Inspired by one of her sisters who had been diagnosed as hard-of-hearing, Zoe Tagboto’ 20 had a career goal to become an ENT specialist. However, when her two-year pre-med program in Canada was canceled and replaced with a four-year programme, she felt the need to explore other programmes.

“I felt that exploring other fields of study before pursuing medicine would be more beneficial than four years of pre-med,” she said. “And after checking out a list of schools, Ashesi made sense to me.”

Initially studying Business Administration as her major, Zoe made a switch to Computer Science after taking Introduction to Programming class, a mandatory course for all first years at Ashesi.

“I just fell in love with it and couldn’t give it up,” she shared.

Over time, she developed an interest in Robotics which led her to reassess her career goals.

“Learning how technology interacts with the physical environment made me realize I could better contribute to solving hearing problems from a tech angle,” she shared. “Most people who are hard-of-hearing have sensory neural hearing loss meaning that speech becomes incomprehensible for them at specific frequencies. In my sister’s case, she can understand speech when spoken at low frequencies but not at high or medium frequencies. Unfortunately, current hearing aids only amplify sound, rather than clarity, so she cannot use them. And I felt I could best contribute towards improving hearing aids as a biomedical engineer, so patients can hear better without having to get a cochlear implant.”

Encouraged by Dr. Korsah, head of Robotics at Ashesi, Zoe applied for the Google Women TechMakers Scholarship; an initiative by Google to support women in tech with resources and community to help them develop their skillsets and careers. Selected as one of the top 20 applicants from across Europe, Middle East and Africa, Zoe received a one-time scholarship towards her tuition, and a fully funded trip to the Google TechMakers summit in London.

“It was tough applying because I heard about it on the day of the deadline, but it was worth it.” she shared. “As part of the application, we had to write four essays, including some technical ones which I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do if I hadn’t taken Dr. Korsah’s Robotics class.”

In addition to earning the Women TechMaker’s scholarship, Zoe continues to seek other ways to engage with women in technology. In September 2018, she joined over 18,000 other women at the annual Grace Hopper celebration, aimed at supporting and inspiring women to further their careers, break boundaries, and transform the world of technology. This November, she will join 9 other college students at the Norman Foster Foundation’s Robotics Artelier in Paris, a conference focused on robotics.

On the campus front, Zoe is a member of both the Robotics and Tech for Deaf club, where she teaches sign language. She is also an Executive on the Ashesi Student Council – the university’s student government.

“It’s hard to explain how or why, but sitting in a conference room with all those women at the Grace Hopper celebration was motivating,” she said. “Seeing women who have succeeded, are finishing their PhDs and are achieving amazing things in the tech industry, gives you hope that you can also get there. I want to help create a community like that here in Ghana so that women are aware of opportunities that are available.”