University of New Orleans students Ashley Bayer and Veronica Spicer are the recipients of the 2019 Women in Computer Science scholarship founded by University of New Orleans alumna Sabrina Farmer, who is vice president of engineering site reliability at Google.

Bayer and Spicer each received a $6,000 scholarship to offset the cost of tuition, books and living expenses for the fall 2019-2020 academic year.  They also receive mentoring from Farmer who has said she established the scholarship “to encourage women to stick with this career because while there are challenges, the rewards are sweet.”

Farmer earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University in 1995.

Earlier this month in Orlando, Farmer joined Bayer and Spicer at the 2019 Grace Hopper Celebration, the world’s largest annual gathering of women technologists.

Spicer and Bayer say they are inspired by Farmer’s humility and willingness to share her expertise with them.