Voices of Women in Tech: Catching up with Stephanie Limage
By Amy Khokhar
“I have had numerous challenges. You cannot set out to build a vision without challenges. It is how you navigate through them your character while you experience hardships or roadblocks that really counts.”
Stephanie Foster Limage wears a lot of hats. She is the CEO and founder of the not-for-profit Give+Share and a third-year Global Development Studies student. She is a creator, global speaker, social and tech entrepreneur, filmmaker, and founder of Limage Media Group. We are grateful we got the chance to catch up with Stephanie for a follow-up on all of her fantastic things since our last interview.
Stephanie is proudly known for connecting tech with humanitarianism in the community. She has constantly been working towards providing and creating sustainable jobs for underprivileged communities worldwide for over a decade now. She started her initiatives from countries like Haiti in 2010 and has kept going ever since. Her company Limage Media Group is well established and known for accomplishing objectives for the greater good - Give+Share is a part of that same journey. Stephanie progresses in her humanitarianism work while using her digital media tech expertise to move forward. Here’s how it’s all going:
[Amy]: What have you been up to since our last interview?
[Stephanie]: Too much; it’s been an intense season, much growth, much support and many interesting opportunities, a few closed doors and new ones opened. Things always come together when you are in it for the right reasons, and the right people come along. Some people are there for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
[Amy]: We did an interview with you about your Give+Share program. Can you update us on how it’s going and how it’s grown?
[Stephane]: Things are going well. For any project, the progress is always based on the actions and the seeds you sow, some of those seeds turn into relationships, and you cannot succeed without relationships. When interviewed, the questions typically come about are based on revenue and growth. When you read the tech news, the most supported and celebrated articles are generally related to the rounds raised. Whoever raises a round gets the most praise. Yes, it is an accomplishment to do so, but how wise is it to share unless the company is public and offering shares? The culture around these aspects would greatly benefit from shifting the narrative and making tech more accessible.
But back to your question, I could not be more pleased with where Give+Share is today. It's been a journey, and it is part of me as I base all of the modules on circumstances I have faced and the brokenness in the social and legal system that has hindered me several times - using my time, life, and personal suffering to shift into something positive and impactful for society.
“My motivation each day is knowing if I keep trying, something good will happen that will benefit millions of people.”
[Amy]: There’s a lot of buzz around “building your community” as key to success in tech. What does your “community” look like?
[Stephanie]: Community is essential anywhere, but for a person to find a tribe, they need first to know who they are and live in a community. For me, community means you are there for one another through the highs and lows, that you share meals and do life together. Weekly meetups and the programs in place offer some support, but it is up to you to find those within the groups you are a part of that you can relate to. There is no instant recipe for community or success. You need to protect your vision, have discernment, and often when things seem too good to be true, they generally are. In the world of instant gratification, it’s crucial to slow down when you are building and take a step back and assess your position to ensure you are making the best decisions.
[Amy]: When did you know you wanted to work in the tech industry? Have you always been curious about technology? What does the phrase “diversity in tech” mean to you?
[Stephanie]: I grew up in the ’90s, so tech became slowly more advanced and integrated into the daily lives of everyone on this planet. The tools were not as complex, and adoption was easier. Playing video games or working in MS paint as a kid helped me to be able to obtain the base knowledge to expand upon. I am a visual artist, so software and app design came easy to me. I can see the full scope and delegate my vision in less overwhelming increments. When you give a team or a developer the whole vision at once, things can get messy, so it’s best to break the project down into manageable increments to study the data along the way or else you end up with issues later on and miss things. I learned HTML and Flash at a community centre in Vancouver that offered a free class to low-income women when I was 20. In my first class, it just clicked, and I found myself animating a flower that spun around. That’s it right there; that is what diversity means to me; it means everyone is included. Tech is for everyone, and we all use it every day. Therefore it should be accessible and equitable. We need to:
Standardize the criteria for innovative scale-up within government policies and collaborate with the private sector and civic stakeholders to identify and define standard conditions necessary for innovative SMEs and startups to go to market.
Prioritize the creation of partnerships between various public and private institutions and create liaison offices between academia and industry.
Address the cost, contractual and knowledge barriers of Intellectual Property protection and exchanges by establishing a global support infrastructure for SMEs.
Promote easier access to international markets, particularly for MSMEs, by enacting measures such as the GVC Passport, supporting the development of digital skills and infrastructures, facilitating access to standardized trade finance instruments.
Prioritize the elimination of gender and racial discrimination by increasing representation and policy-planning analysis within decision-making bodies.
Encourage and facilitate public procurement opportunities and programs for young entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Take local rural-urban discrepancies into account for economic support and incentives, especially when looking at digitization and digital access.
[Amy]: The tech industry is advancing at a significant pace, specifically in the field of computer sciences, as is the work and law practice for humanitarian services. What motivates you every day? How do you manage to keep yourself up to date?
[Stephanie]: My motivation each day is knowing if I keep trying, something good will happen that will benefit millions of people. I stay up to date through my academic studies. I have been in University for the last five years and am an active student. [See here to learn more].
I also lead the Canadian National consultations and policy task force track for Innovation, Digitization & the Future of work for the G20 YEA. Through these consultations, you hear the pain points of some of Canada’s top entrepreneurs and then curate international policy based on those needs and take them to the international leads for the other G20 countries and negotiate to come up with the final communique and policy recommendations. This is a long process, and through this process, I find out the needs of entrepreneurs in other countries and obtain a global perspective.
[Amy]: What were the technical and/or technological challenges you faced in your work activities in Haiti, or have you foreseen in developing countries as they do not have a well-developed technical infrastructure/ facility? Any remedial measures?
[Stephanie]: Where do I even start to explain the challenges in Haiti? For starters, no electricity, no water coupled with intense oppression and lack of delivery from those who claim to help Haiti. Colonialism is at the root of most evils and social problems globally. The approach most NGOs and NPOs take when doing international development “imposes” instead of focusing on community consultation and hearing the community's needs. You often hear of groups coming to build a school, but did they need one, or did they need a clinic for expecting mothers? They will never know when they fly in and out, having a humanitarian one-night stand. Don’t forget your watch on the bedside table. Here is your school. I have my photos now. Let me return to my comfortable life and not return to maintain the structure I built and leave the details to locals who do not have the resources to sustain the project long term.
Things are essentially the same as they were in the days of Columbus, with slavery happening in other forms involving economic warfare and economic oppression through outdated international policies that benefit small groups of people in the Global North while marginalizing the Global South. If permitted to, Haiti would be able to self-sustain and grow as a nation, but as the first independent Black republic, do you think those who have oppressed them since the revolution will relent and let them become what they can be? No, they will continue to destabilize Haiti, and it is up to the Haitian youth to flip the script but to do so, they require outside support to get to a sustainable advantage. The country never got a fair shot. The history is complex, and as long as greed drives the motivations of the policymakers and those who capitalize on the brokenness in the system, they will be hindered. The world economic order requires a reboot for the world to function properly and in harmony. Haiti and many other countries can provide much-needed labour to the tech industry. If tech giants and SMEs were willing to take on the complexities to endeavour to support Haiti, it would greatly benefit Haiti and its youth by investing in infrastructure programs that are focused on upskilling and reskilling Haitian youth and young adults while offering equitable remote positions. This would help more youth stay out of gangs and crime so that they could support themselves while providing hope and a future. If there are no jobs, then the youth have no other options. We need to create the options and deploy them.
[Amy]: How did Covid change the digital media tech industry, and how do you work? What are your thoughts on it? Likes? Challenges?
[Stephanie]: I have been working remotely for many years. Not much changed for me personally with that aspect but what did change is seeing how my community adjusted to working remotely. Everyone learns and communicates differently if you are not in person. It is easy to get wires crossed, then add masks to that, and not see a person’s facial expressions. It has definitely made doing business much more difficult in some aspects, but in others has opened up additional opportunities while leaving those who lack access to the internet even more marginalized.
[Amy]: What are some of the challenges you have experienced in your career? And how did you overcome these?
[Stephanie]: I have had numerous challenges. You cannot set out to build a vision without challenges. It is how you navigate through them your character while you experience hardships or roadblocks that really counts. Are you the type of person who plows through with blinders to achieve your goal and not think about others, or are you the type of person who stops to see where you can improve and learn from your mistakes?
[Amy]: What do you think can help attract the upcoming/growing generation of STEM graduates towards a similar career path? Please share your special message for inspiring minds...
[Stephanie]: Nothing is more important than using the time we have to do what we are called to do; time is a gift; time goes by fast. If you have experienced hurt, abuse, neglect, poverty, and homelessness, those are not the weaknesses. Those are the experiences that can be used to help others. We need more underdogs in tech to shake things up. We need more diversity to become the norm, and there are no more diversity quotas, and diversity is the norm. We focus a lot on what we do not have, but we need to focus on what we have; it may not be equitable as it stands. Still, with time that shall change, believe that you can make a difference, do not be overcome by the negativity and limits, look at the roadblocks as an opportunity to find creative solutions. If something bothers you, then that’s an opportunity to change it.
[Amy]: What does the future look like for you and your career? What do you hope to achieve/work on? Is there anything you want to add?
[Stephanie]: I have learned to take things as they come. When I make too many plans, I find they tend to change and lead to disappointments. I do not think about my career; I think about how I can make the world a better place, and I guess that has become my career unintentionally just by being true to myself. I have not given up by now because I have seen results from my efforts and actions; I believe in the impossible, I believe that the world can be a better place, and I believe we all have a role to play.