Women Who Reign: Niharika Vattikonda

“You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Tell us about yourself along with a fun fact!
Hi, I’m Niharika! I’m a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Northern Virginia, and I love all things related to tech and politics — I believe that both the government and the private sector can work together to advance our workforce and use technology to improve our standing in the world. To that end, I’m the founder of Teens Transforming Technology, a national nonprofit organization that empowers students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to pursue computer science, and as the Director of Internal Affairs for my school’s Coding Lady Colonials club for female students in computer science, I also am an Organizer for HackTJ, our annual, 500-student hackathon in March. As a nationally-ranked Model UN delegate, I have learned how integral computer science can be to fostering developing economies and furthering the ideals of democracy and freedom of the press. I hope to combine my love of policymaking and computer science in my position as Student Representative to the Fairfax County School Board, where I plan to advance our school district’s analytics on past performance and promote computer science and algorithmic thinking education for…