SPIN Forward May Newsletter
Mindful Moments in May
This month, we’re turning our focus inward—with a theme centered on self-care for the whole family. As the days grow longer and the pace of life picks up, it’s more important than ever to pause, breathe, and take care of ourselves and one another. In this issue, you’ll find simple tips, gentle reminders, and family-friendly ideas to help everyone in your home feel more balanced, calm, and connected.
Here’s to a May filled with moments of peace and joy!
- Lauren and Jie Ying
Upcoming Events
Lab Day #5
Saturday, May 17th from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Field Day
Saturday, May 31st from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Office Hours + Capstone Dress Rehearsal
Please review the graphic below for dates and RSVP by clicking the button below!
May Monthly Observances
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month
Celebrated in May, this month honors the rich histories, diverse cultures, and significant contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders to the United States.
Jewish American Heritage Month
Observed in May, this month recognizes the achievements, culture, and contributions of Jewish Americans to the nation's history and society.
Mental Health Awareness Month
Held each May, this month raises awareness about mental health issues, promotes mental well-being, and encourages support and open dialogue to reduce stigma.
follow us on Instagram to learn more about daily observances this month! @stempathsinnovationnetwork
Self-Care and Wellness
May is Mental Health Awareness month, and with AP Exams and testing season coming up, we want to remind our SPIN youth to take care of themselves during this busy and stressful time. We encourage SPIN youth to try out one of the following tips below to help maintain strong mental health!
Your Monthly Recap
What Did We Learn About?
Lab Day
This month's Lab Day was all about Brainstorming for Capstone Projects!
We focused on introducing capstone projects to each cohort and watching their ideas come to life. Our students are working on a diverse range of projects, including fully sustainable enclosed terrariums, camouflage backpacks, food science innovations, and environmental initiatives aimed at community resilience. They are also exploring sustainable fashion and animal recovery efforts!
Join us on June 7th for our Capstone Showcase! Celebrate the incredible effort our youth have put in this year as they present their final projects to family, friends, and our community. RSVP through the invite sent to your email!
Outdoors is for Everyone! Collab with YWE x Seattle Aquarium
We had an amazing day with a smaller group of youth connecting with the Young Women Empowered community — including their youth, mentors, and staff.
The day began with tidepooling at the beach, followed by singing songs, creating cyanotype art, and ended with a short hike through the beautiful Seahurst Park. Those who arrived extra early got a magical surprise — a chance to see orcas passing by!
Riddle of the Month!
Here we are, coming to sunnier days,
Where I take flight in warm, golden rays.
I greet every being with kindness and cheer,
And leave behind gifts they've been waiting to appear.
Youth Testimonials
During our next few office hours in May, we will be asking students who are dropping in to participate in a short interview for youth testimonials! They will be asked the questions similar to those in the graphics below and may be recorded and have their responses shared on our website or Instagram. If your youth is interested in preparing beforehand, then they can visit the form below to learn more and submit their response.
Keeping Up with the SPIN Girls Team!
Meet 9th Grade Mentor: Gabby Jackson!
Introduce yourself a little:
Hi, my name is Gabby Jackson! I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and where I went to Lakeside High School. I later attended Rice University in Houston, Texas where I obtained my Bachelor’s in computer science. During my undergraduate years, I was heavily involved with STEM outreach and empowerment. I was on the executive board of my university’s National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and started a club called RemixCS that partnered with different high schools in the Houston area to teach students about computer science. Our club made weekly visits to high schools to host engaging coding activities, work with technology and IT teachers to expand their curriculums, and provide academic and career preparation. Essentially, RemixCS offered enrichment that reinforced and broadened the knowledge of students.
After my graduation in 2020, I moved to the Greater Seattle area to work for Google! I have been living here since and enjoy what the Pacific Northwest Area has to offer. Outside of work, I enjoy baking sweet treats, watching TV (my favorite show is 90 Day Fiance), and reading (my last read was called Bad Blood, which is about the Theranos scandal). I also love spending time with my tuxedo named Alala whom I adopted from a rescue shelter.
What is your current job?
I currently work for Google as a software engineer in the Google cloud storage team. Prior to this position, I was a site reliability engineer working under the Persistent Disk team at Google. During my time as a site reliability engineer, I primarily monitored my team’s services to ensure they were running reliably and effectively. If there were issues with any Google services or systems, I was responsible for responding to and resolving them.
Now as a software engineer, my focus has shifted from monitoring Google services and systems to creating new features for them. I regularly collaborate with other team members like product and UX designers to build and review new features. Collaboration is essential to ensure needs are met, features are technically sound, and platforms outside of Google are able to support these upcoming features. In addition, I regularly write and test code so that they are reliable and do what they are expected. I continue to monitor Google services and systems but at a smaller scale and on individual parts like the new features and codes.
To give more insight about these features, they revolve around the Google cloud storage and its security and storing and transferring data in it. Monitoring and updating these features are necessary to protect the privacy and security of data stored by users such as daily, individual users and also large-scale customers like businesses, enterprises, and companies. Although I cannot share in great detail about the features I’m currently working on, me and my team are working on authentication. This will improve the reliability and security of the Google cloud storage by ensuring that people have access to what they are supposed to have access to and that other people don’t have unauthorized access.
How did you choose your career path?
In high school, I initially wanted to become a veterinarian or doctor. I considered engineering as a career path, but I wasn’t too interested because I was only aware of mechanical engineering at the time, which didn’t really resonate with me except for its analytic and building aspects. Even though I thought I wanted to be in medicine, I still wanted to explore other STEM options. This led me to take an AP Computer Science class during my senior year. Prior to this class, I didn’t know anything about computer science. However, after this class, I discovered my love for this subject. While this was exciting, this also meant a dilemma between choosing medicine or computer science.
Ultimately, by sophomore year of university, I decided I wanted to fully pursue computer science. I came to this decision through spending a lot of time asking and talking to people who were pre-med majors, doctors, and other healthcare professionals. A message I received that significantly shifted me towards computer science was this: “if you can see yourself doing anything else, then medicine might not be for you.” This made me realize that I could genuinely envision myself in computer science because I enjoyed the attention to detail, challenge of figuring things out, and the freedom and creativity of coding.
After completing two internships at Google and another at Microsoft during my undergraduate years, these experiences and that message gave me the confidence to pivot away from medicine and to computer science. In addition, with lots of self-reflection, I concluded that medicine was not necessarily a passion like computer science and I didn’t want to go through more years of schooling to become a veterinarian or doctor.
Since my university graduation in 2020, I have no regrets with my decision. I think a lesson from my story is to spend time self-reflecting on what career truly aligns with what you enjoy and want. Additionally, during this process of deciding, actively seek out personal experiences and insight from people in your interested careers. Moreover, if you end up settling on a career that is highly competitive like computer science, don’t be discouraged! If you are passionate, then it’s worth pursuing. Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it.
What are some challenges that you have encountered in your academic journey or career?
When I was pursuing my computer science degree in university, I placed a lot of pressure on myself because computer science was an entirely new and different subject to me. I always did well with academics in high school, succeeding in challenging classes like biology and math, but when it came to computer science, I struggled with grasping its concepts and content immediately. I wasn’t like many of my other peers who already had years of experience or an established foundation in computer science and I felt the pressure to catch up. I recognized that I wasn’t naturally gifted at computer science, but I continued to persevere and become good, confident, and proud of my work and skills in computer science. This took a long time and lots of patience, but throughout this process, I was consistent and slowly but surely progressing.
I now have trust in my competency in computer science after building this confidence up, and this has helped me stand firm and stay chill when I receive hurtful comments from my colleagues in the workplace. I remind myself that the words and actions of others do not reflect who I am, but are a reflection of who they are, and feelings of being an “imposter” is not necessarily because of me, but because of my current workplace is part of a STEM field that has historically and systematically excluded women or people of color.
Aside from these personal challenges I’ve encountered during my academic and professional career, the introduction of AI into the computer science fields and all other fields could become a potential challenge. I’m personally not too worried about AI yet and more curious about learning about the ethics of AI and who is responsible for what AI puts out. It’s interesting to observe how far we will let AI go, what boundaries we will set, and whether AI can develop its own conscience.
What future goals do you have?
One career goal that I’m working hard in progressing towards is becoming a senior engineer. A senior engineer is similar to being a manager such that I will be managing and delegating work to team members. However, I want to be a manager because it offers the opportunity to mentor younger engineers. I personally enjoy mentoring others, which is why I’m involved with SPIN Girls and started RemixCS in university, and assisting with each individual’s personal and professional development. Just as I’ve received invaluable advice from professionals, instructors, and mentors in the past, I want to step into a position where I can be a giver of resources and insight for the younger generation and students.
Aside from this career goal, my personal goals include traveling more, such as Japan and Italy, to experience new cultures and broaden my worldview. I’m also currently taking classes to become proficient in Spanish, which I hope to use in my interactions with others during traveling. In addition, another goal I have is to spend more time outdoors hiking and exploring the beauties in Washington!
If you could describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
I would describe myself as curious because I always like to ask questions and learn new things. For instance, whenever I’m on my phone, it’s usually because I’m searching something up on Google and reading in depth about it on Wikipedia. Another word that describes me is courageous. Although it is uncomfortable to step outside of my comfort zone, I’m not afraid to try new things. I’m brave enough to be bad at something and I will try my hardest to learn new skills even if it takes a couple of tries. Lastly, I would describe myself as caring. I actively try to find ways to invest in the people around me and the community because I want to support others in reaching their successes. In addition, I believe in treating others the way you want to be treated, which is a belief that I try my best to do.
What motivated you to join SPIN Girls?
My experience with STEM outreach in university instilled in me the desire to continue pursuing efforts that contribute to bringing STEM enrichment to youth in my community. After moving to the Greater Seattle area, I found out about the SPIN organization and its unique mission. Wanting to mentor and support youth in their STEM exploration, I joined the SPIN Girls program. Seeing how over the years this program fosters opportunities, connections, and friendships, exposure to varying STEM fields, and soft skills like teamwork, communication, and asking questions helped SPIN youth grow in their confidence and knowledge excites me to continue volunteering for SPIN Girls. SPIN is not just a cool organization, but it has an inspiring and empowering mission.
What are you most looking forward to this year in SPIN Girls?
Most definitely the capstone projects! Each capstone project gives insight into each youth’s progression from the start to the end of the school year and their individual creativity and knowledge, which is encouraging and personally makes me feel immensely proud. Each youth has learned a lot from each Lab Day and having it all culminated in one final project is a great accomplishment that reflects individual growth and expression.
What advice would you give to current SPIN Girls students?
Generally, I would say to not be afraid. Be brave and courageous; take advantage of the opportunities and resources that SPIN has to offer! Don’t be afraid to ask questions or try new things because SPIN is a unique and safe space where learning and trying new things are encouraged and fostered. If you want to present something, then present it. If you want to try a new technology or method, then ask your cohort leads. If you want to learn more about someone’s job, then ask them. SPIN is different from your school; SPIN is a community where all your peers are interested in STEM just like you and support for one another is emphasized.