Source: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

From the day she laid her eyes on a computer, it was love at first sight for Sania Kabir Liya. Though her parents wanted their daughter to be a doctor, she never gave up her dream towards being a computer engineer. After getting into Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Liya couldn't ask for anything better but she didn't know it was only the beginning. In 2014 Sania Kabir Liya was the first Bangladeshi to be awarded with the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, which is one of highest respected grants in the modern computer science world.

In May, 2014 Liya first saw the announcement of the scholarship in a website. “It was very random attempt on my part. Around 32 students from my university applied for this scholarship so I never thought of getting the award and at one point I forgot about the whole thing and started concentrating on my studies,” says Liya. But an email in July changed her whole life. “I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw the mail. After a long boring lab session at the university, you don't really expect that your life's about to change,” says Saniya Kabir Liya. In October she flew to Tokyo to receive the award.

“It was without a doubt a life changing experience. 28 people from all around the world were granted this scholarship that year and I was very lucky to be a part of this genius bunch,” says Sania. In Tokyo, she got to learn how the most popular IT organisation of the world works from big personalities of the company. “We were taught first-hand of how Google operates and how it truly changed mankind's perspective of thinking in the modern age.” After getting the scholarship, Liya is now on a mission, trying to get more women interested in the IT sector. “I think it's a whole new world out there for women who are interested to work in IT. We are talking about a sector which is developing day by day and if we get more women interested to work in this field it would be on of the best decisions ever made,” said the scholar.