Middlebury Student Wins Google ‘Women Techmakers’ Scholarship

Melanie Pascual ’19 (front row, fifth from left), who won a Women’s Techmaker scholarship, attended a gathering of Google scholars this summer at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

A San Lorenzo Bay, California, native, Pascual has advocated for increasing diversity in underrepresented groups in technology since high school. During her first year at Middlebury, she founded a group called MIDDSTEAM, which as a computer science program aimed at middle school girls. She is also active in the Middlebury Women in Computer Science club.

The Google scholarship will also fund Pascual’s trip to the upcoming Grace Hopper Celebration in Orlando, Florida, the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. Pascual is double majoring in computer science and psychology with a minor in education studies.