Adriana Stohn '19: Inspired to Teach

• Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Scholarship
• B.S. Optical Sciences and Engineering

A few weeks into living in Durham, North Carolina,  Adriana Stohn is enjoying the region’s famed barbecue and hush puppies. But the Arizona native misses the distinctive toastiness of Tucson’s weather and the time she spent teaching girls in middle and high school to code.

Stohn, who is studying for a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, might not be able to heat up the East Coast. But she is looking into starting a chapter of Girls Who Code in her new home. In her time at the University of Arizona, the Brown Scholarship gave Stohn the freedom to volunteer with the university’s chapter rather than working outside her field.

“The most special thing about it is talking to young girls I can relate to. They have a lot of trepidation, but they show up every week. It’s the commitment they make,” she says.

Stohn’s service as Girls Who Code’s lead facilitator led to her inclusion in the UA’s celebration of six women students and professors working in STEM this past spring. Stohn and five fellow scientists were depicted as superheroes on the university’s home page for a month in honor of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on Feb. 11. 

“That was cool and unexpected,” she says.

Stohn enjoyed teaching in Girls Who Code so much she plans to become a professor. She found inspiring mentors among her UA professors, including associate research professor Meredith Kupinski. Kupinski helped Stohn plan her graduate school applications from her freshman year and asked her to contribute to published research.