Farha Ferdous: Building a Career in Tech from the Ground Up

Farha Ferdous, a Computer Science major at CUNY Queens College, is preparing to graduate in Spring 2026 with plans to pursue a career in software engineering or data. But at the start of her college journey, she didn’t even know data focused careers existed. 

“Without Break Through Tech’s ’23-’24 AI Program, I didn’t even know there was a whole different field of tech centered around data where many roles such as data scientists, data analysts, ML engineers, data engineers, and AI engineers existed,” Farha said. 

“Because of this experience, I feel I’ve gained skills which allowed me to become a much more flexible person in tech and my options aren’t just limited to frontend or backend SWE engineering.”

Finding Break Through Tech

Farha first found out about Break Through Tech AI through an email sent by her school’s career center. Eager to build her skills early, she was drawn to the opportunities that Break Through Tech offers for undergraduate students.

“I was motivated by the chance to gain new skills and explore areas of tech beyond the typical paths I knew about, like frontend or backend software engineering.”

Farha was accepted and began her AI Program journey in the summer of 2023, a decision that would redefine her trajectory.

A Launchpad for Growth

Participating in Break Through Tech’s AI Program gave Farha both technical skills and confidence.

“After getting accepted and successfully completing the AI program, I believe I really began to adopt and resonate with the mindset of just going onwards and trying my best to make the most for myself,” she said. “Break Through Tech really is the crux of my career development and industry experience and skills I’ve gained throughout my undergrad years, as I was able to land two Sprinternships™ through their CUNY Sprinternships™ program the following year at UNICC and Google. I really don’t know what most of my resume would have consisted of if it weren’t for the initiatives of Break Through Tech.”

Hands-On Experience

Farha applied her AI Program skills in a Challenge Project with Pfizer, where her team built a model for early detection of heart disease.

“It was truly a remarkable experience, as Pfizer Data Scientists and the Break Through Tech TAs guided us through the end-to-end medical prediction project we took on,” she said. “Our company hosts really went above and beyond to guide us through bias detection and mitigation as well, which is an important issue to address when it comes to real-world implementations of models like the ones we were working on.”

Through Sprinternships™ at UNICC and Google, Farha built on those skills further: “In January 2025, I learned some basics about Cyber Threat Landscape Reports through my Sprinternship™ at UNICC, and was able to put to use the data analysis skills I gained in my previous Break Through Tech experience. I recently wrapped up the Google Sprinternship™ at NYC this June, where I learned about Prompt Engineering for Gen AI models for our project.”

Advice for Future Fellows

Farha encourages other undergraduate students to take the leap and apply to Break Through Tech’s programs.

“Go for it. There is nothing to lose when applying for a Break Through Tech program; rather you’d be opening up your own technical, career, and networking opportunities in a tech industry which is already so highly saturated and competitive,” she said. “On top of that you’d be surrounding yourself with a supportive safe-space which will do wonders for you beyond the duration of your program. I’ve made some wonderful friends through all the Break Through Tech programs I’ve participated in, and still keep close contact with many of them till this day.”