My name is Danijela Zizic and I am a third-year BA student of Computer Science, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, University of Montenegro. I am a member of Digitalizuj.Me and TEDxPodgorica teams, as well as one of the lecturers with American Corner’s Girls Who Code project, whose main goal is to empower girls so that more of them pursue programming. I have been active in organisational and marketing activities for quite some time now, but since I am in the final year of my BA, my goal in the near future is to refocus on programming. Entrepreneurship is my plan for a more distant future.

My message to young people would be: Do not be afraid to dream of great things, but take one step at a time to achieve them. Even if failure happens, look at it simply as a lesson. Also, do not be afraid to be versatile as versatility can only widen your horizons.

My message to girls would be to continue re-examining themselves (we all do it), but never allow that to make you believe that you are not good enough for what you want. You can succeed in disciplines that are still dominated by men, such as STEM, but only if you believe in yourself and your ideas and if you are not afraid to voice them.

Never stop working on yourself in all aspects. There is no stagnation, we are either making progress or going backwards. I am a huge believer that we should set high goals for ourselves, but we should never skip a step along the way.

Danijela Zizic, Third-year student in the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, Podgorica