San Francisco, CA, February 17, 2016 — On October 21, Toptal launched Toptal STEM Scholarships for Women, 这是一个旨在授权和支持下一代女性计算机科学家的项目, software engineers, and developers through a combination of financial support and mentorship.
Today, we could not be more excited to announce that Gabriela Mancini, freelance designer and former primary school teacher from Córdoba, Argentina, is the third winner of the scholarship. 加布里埃拉对软件工程充满热情，她正在提高自己的技能，这样她就可以建立一个教育平台，帮助阿根廷各地的学生学习在线阅读和写作.
加布里埃拉成为一名软件工程师的热情和决心从你见到她的那一刻起就显而易见,” said Toptal Director of Engineering Anna-Chiara Bellini, who leads scholarship’s committee of judges. “Even after submitting her amazing application, 加布里埃拉每隔几周就会跟进我，告诉我她最近的进展，并祝贺之前的获奖者. Her tenacity and love for technology are inspiring to all of us.”
Gabriela has a degree in education with a technology focus. After working for 15 years as a primary school teacher, she quit one year ago to become a freelance designer. However, her true passion has always been software development. As a winner of Toptal STEM Scholarships for Women, Gabriela will receive $5,000, 以及与Toptal高级开发人员进行为期一年的每周一对一指导.
“I’ve always tried to use technology when I teach my students, 但我看到了更多的机会，软件可以改善孩子们在课堂上的很多事情,” explains Gabriela. “我有很多想法，但我只是没有必要的技能来实现它们! Winning this scholarship and having a mentor…this is huge for me.”
Gabriela studied design in university, and has always dreamt of becoming a freelance designer and software developer.
“在小学教书很棒，但我知道我的位置是设计和软件开发. I love it,” says Gabriela. “对我来说，除了当老师和养家糊口之外，很难找到时间学习, so one year ago I decided to quit and start a career as a freelance designer. It was a big risk, but it has paid off. I’m so happy I made this decision.”
Gabriela started by building her website, posting it on social media sites, and sending emails to companies in Córdoba that she saw didn’t have websites. 她的策略和决心奏效了，不久之后，她就建立了一个健康的客户组合. Gabriela认为成为一名自由开发者和设计师是一名小学教师的自然发展.
“When you’re a teacher, you have to talk to lots of people, organize yourself, organize many simultaneous projects, and have a lot of discipline,” says Gabriela. “作为一名自由职业者，你还必须与许多人交谈，待人友善，倾听他们的意见，等等. I always try to teach my clients something whenever they have a project for me. I use so many of the same skills.”
About Gabriela’s Toptal STEM Scholarships for Women application
加布里埃拉第一次知道这个奖学金项目是她丈夫读到的 Dia a Dia, a local online newspaper in Córdoba.
“As soon as I read it, I knew it was for me. 这正是我一直在寻找的帮助我实现教育软件想法的东西，”加布里埃拉说.
Gabriela didn’t know about GitHub, 所以她开始阅读和观看视频，学习如何在她的申请中使用它. She also read Anna-Chiara Bellini’s guide to making your first open source contribution on the Toptal Engineering Blog.
Gabriela also taught herself to create a blog, where she published her application post. Gabriela’s open source project was to contribute to CSSgram, a popular CSS library for Instagram filters.
Although she learned to program in QBasic as a child, 加布里埃拉最近才有机会进一步提高她的编程技能.
“我主要是通过观看在线视频和网站来学习 Codigo Facilito, which provide really great tutorials,” said Gabriela.
With her scholarship winnings, 加布里埃拉计划创建一个在线学习平台，帮助阿根廷儿童学习如何阅读, write, and count. 该网站将反映阿根廷使用的独特教学方法，即让孩子们同时接触所有字母和数字, instead of incrementally.
Although there are many educational platforms on the Internet, even in Spanish, 目前还没有专门针对阿根廷及其教育系统的平台. 加布里埃拉从亲身经历中了解到，这样的产品将对课堂上年轻学生的成长产生巨大的影响, and how beneficial it would be for schools. Since such a project typically requires the efforts of a team of developers, Toptal will also be helping her grow her network of connections in Argentina, where there are many strong Toptal communities.
If the project goes well for her target audience of 5-7 year olds, she plans to expand the learning platform to other age groups as well. She plans on working closely with her mentor to learn JavaScript or PHP, building the web development skills she’ll need to create her platform. She’d like to incorporate parallax scrolling into the site.
加布里埃拉还计划3月份开始在Córdoba的圣多明各高等学院学习计算机科学课程, 并期待着将她在学习中所学到的一切运用到这个项目中.
About Gabriela
Gabriela fell in love with programming in university. “我在一堂教育课上遇到了HTML和CSS，并立即想到, ‘This is wonderful! I want to know more.’” Since then, 她解释说，有很多个晚上她只睡几个小时，这样她就有时间学习了.
She has been married for 8 years and has a 5-year old son and 2-year old daughter, both of whom are already learning to use technology. 加布里埃拉也是一名肚皮舞者，她有时会用跳舞来为她的项目集思广益.
Gabriela’s passion, intelligence, and drive come through in everything she does. 为了对阿根廷的教育系统产生更大的影响，她承担了成功的风险，并将自己的职业重点转移到学习软件工程上，这是她雄心和意志力的惊人证明.
我们很高兴能够在明年支持Gabriela，因为她正在努力成为一名网络开发人员，并为阿根廷的年轻学生建立第一个教育平台. We have no doubt that she will continue to achieve amazing things in the future.
请和我们一起祝贺阿根廷开发者Gabriela Mancini成为Toptal STEM女性奖学金项目的第三位获奖者!
About Toptal STEM Scholarships for Women
Toptal STEM女性奖学金是为女性提供的一系列12项奖学金，每月颁发一次，为期一年, with Gabriela being the third scholarship winner. 世界各地任何教育水平的女性都有资格申请赢得5美元奖金,每年的一对一技术培训和来自Toptal高级技术专家的指导，以帮助他们追求成为未来专业软件工程师的目标.
The first scholarship winner was Rojina Bajracharya, a Python developer, entrepreneur, and mentor from Bhaktapur, Nepal. The second scholarship winner was Ana Sustic来自斯洛文尼亚卢布尔雅那的Python开发人员、系统管理员和项目经理.
申请Toptal女性开发者奖学金，并了解更多有关该计划的信息, visit http://sui.91src.com/scholarships.
About Toptal
Founded in 2010, Toptal是硅谷涌现的发展最快、最具创新性的公司之一. With backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Silicon Valley’s famed venture capital firm, Adam D’Angelo, founder of Quora, Ryan Rockefeller, and other investors, 今天，Toptal连接了来自世界各地的数千名精英自由软件工程师和设计师,000 blue chips such as J.P. Morgan and Pfizer, tech companies such as Airbnb and Zendesk, 以及众多初创公司提供世界级的解决方案，以满足最复杂和最具挑战性的需求. Toptal的快速增长证明了客户需求的爆炸式增长，以及公司服务无与伦比的质量和可靠性.
Media Inquiries
Joellen Ferrer
Toptal, LLC
+1 (415) 308-8209
joellen@91src.com
