Cornell University rising senior Destiny Nwafor ’17 has been making positive changes in the tech world. In June, the computer science major began a fellowship at Rewriting the Code, an organization that brings together women in tech and offers leadership and networking opportunities. Nwafor and four other fellows have formed Black Wings, which aims to support black women in tech. The five met in New York City for the first time in January, hosted by the ride-sharing firm Lyft. At the moment, Black Wings is busy engaging new members, mapping out webinars and topics, and meeting with tech recruiters and industry professionals. “I hope we encourage one another to reach our professional and personal goals, serve as agents of change in the tech industry, and make our mark,” Nwafor said.
She appears poised to do just that. Currently a software engineer intern at IBM, Nwafor will begin a new internship at Microsoft in June. In her spare time, she’s the president of the Cornell chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and is a member of the Atelier 320 dance company. This winter, she and several Cornell student and faculty volunteer mentors traveled to Ghana with a program called CodeAfrique. They taught classes in the coding language Python to tech-minded high school and university students, and led a workshop on wearable technology. “It was an amazing experience and reminded me of why I wanted to study computer science and change the landscape of the tech industry,” she said.