificate to the Mini Solution
Challenge winning team (Tokyo,
Japan)
|
To showcase the
efforts of all the teams after the Solution Challenge, the chapter hosted a
Mini Solution
Challenge
event. All teams gave a presentation describing the solutions that they
submitted, and event participants voted for their favorite project. Additionally, another team
of students from GDSC Waseda and Keio founded an E-Commerce startup from their time at
GDSC.
Reflections and
accomplishments along the way
Through
Google connections and using tools like LinkedIn to find other like-minded leaders, Rose
reached out to many inspiring women working in the tech industry. She prepared for the events
for weeks in advance by conducting several meetings with the speakers. Through these helpful
sessions, GDSC Waseda was able to inspire many more women on campus to join their community
and discover their interests. Now, GDSC Waseda is proud to have a diverse community with a
50-50 gender ratio in members.
“Being a GDSC Lead has brought me tremendous opportunities,” says Rose. “Since one
of my biggest objectives was to tackle the gender barrier in the tech industry through my GDSC
community, I actively hosted events during International Women's Day (IWD)
month.”
|
Rose Niousha with the Global Head of Google Developer
Community Program, Erica Hanson (New York City, New York,
USA)
|
Building an inclusive future as a WTM ambassador
Rose worked with her Google Community Manager in Japan, Reisa Matsuda, who helped develop her
passion for creating a diverse and inclusive community. Reisa told Rose about the Women
Techmakers (WTM) program and encouraged her to take advantage of many opportunities. With
mentorship and guidance, soon after Rose became a GDSC Lead, she joined Women Techmakers (WTM)
as an Ambassador.
|
Reisa Matsuda and Rose at GDSC Leads
Graduation
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As an alumnus of
Women Developer Academy (WDA)
, a program that equips women in
tech with the skills, resources, and support they need to become a tech presenter and speaker,
Rose felt confident and prepared to speak as a panelist at this year’s
International Women’s
Day event hosted by WTM Tokyo
- the largest IWD event in Japan with over 180
participants. During the talk, she shared her experience with the WDA program and personal
stories related to WTM’s IWD 2022 "Progress, not Perfection” campaign.
|
Rose Niousha with the Head of Google Women Techmakers,
Caitlin Morrissey (Mountain View, California,
USA)
|
As part of her involvement with the WTM program, Rose attended
Google I/O
offline at Shoreline on
May 11, 2022. It was the first in-person Google developer event she had ever
attended.
“I was surprised by its massive scale,” says Rose. “Kicking off the event with an inspiring
talk by Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, I had an amazing time listening to talks and networking.
During my time in California, I was able to meet with many inspiring students and
professionals, and bring unique ideas back to my
chapter.”
Join a Google Developer Student Club near you
Google Developer
Student Clubs
(GDSC) are community groups for college and university students like
Rose who are interested in Google developer technologies. With over 1,800+ chapters in 112
countries, GDSC aims to empower developers like Rose to help their communities by building
technical solutions. If you’re a student and would like to join a Google Developer Student
Club community,
look for
a chapter near you here
, or
visit the program page
to learn more about starting one
in your area.
Learn more about Women Techmakers
Google’s
Women
Techmakers
program provides visibility, community, and resources for women in
technology.
Women Techmakers Ambassadors
are global leaders passionate about
impacting their communities and building a world where all women can thrive in tech.