Moriah Baxevane-Connell, CST '13, is a proud woman in tech. The 28-year-old recently earned a prestigious position as a cloud consultant at Google in London. It’s a dream job that meshes her dual Temple degrees in information science and technology and psychology, as well as the University of Oxford MBA she completed last fall.
When Baxevane-Connell, from a small, rural town in Pennsylvania, started college, she admits she didn’t even know what computer programming was. But after stumbling upon a coding course her first year, she was hooked. Thanks to her passion and drive, and three incredible Temple mentors—Claudia Pine-Simon, Rose McGinnis and Wendy Urban—Baxevane-Connell persisted in her studies and excelled in a field that many women historically haven’t pursued.
Her hope, Baxevane-Connell says, is that she can give back to the next generation of women in tech: “I’ll do anything I can to help any woman in the field.”
While at Temple, Baxevane-Connell joined other College of Science and Technology students in attending the annual Grace Hopper Celebration—the largest gathering of women in computing in the world, named after the inspiring computer pioneer and naval officer. Following college, while working at Microsoft, she found herself so committed to the conference’s mission that she began volunteering on its planning committee.
Then, in 2015, Baxevane-Connell landed an amazing opportunity, unimaginable so early in her career. She was asked to open the conference’s evening celebration in front of a crowd of 5,000 at the Houston Astros’ ballpark by detailing her journey into the field.
“It was one of my most favorite moments in my career,” she says.
—By Lauren Hertzler, KLN ’13
