Vanessa Hurst entered the University of Virginia intending to major in biomedical engineering. Then, like all engineering students at her university, Vanessa was required to take a computer science class. That class ended up fascinating her and changing how she saw the world, and Vanessa quickly changed her major to computer science.
“When I looked at biomedical engineering and medical I was like, ‘I’m going to be in school forever. I want to make a difference faster,’” she says. And faster was a promise she kept: finishing her undergraduate degree and working on the side as a database engineer.
Now, Vanessa serves as CEO of CodeMontage, a community she founded that empowers coders to increase their impact on the world. She’s also the co-founder of Girl Develop It, a nonprofit judgment-free environment for adult women (and men!) to learn about software development. Previously, Vanessa founded and ran Developers for Good, a NYC-based network of tech types who met monthly to tackle social impact opportunities and make the world a better place. For Vanessa, “making it” won’t be fame or fortune; it will be successfully getting people to think about technology and code in terms of humanity and the people who are going to be affected by it.