Latina Teen Develops Alexa Skill That Answers Immigrant-Related Questions

A 14-year old Latina high school student in Austin, Texas, developed an Alexa Skill called "Immigration Bonds," that allows English- and Spanish-speaking immigrants to get answers to immigrant-related queries such as the duration of visa application and being allowed to get a driver license, according to an article by Mitú.

Since sixth grade, the Mexican descent Suguey Carmona has shown interest in coding. Not long after that, she was able to join Hello World, a K-12 computer science program based in Austin and San Francisco where she became exposed to different programming languages and discovered a way to help out immigrant families in her community through her love of coding.

"I chose to work on this technology because I see my own friends and family who have questions and who are struggling to make a living, and I thought maybe I should do something about it," Carmona said an interview with NBC News.

Numerous studies show that language barriers and lack of access to information can be a major source of confusion for immigrants and can prevent them from accessing the services they need and by providing a judgment-free zone to ask questions at people's pace and in their own language, the Latina teen's technology addresses these challenges.

The Latina teen worked all the necessary steps to develop the technology: from interviewing people about their most pressing immigration questions, to conducting research on the logistics of obtaining paperwork, to finding employment and navigating other areas of life as an immigrant.

It took her a month to finish the technology.

"I'd work on it for hours each day," Carmona said. "I'd start a new paper and it would crash and break and I'd be like, 'Oh, shoot. Now I have to start over again."

Carmona was assisted by Hello World, but according to founder Sabina Bharwani, they also let her struggle, which "made all the difference" when the teen was successful.

"Suguey struggled to use the Alexa interface, which is usually used by developers with 10-15 years of experience," Bharwani said. "It was a steep learning curve, but when she mastered it, it meant more."

At first Carmona was undecided on what way she would present the technology: a video game for children or a phone app, but she was certain on issuing it as an Alexa Skill because she liked "how you didn't need certain keywords for it to work."

According to the Latina teen, Alexa would reply no matter what one asks but "the problem with text boxes is that if you don't put in certain words or phrase things a certain way, it won't read it and that can make it really complicated for people who are trying to use it to get answers."

Carmona first developed a prototype and tested the technology with her friends and family while taking notes what adjustments should be made and applied it afterwards.

After downloading "Immigration Bonds," users can ask Alexa questions directly the way they do with Siri or Google Assistant. For instance, if a person wants to know whether they can apply for a driver's license depending on their immigration status, the app will respond by asking them specific details such as their address so that it can provide the user details based on their geographical location since laws differ by state.

Although the app was first published in the Amazon app store earlier this year, Carmona plans to develop it further and eventually publish it as an Apple app to reach more people in her community.

Research shows that there is a vast underrepresentation among Latinos in certain scientific fields.

According to a 2018 study from the Pew Research Center, Latinos in computer science (aka. coders) only make up 7 percent of the STEM workforce. Meanwhile, the Google Diversity Annual Report 2019 shows that in Google, one of the largest tech companies, only 1.4 percent of its new tech hires in 2019 were Latina and less than 4 percent were Latino. Carmona's story and a few others draw attention to the importance of fostering students' interest in computer science around the globe.

For those interested to download the "Immigration Bonds" app on the Alexa Skills store, just visit the Amazon website.