Fatima Sheriff heads to Microsoft with technical know-how and business skills thanks to the people who guided her along the way.
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Fatima Sheriff was part of history in the Georgia Tech College of Engineering.
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.
“I like communicating. I like engaging with others. My mentor recognized my natural skills and that I was interested in something outside of the realm of just engineering. She told me about program management as an option and encouraged me to apply. And that’s how I got here,” Sheriff said.
“You’re engaging with multiple teams, and you have to have the technical know-how. But the whole point is pulling people together to align on the correct product. You work with electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer scientists, sourcing, industrial design.”
Jones also steered Sheriff toward broadening her skillset through undergraduate certificate programs in the Scheller College of Business, where she studied sustainable business and strategy and innovation. Sheriff said she appreciated the different way of thinking and approaching problems she learned in those programs.
“We explored what types of frameworks you can use to approach a problem and the strategies you might implement to drive toward a certain goal. I like the thought processes because you kind of have to go with the gray areas, not necessarily what is definitively true or correct,” she said. “That’s very different from engineering.”
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Sheriff found community through Greek life with her sorority Alpha Xi Delta.
Sheriff interned at Microsoft and will begin working there as a product manager later this year.
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Women mentors and role models have been an important part of Sheriff’s Georgia Tech experience, professionally and academically. She eventually joined the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, where she found another community of science- and engineering-focused students.
“You’re in spaces that have historically been dominated by men and, in some cases, are still dominated by men. It’s really nice finding women who are there to help and support you,” she said.
You’re in spaces that have historically been dominated by men and, in some cases, are still dominated by men. It’s really nice finding women who are there to help and support you.
Through Clark Scholars and the Grand Challenges Living Learning Community, Sheriff had connected mostly with people her own age. In her sorority, she found a deeper pool of experience.
“Now I had this plethora of older women on campus who were successful, who could give me advice and help me,” she said. “They showed me not everything is about school; some things are about living your life. And I didn’t have that balance beforehand.”
In 2022, Sheriff served as her sorority chapter president. She wanted to continue building a supportive, safe space for younger students to grow and find their paths. Pairing engineering with skills from her business certificates worked for her, and she wants other students to tap into their interests and passions to chart their own course, too.
“My sorority, my certificates, and the Clark program are very big things that, if I hadn’t participated in them, I can’t even envision what I would be like. I don’t know who I would be or what I would be doing.”
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Clark Scholars Program
In 2018, the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation partnered with Georgia Tech to financially support students who exhibit strong academic and leadership potential. The Clark Scholars Program is one of Georgia Tech’s signature academic programs, combining engineering, leadership, and community service.
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