Lone Woman
I found myself in an auditorium surrounded by unfamiliar faces.
"One…two…three…other girls are here too. Whew…" I thought to myself. We were introduced to the Digipen Institute of Technology's founder, Claude Comair, as he spoke about the ups and downs of the gaming industry. At the end of his opening, Claude asked students to raise their hands when he called out their enrolled program (animation or engineering). To my surprise, I was the only female enrolled in the engineering program. The other three women were listed under the animation program. There starts my adventure.
I have to say, I am still very surprised at the lack of female enrollment in this institution. Prior to enrolling in Digipen, I was a senior programmer at a top-rated medical software company. In my department of application programmers, there was only one male. In fact, I know many women that are interested in or are currently programming, either professionally or just playing around with code during their own time. Some of these women love to play games as much as I do. I find myself wondering just how many female game developers there are in the gaming industry. Am I just at the dawning of women game developers? Unfortunately, Digipen is my only perception of what the gaming industry is like. I sincerely hope to meet up with other female game developers in the workforce.
Despite my disappointment at being the only female in the engineering program, I have found the Digipen curriculum to be outstanding so far. I have found the courses to be extremely informative, and the instructors exceed my expectations. Does every software programmer know how a bubble jet printer works, or what the differences between a SRAM and DRAM are? I am very fortunate to be taught by some of the nation's top programmers and game designers-- not to mention an occasional guest speaker. It's amazing how much information they can squeeze into my brain. I just hope I can recall it all well after I graduate.
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