Meet the MongoDB Europe 2016 Diversity Scholars

Danielle James
December 20, 2016 | Updated: October 5, 2022
#Community

In November, a group of rising tech stars attended the first annual MongoDB Europe as part of the MongoDB Diversity Scholarship program.

The MongoDB Diversity Scholarship is one of our initiatives to change the ratio in technology. At MongoDB Europe, the Diversity Scholars got complimentary admission to the conference, a lunch sessions with other Scholars, and speed mentoring with MongoDB speakers. Additionally, they received a MongoDB certification voucher and three-month access to on-demand MongoDB University courses.

Read on to meet the MongoDB Europe 2016 Diversity Scholars, and to find out how you can apply to the scholarship at MongoDB World in Chicago, June 20-21, 2017.

Ousmane Barry, Software Developer, Novencia

I’m originally from Senegal and came to France to pursue my higher education. Currently, I’m a Software Engineer at a consulting company, where I help the teams to develop their technical level through Software Craftsmanship.

How I started using MongoDB: Like the majority of developers, I come from the world of SQL. I discovered MongoDB through a discussion with a colleague. At the same time, my company wanted to build skills in the field of NoSQL, so I registered on MongoDB University to learn the technology. After that, I passed the DEV certification, followed by the DBA certification.

My giant idea: I would like to work on a Big Data project where you can use all the power and flexibility offered by MongoDB. It would be interesting to work on use cases such as IoT or Single View. -- @EnamsuoBarry

Quynh Tran Thanh, Quant Analyst, Commerzbank

I’m currently a Quant Analyst working at Commerzbank. In my free time, I love assembling IKEA furniture.

How I started using MongoDB: I started using MongoDB at a hackathon, where I had to build an app with my team within 48 hours. MongoDB was the best choice for a user friendly database, and perfect for our app as we used JSON data.

My giant idea: Recently, I’ve become very interested in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. I’d like to analyze transactions on the blockchain. For that, I’d like to use MongoDB to easily query for transactions.

Soyini Taylor, Database Analyst/Data Architect, Reed Business Information

I’m a Database Analyst living in London, currently on a 6-month secondment as a Data Architect.

How I started using MongoDB: I wanted to learn MongoDB and got started with the free M102 course on MongoDB University. M102 was a good introduction to how the database works.

My giant idea: My goal is to complete the next MongoDB University course, M202. I’m looking forward to MongoDB releasing a sandbox area for those working in operations that are charged only with maintenance of the database.

I also love the fact that MongoDB provides a Diversity Scholarship to encourage more involvement in technology by underrepresented groups, and hope to be able to contribute back to the community one day.

Want to attend MongoDB World on a Diversity Scholarship?

The Diversity Scholarship is now open for [MongoDB World](https://www.mongodb.com/world17 "MongoDB World"). If you’re a member of an underrepresented group in technology, you can apply today! Apply Now

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Recap: MongoDB Power Heels Holiday Party

In July 2016, Sarah Branfman , Amie Darboe , and Sarah Dart , members of the sales team at MongoDB, brainstormed ways to help fill the gender gap in sales and technology roles. The result was Power Heels, an organization that empowers women to maximize their potential, professionally and personally, in a safe environment. Since its inception, PowerHeels has partnered with organizations like Dress for Success and Safe Place. Members include technology and business professionals, university students, and women looking to change careers. On December 6, 2016, Power Heels hosted its first annual holiday party at IBM Design Studio in Austin. More than just a networking event, the event featured the following career building activities: Build Your Profile : Resume writing and building a stunning LinkedIn profile Look the Part : Hair styling, makeup, and professional headshots Talk the Talk : Mock interviews and feedback led by business leaders from some of Austin’s hottest companies Additionally, attendees were encouraged to bring donations for Dress for Success. Over 85 items were donated over the course of the event. ![MongoDB Power Heels](https://webassets.mongodb.com/_com_assets/cms/MongoDB_PowerHeels_Team-5u4v97yc1m.png "MongoDB Power Heels") *The Power Heels team* The event was as much fun as it was valuable. Joanne Kim , a college senior whose job search hadn’t been as successful as she expected it to be, came to the event to get interview advice from experts. She said, “my favorite part of the event was the mock interview. I was able to hear what recruiters think and understand what they look for in a candidate. The party setting made it casual, yet I was able to get useful advice from HR professionals.” Joanne left the holiday party feeling more confident about her job search process. ![MongoDB Power Heels interviews with attendees](https://webassets.mongodb.com/_com_assets/cms/MongoDB_PowerHeels_Interview-jxu2tzqwlb.png "Power Heels interviews with attendee") *MongoDB’s [Emily Friedman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilywilliamson1?authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=gP5L&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A27252290%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-1-1%2CtarId%3A1481734465381%2Ctas%3Aemily%20fried "Emily Friedman") conducting a mock interview with an attendee* According to Amie, Power Heels is about building a sisterhood of fierce women – and men, “because #allies” – who want to go far in their careers. It’s a group of people who work together to bring other women up and who are open to receiving support. MongoDB’s Taelen Lewis is one of those allies. During the event, attendees could purchase raffle tickets. The grand prize was a two-hour photo shoot by The Perfect Headshot . Taelen won the grand prize, but chose to auction it off to highest bidder and donated the proceeds to Power Heels. His reasoning? “As an oldest brother to three younger sisters, I love to see an organization empowering women to realize their potential and to be given equal opportunities,” he said. “I’m a big fan of Power Heels, so I’m happy to support.” Taelen won’t be getting an updated headshot soon, but thanks to the Look the Part station at the event, almost all of the women who attended got a brand new photo for their LinkedIn profiles. ![MongoDB Power Heels Look the Part station](https://webassets.mongodb.com/_com_assets/cms/MongoDB_PowerHeels_LookthePart_Station-zymz1n5hx0.png "Look the Part station") *An attendee getting her hair done at the Look the Part station* At the Look the Part station, attendees could also get their hair and makeup done. Nina, a team member at Naava - who provided the glam services at the event - said she learned about Power Heels when she was going through a challenging time. Recently divorced and jobless, Nina went to Dress for Success, where she received the resume and interview help that led to her current role. When she heard about the opportunity to give back through Power Heels, she jumped on it. She stated, “You never know how much you’re impacting someone’s life by offering resume help or giving them business attire. It might seem like a small thing to do, but enabling someone to perform well in an interview can turn someone’s life around.” Her staff had been working since 8am that morning, but insisted they come to contribute to the event. ![MongoDB Power Heels networking](https://webassets.mongodb.com/_com_assets/cms/MongoDB_PowerHeels_Networking-d3g595wef6.png "Power Heels attendees networking") *Power Heels attendees networking* Throughout the evening, attendees made new connections, edited their resumes, improved their online presence, and explored different ways to respond in an interview. This experience is what the women of MongoDB had in mind when they created Power Heels. Sarah B. didn’t want the holiday party to be just that, a gathering where attendees hand out business cards, take advantage of free food and drink, and go home with nothing actionable. “These events can rob you of your time and leave you unfulfilled,” she said. “While the Power Heels holiday party had its fair share of drinks, food and merriment, nobody left empty handed and without a next step to improve their career.” See the Power Heels holiday party photo recap . The MongoDB Power Heels team will soon expand in other states. Want to get involved by becoming a member or sponsoring an event? Let us know! You won’t regret it. In Sarah B.’s words, “We don't just shmooze, we get [things] done.” Thank you to the MongoDB Power Heels advocates, who sponsored the event : **|** [Safe Place](http://www.safeaustin.org/safeplace/ "Safe Place") **|** [The Perfect Headshot](http://www.theperfectheadshot.com/ "The Perfect Headshot") **|** **|** [Breaking the Glass](https://www.meetup.com/Breaking-the-Glass-Womens-Networking-Group/ "Breaking the Glass") **|** DJ Chido Machine **|** **|** [IBM Design Studio](https://www.ibm.com/design/studio.shtml "IBM Design Studio") **|** [Moojo](http://moojo.net/ "Moojo") **|** **|** [OwnYourSpot](https://www.yallzi.com/ownyourspot/#/shared/5847a3f6e4b0088800c78c6a "OwnYourSpot") **|** [Kendra Scott](http://www.kendrascott.com/ "Kendra Scott") **|** **|** [NAAVA](http://www.naava.com/ "NAAVA") **|** [Nothing Bundt Cakes](http://www.nothingbundtcakes.com/bakery/tx/austin-westlake "Nothing Bundt Cakes") **|** **|** [Jet’s Pizza](https://online.jetspizza.com/r/jetspizzatx004.html "Jet's Pizza") **|** [Topo Chico](http://www.topochicousa.net/#default "Topo Chico") **|** **|** [JuiceLand](http://www.juiceland.com/ "Juice Land") **|** [Lick Honest Ice Creams](http://www.ilikelick.com/ "Lick Honest Ice Cream") **|** **|** [Tito's Handmade Vodka](http://www.titosvodka.com/ "Tito's Handmake Vodka") **|** [Big Frog Custom T-Shirts](http://www.bigfrog.com/southaustin/ "Big Frog Custom T-Shirts")**|**

December 19, 2016

Next →

MongoDB Database Observability: Integrating with Monitoring Tools

This post is the final in a three-part series on leveraging database observability. Welcome back to our series on Leveraging Database Observability! Our previous post showcased a real-world use case highlighting how MongoDB Atlas’s observability tools effectively tackle database performance challenges. Whether you’re a developer, DBA, or DevOps engineer, our mission is to empower you to harness the full potential of your data through our observability suite . Integrating Atlas metrics with your central enterprise observability tools can simplify your operations. By seamlessly working with popular observability tools, our approach helps teams streamline workflows and enhance visibility across systems. Integrating MongoDB Atlas with third-party monitoring tools MongoDB’s developer data platform combines all essential data services for building modern applications within a unified experience. Our purpose-built observability tools for Atlas environments offer automatic monitoring and optimization, guiding diagnostics tailored specifically for MongoDB. Additionally, we extend Atlas metrics into your existing enterprise observability stack, enabling seamless integration without replacing your current tools. This creates a consolidated, single-pane view that unifies Atlas telemetry with other tech and application metrics, ensuring comprehensive visibility into both database and full-stack performance. This integration empowers you to monitor, receive alerts, and make data-driven decisions within your existing workflows, driving greater efficiency. Below is a quick guide to modifying integration settings through the Atlas UI and the popular integrations we support: Navigate to the Project Integrations page in Atlas. Choose the organization and project you want to configure from the navigation bar. On the Project Integrations page, select the third-party services you’d like to integrate. Configure the chosen services with the required API keys and regions. Critical integrations for your observability platform With Atlas’s Datadog and Prometheus integrations, you can send critical MongoDB metrics to these platforms, empowering detailed, real-time monitoring. Through Datadog , you can track database operation counts, query efficiency, and resource usage, ideal for pinpointing bottlenecks and managing resources. Similarly, Prometheus enables you to monitor essential metrics like query times, connection rates, and memory usage, supporting flexible tracking of database health and performance. Both integrations facilitate proactive detection of issues, alert configuration for resource thresholds, and a cohesive view of Atlas data when visualized in Grafana. Atlas’s integration with PagerDuty streamlines incident management by sending metrics like performance alerts, billing anomalies, and security events directly to PagerDuty. This integration records incidents automatically, notifies teams upon alerts, and supports two-way syncing, ensuring resolved alerts in Atlas are reflected in PagerDuty. It enables efficient incident response and resource allocation to maintain system stability. With Atlas integrations for Microsoft Teams and Slack, you can route key metrics—such as query latency, disk usage, and throughput—to these channels for timely updates. Teams can use these insights for real-time performance monitoring, incident response, and collaboration. Notifications through these platforms ensure your team stays informed on database performance, storage health, and user activity changes as they occur. Use case: Centralized observability with MongoDB Atlas, Datadog, and Slack Let’s walk through a hypothetical scenario for ShopSmart, an e-commerce company that leverages MongoDB Atlas to manage its product catalog and customer data. As traffic surges, the DevOps team faces challenges in monitoring application performance and database health effectively. To tackle these challenges, the team leverages MongoDB Atlas’ integration with Datadog and Slack, creating a powerful observability ecosystem. Integrating MongoDB Atlas with Datadog: The team pushes key MongoDB Atlas metrics into Datadog, such as query performance, connection counts, and Atlas Vector Search metrics. With Datadog, they can visualize these metrics and correlate overall MongoDB performance with their other applications. Out-of-the-box monitors and dedicated dashboards allow the team to track metrics like throughput, average read/write latency, and current connections. This visibility helps pinpoint bottlenecks in real time, ensuring optimal database performance and improving overall application responsiveness. Setting up alerts in Datadog: The team configures alerts for critical metrics like high query latency and increased error rates. When thresholds are breached, Datadog instantly notifies the team. This proactive approach allows the team to address potential performance issues before they impact customers. Integrating Datadog with Slack: To ensure fast communication, alerts are sent directly to the dedicated Slack channel, “ShopSmart-Alerts.” This integration fosters seamless collaboration, enabling the team to discuss and resolve issues in real-time. With these integrations, ShopSmart’s engineering team can monitor performance quickly and address issues efficiently. The unified observability approach enhances operational efficiency, improves the customer experience, and supports ShopSmart’s competitive edge in the e-commerce industry. By leveraging MongoDB Atlas, Datadog, and Slack, the team ensures scalable performance and drives continuous innovation. Conclusion MongoDB Atlas empowers developers and organizations to achieve unparalleled observability and control over their database environments. By seamlessly integrating with central enterprise observability tools, Atlas enhances your ability to monitor performance metrics and ensures you can do so within your existing workflows. This means you can focus on building modern applications confidently, knowing you have the insights and alerts necessary to maintain optimal performance. Embrace the power of MongoDB Atlas and transform your approach to database management—because your applications can thrive when your data is observable. And that wraps up our Leveraging Database Observability series! We hope you learned something new and found value in these discussions. Sign up for MongoDB Atlas , our cloud database service, to see database observability in action. To dive deeper and expand your knowledge, check out this learning byte for more insights on the MongoDB observability suite and how it can enhance your database performance.

November 14, 2024