She was one of the first 10 students to join the Clark Scholars Program, a landmark commitment to expand access to a Georgia Tech engineering education. After this spring, all of those students will have graduated. So, Commencement closes a chapter for the College, just as it closes one for Sheriff.

Yet Sheriff’s Clark community persists. Later this year, she will start as a product manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, where several Clark Scholars from other universities also will be working.

“It’s really nice and exciting to have people you can talk about things and connect with,” said Sheriff, who is earning her mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree.

At Microsoft, Sheriff likely will work with the Surface product team, a group she became familiar with during an internship last summer.

She might not have considered exploring a career at the tech giant if not for her mentor, Kathleen Bernhard Jones, who works at the company and saw Sheriff’s potential to bridge engineering and other disciplines.

Read more of Fatima's story on the College of Engineering website.