Meet Sandy Padala, a start-up founder and entrepreneur who has broken barriers in the corporate IT world. Sandy’s journey began in a humble upbringing, where she overcame cultural norms that taught girls to defer to men. Now, Sandy is on a mission to empower a million students through computer science education, believing that computer science literacy is as fundamental as reading and writing in today’s digital world. Sandy aims to foster a generation of future innovators and ignite a new digital revolution and shape the future of technology and innovation.
_________________
Growing up in Hyderabad, India, in a 300-square-foot home for her family of five, Sandy received a merit scholarship to the University of Toledo. Sandy recalls her father taking a loan out on their home to cover the cost of her airfare to the United States. Few of her family members had ever been to an airport before but that didn’t stop 75 of them coming to the airport with her to send her off to the land of opportunity.
And what an opportunity it turned out to be! While engaging her son in the U.S. school system, Sandy found that fellow parents were turning to her for computer science learning. From those experiences, Sandy saw the need for computer science education and started her own company focused on computer science for k-12 students.
As Sandy reminds us, “Computers run the world, monitor our communications, power our mobile phones, manage our bank accounts, keep our diaries, mediate our social relationships, snoop on our social activities and count our votes and a lot more.” So not only is learning computer science important from a personal perspective, but it is also where jobs of the future lie, making it imperative that all students learn computer science. Want to work on cars at a company like Tesla? Computer science skills are required.
Sandy’s goal is to engage 1 million students in computer science learning. Making this education available and providing these skills to students will narrow the gap between students with access and those without, promoting equity and fostering positive impacts on individuals and society. Information technology will be the dominant force in the lives of children as they grow into the real world. The best foundation we can offer them is to give them a deep understanding of how it works. Sandy shares in the belief that school administrators and teachers hold immense power to shape young minds and drive positive change at the grassroots level.
We asked Sandy what she believes the impact of making computer science available to all students has on society. And in her own words, “Just as widespread literacy fueled the Industrial Revolution two centuries ago, equipping all students with computer science knowledge can ignite a new digital revolution, paving the way for advancements like colonizing Mars, conquering diseases like cancer, and breaking the cycle of poverty across generations.” And we couldn’t agree more.
To learn more about Sandy and her work at Rex K-12 and to support her efforts to engage 1 million students in computer science learning, visit her website at www.rexk12.com.
