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EVERYDAY ENCOUNTERS

A software engineer finds balance with literature and dance

Kelly Xiao says people typically react with surprise when they find out she studied software engineering and literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

FRANCISCO MARTINEZ / THE ARKSan Francisco resident Kelly Xiao cools off underneath tree shade March 17 at Belvedere Community Park while on a lunchtime break from her job as a software engineer at Tiburon-based Digital Foundry Inc. In her free time, she reads Jane Austen, draws in ink and has taken up Bollywood-hip-hop-fusion dancing.
Francisco Martinez
By FRANCISCO MARTINEZ · 1 min read

Kelly Xiao says people typically react with surprise when they find out she studied software engineering and literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

“There’d be a comment of, ‘Oh, do these two fuse well together?’ or like, ‘So people can do both?” says Xiao while sitting in the shade at Belvedere Community Park on March 17.

Xiao was taking a break while on her daily lunchtime walk. For the past five years, the 26-year-old San Francisco resident has worked as a software engineer at Tiburon-based custom-software company Digital Foundry.

Xiao says she normally passes right by Community Park on her lunchtime walks, but the 80-degree weather convinced her to sit for a while.

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A version of this story appeared in the March 25, 2026, print edition of The Ark. See something wrong? Request a correction.
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