How would you describe your reign as Vlisco Ambassador?
Being the 2016 Vlisco Ambassador is a role that is very important to me. As a woman in tech who encourages and teaches girls to code, my biggest challenge is changing mindset and breaking stereotypes. I love that I can break the stereotype that women and girls in STEM are nerdy and socially awkward. I am also championing the cause that dreams can come true. I love motivating and inspiring, especially young people to chase their dreams with all the passion they have in them and using my life’s journey as an example. I also love the beautiful Vlisco outfits I get to have designed by these amazing and talented designers. The Vlisco inhouse tailoring experience (PretACouture) has been one of my favorite tailoring experiences to date. In short my reign as the Vlisco Ambassador has been impactful and exciting.
How did becoming the Vlisco Ambassador impact on you?
I walk taller and prouder in Vlisco because I feel good and I love being stylish in beautiful fabric with unique designs. With this new confidence I can show women and girls everywhere that you can study and pursue careers in STEM and still be stylish. Fashion is an industry that lots of women and girls in Ghana and around the world love. I am now able to use fashion and style to attract more women into traditionally male dominated fields like science and technology. I had a young woman say to me she had no idea who a software developer was but when she found out that Vlisco Ambassador was a software developer she decided to learn more about it.
What impact would you say you have made with your role?
I was also able to start this campaign called #StylewithCode where we went across the country educating women studying STEM in the university on the opportunities in the tech space and recruiting them to join our Tech Need Girls Mentor program. I have to say being the Vlisco Ambassador really got the attention of our target audience. We were able to recruit and educate more women and girls to consider all the amazing opportunities in coding and creating technology. We even had a Vlisco fashion show in our recent networking event where we connected accomplished Women in Tech to aspiring women and girls in tech.
What has been your most memorable moment of your career so far?
This question is difficult. I have had a lot of memorable moments. I think each year has had a memorable moment but I must say that my most memorable to date is being selected as the 2016 Vlisco Ambassador and exceeding our target of training over 3000 girls in Ghana and Burkina faso to code and create technology.
How were your engagements with women studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics?
I would have to say being the Vlisco Ambassador allowed me to show women in STEM that fashion and technology can come together in a really amazing way. We even had our girls in our coding workshop design innovate ways to detect fake and real Vlisco fabric using technology.Fashion and technology is all about creativity and selfexpression. For the women in STEM I think they are the most creative people as they solve problems every day in their line of work. To now be able to express themselves more with fashion using beautiful Vlisco Fabrics is like a total package. I think I have demonstrated that it is important to look good and stand out no matter what industry you are in.
What is next with Regina and future projects?
Well I am always thinking and dreaming big. We have to date, trained over 3000 girls in 8 regions in Ghana and expanded our impact to Burkina Faso. Some of our girls have built amazing products that we will be launching soon. We are working on starting the first allgirls coding and human centered design school in West Africa which will open in January 2017. I am so excited about the future and the impact we are going to make.
