Catalina Laverde

About Catalina

• Born and raised in a small town outside of Bogota, Colombia.
• Spent the majority of her younger years indoors studying, reading, and writing because it wasn’t safe to play outside.
• Early on, she developed an interest in journalism and worked for a local radio station throughout her teen years—she always assumed she would eventually become a journalist.
• After graduating high school, she had a change of heart and decided that she wanted to pursue something new and challenging, which led her to software engineering.
• Admits her first exposure to computers and programming came during her first semester of college, before that she had never taken a computer class.
• When she was 18, she decided to move to the U.S. to finish her college degree and give herself more opportunities—arrived with 1 suitcase, $200, and didn’t speak a word of English.
• Got accepted to Rutgers University, where she majored in computer science—her mother sold their family home in Columbia in order to help her pay for her tuition.
• She is now a Senior Software Engineer at Spotify in New York and is the Co-Founder of Civic Action Network, an organization bridging the gap between Congress and Constituents.