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Latoya Rose
For years, studies have shown that many girls begin to lose interest in technology around 4th grade. Not Latoya Rose. At the Computer Clubhouse, Rose discovered at age 12 she had a talent for building computer-controlled LEGO gadgets. “The Clubhouse helped me decide what to do with my life. I made new friends, got to know professors, and got to teach other girls,” she says. Now, Rose, 19, a graduate of Roxbury’s John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, is in her first year at Newbury College, Brookline, MA, studying computer science.
Latoya found the Clubhouse through a science program, developed with the Girl Scouts. “I didn’t like science at first, but now I love it, and I love computers.” She learned how to program crickets, tiny computers with sensors and motors, working with MIT professor Mitch Resnick and Wellesley College professor Robbie Berg. Her first creation was a small vehicle on wheels. “It made me want to be a computer engineer,” she says. For her, the most important project involved designing and building a helium weather balloon with a light sensor, thermometer and anemometer guided by mentor Barbara Barry from MIT. With the balloon on the roof, Rose recorded the temperature every 10 seconds and “got this cool graph. It was hard but it was worth it.” The project won second place in a citywide science fair at Boston Latin School in 1999. That’s one reason Latoya’s favorite day has been Monday, Girls Day at the Clubhouse, when girls experiment with technology supported by women mentors and staff. “We found out girls can learn technology from the right teachers,” says Rose.
She’s proud of her work as a youth mentor, helping change girls’ views of technology. She sees computers as the key to her future. “I have a clear picture of what I want to do. We need more women in technology. If girls can accept technology and like computers, they have a chance.” From grades 7 through 12, she participated in the US FIRST Robotics Competition where students and engineers work together to build robots to meet challenges. In 1999 the contest took her team to Orlando, FL, for the national competition. At the same time, she participated in the Massachusetts Pre-engineering Program during school. In the summer of 2001 before 11th grade, she also got a head start from MassPEP in pre-calculus and physics at Bentley College.
As curious as she is resourceful, Latoya covered the Boston opening of the Lyricists' Lounge, a hip-hop version of MTV’s In Living Color, for Shine365.com, a channel via the New York-based Urban Box Office, fostering nonviolence among youth. “It was really cool doing that when I was 15,” she says. Taking advantage of the Clubhouse’s being at the Museum of Science, Rose has helped visitors explore Cahners ComputerPlace and volunteered in the Live Animal Center.
“I appreciate all the help I received to make it through school and beyond,” says Rose. She’s set her sights on “making it through college, finding an interesting career and getting married. But who knows? It’s all about timing, patience and, oh yeah, relaxation. Someone told me that,” she laughs. “People say, ‘Life goes by so fast. Enjoy it!’” What matters most to her is “not dying too young. It’s a crazy world. I don’t want to leave it yet.”
“Tomorrow is not yet given to us,” says her mother Anne Marie Rose. “But I’m positive Latoya will make it. Technology is a field that she really loves.”