IT Engineer Kimberly Abeyta Hopes To Inspire Girls With Journey In STEM Career

DENVER (CBS4)- There are numerous women behind the scenes at CBS4 that use STEM: science, technology, engineering and math, to help us get our newscasts on the air every single day.

One of those people is IT Engineer Kimberly Abeyta. CBS4's Mekialaya White sat down with Kimberly to discuss her journey to get where she is now. She started by detailing her day.

"I come in at nine in the morning. I check our servers and make sure everything is functioning so we're able to stream everything without any errors or systems going down," Abeyta started. "It would not be good to be in a broadcast and it goes to black. We don't want that."

Abeyta began her career at CBS4 as a video editor back in 2016, but she was ambitious, wanting to learn more about engineering.

"It just really struck my curiosity. I wanted to understand more of how it worked. I was always curious and wanted to know how things worked together, being able to merge that technology," she continued.

She then decided to pursue a Masters of Science degree from the University of Denver.

"Shortly after, I found out I was pregnant in December of 2019 and I'm like I'm pregnant and getting my masters."

With the help of her family, including her husband, CBS4's own multi-skilled journalist Michael Abeyta, she's succeeded, and been able to blaze trails in science.

"Being able to work with the producers, reporters, I understand what the needs are. It's a lot of fast-paced problem-solving. So it's like being a wizard," laughed Abeyta.

She hopes her determination inspires girls to pursue stem careers young, including her own daughter.

"I would love to do that for girls, Black girls who aren't exposed to that, whether it be coding or becoming an IT engineer. I didn't have many people to look up to, especially to get me into the field and mentoring. My daughter, I want her to be able to look up to me and know that there's a place for us. I want them to know they can do whatever they put their heart to."