Take Five: Monica Bowe (Cleveland)

Monica Bowe joined the BDPA leadership team last year when she was selected as national VP-Finance to close out 2009. She agreed to serve in 2010-2011 as an Outside Director on the national BDPA board of directors.

We are very pleased that Monica agreed to participate in our Take Five interview series.

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1. How did you get involved in working with BDPA? - A very good friend and colleague introduced me to the organization. I describe myself as a finance professional with an affinity for technology. She knows this and made the match. It’s been a very rewarding experience thus far.


2. What is the most rewarding aspect of working with BDPA? - It is absolutely the youth. It is so all about the kids. BDPA does really wonderful work with SITES and HSCC. I love that BDPA provides an avenue for minority youth to segue into the technology positions where they are sorely underrepresented. I love that they will have a say in what the next technologies will be and that BDPA provides some of the tools to get them there.


3. Tell us about a defining moment in your life? - The loss of my son a year and a half ago. Like most, I was all about the corporate climb, getting extremely bent out of shape about trivial corporate matters, planning my next steps on the corporate ladder. Losing my son taught me two things: 1. Through Christ, I am much stronger than I ever thought myself to be and 2.Sweating the small stuff is a waste of energy.
   
   Sometimes I still struggle with sweating the small things, but I remind myself that life has much bigger issues with which to contend.


4. Who is your hero and why? - It’s so cliché, but my mother is truly my hero. She was a single mom and cleaned houses to put food on the table. She made sure that she instilled good Christian values in me and encouraged me that I could be anything that I wanted. Through her love and support, I have been blessed as an educated Black woman with a good degree of success thus far in my career. I am eternally grateful to her.


5. Any advice for people considering donation to BETF? - Whomever you choose to give to, give with your heart. Find those organizations that mean the most to you. BDPA and BETF are great because they empower our youth to go out and impact the world we live in by learning, discovering and creating the next generation of technologies. How amazing is that?

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BDPA needs to find brothers and sisters like Monica to serve it at both local and national level. I look forward to meeting Monica in person at some point in the future.