Today children across the country engaged in many activities in celebration of National STEM/STEAM Day. The focus of this designated day is to encourage students to explore and pursue interests in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math, and D’Arcy Ortiz provides the perfect inspiration especially for young women.
D’Arcy was born in Georgetown, Guyana and was raised by her mother, Yvette Irving, a Medical Laboratory Scientist, who worked with the Ministry of Health Guyana and later years as a Laboratory Consultant across the Caribbean.
Before moving to the USA for undergraduate studies, D’Arcy attended the Georgetown International Academy. In 2015 D’Arcy graduated with a BBA in Information Systems Management from Berkeley College and worked as an IT project assistant at Complete Discovery Source in Manhattan New York.
In 2017 D’Arcy graduated with a Master of Science in Information Systems Management from New York University with a concentration in Enterprise Risk Management.
Over the last two years, D’Arcy has been employed by Logicworks as a Cloud Support Associate certified in Amazon Web Services Development. Logicworks is a cloud computing and managed hosting company in Manhattan, New York, hosting companies such as DELL and Henry Schein. The company has recently listed D’Arcy on their website as an experts within the organization.
Below the tech-savvy rising star discusses how she made it into the world of STEM.
What made you want to pursue a career in STEM?
I actually didn’t choose this career path, it chose me. I only knew about the link between Business and IT when started college. After looking at the curriculum and going to a few classes I started to enjoy systems analysis and web design in addition to business courses and seeing how much these two depend on each other. Having strong business leadership skills as well as knowledge of information technologies that can enable an organization to improve its financial or marketplace performance.
After graduation, I then enrolled in an information systems masters program with a concentration in enterprise risk management. I chose this concentration because it focuses on managing risk in the financial and tech industry. My favorite courses were definitely, information security management, assessment and mitigation, and IT auditing. I did not get into cloud services until starting my job at Logicworks. Cloud computing is definitely the future and being able to work in this every day is amazing.
Did you have any key mentors or people who influenced your decision?
My Mom is my hero and role model. Even though she is in a completely different field than I am, watching her succeed and definitely my passion for education and independence has been influenced by her.
Darcy embraces her mom, Yvette Irving
What advice would you give to a young girl/woman who wants to pursue a similar career?
Stay Focused. This field is definitely male dominated so don’t be discouraged, find your specific passion in IT whether it be DevOps (Software Development and Operations) or Security and go for it!
What would you say is the essence of being a woman who rocks?
The essence of being a woman who rocks is being educated, motivated and independent.
What’s next for you or what are you most looking forward to?
My next step in my career is achieving the AWS certified Security Certification in addition to other security certifications with an end goal of becoming a CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) one day.
In her spare time, Darcy enjoys Photography. She is also a fan of anime.
