6 November 2026 Being the change you want to see: Sophia Rowland on why she's running the TCS London Marathon 2027
Sophia Rowland, Senior Product Manager at data and AI company SAS UK, is one of The Talent Foundry’s (TTF) incredible TCS London Marathon 2027 participants. Taking on the race in the name of our social mobility vision, she is an avid lover of hiking, running and ice skating – which has proven to be great cross training.
TTF is SAS UK & Ireland’s nominated charity, and joining SAS UK brought TTF onto Sophia’s radar. She moved to Scotland from sweltering North Carolina this June, and, undeterred by the rain pouring down her windows, jumped at the chance to join a 34km fundraising run from Loch Lomond to Glasgow in August this year.
For Sophia, having access to high-quality education and development opportunities was pivotal in her journey from school to the workplace. By running the marathon in support of TTF, she is paying it back, helping the next generation of young people to succeed.
Volunteering: a chance to make the world a better place
Frustrated by inequalities and injustices in the world, Sophia has been passionate about volunteering since a young age. She saw first-hand the impacts of TTF’s work when supporting young people at a recent workshop, guiding students as they explored data using SAS software.
If you want the world to be a better place, you have to put the effort in and go out there and make things better rather than just ruminating on how things are always wrong.
Sophia was most impressed by the curiosity on show and enjoyed seeing students going off the beaten track and trusting their instincts rather than just following a predetermined path and answering specific questions.
She also loved seeing participants playing around with the software, using cause and effect to change the end result. Sophia could see who was leaning more naturally towards an engineering, design or scientific mindset even within one classroom.
It’s important in data science to ask questions and experiment. Many of the students were going off and seeing weird things in the data and asking what it could mean. They were natural data scientists.
Equipping young people with the tools required to succeed
With a behind-the-scenes view of how AI solutions are being built and designed, Sophia sees that the future is all about AI, with risks and consequences being evaluated constantly. To meet this demand, society must be better equipped with AI literacy.
People must know how to mitigate risks and be prepared to speak up when something doesn’t feel right. These are going to be very important skills for everyone.
Sophia hopes that her fundraising efforts will help more young people from a range of backgrounds to see the power of their input and experience when building software and AI tools to solve specific problems.
It’s important when you’re building and designing that you get diverse perspectives so that everyone can address and solve issues – not just for themselves, but for society as a whole.
Putting in the miles and exploring Glasgow
Having recently recorded a personal best at the Great Scottish Half Marathon, Sophia will be building out the mileage over the winter. During hard training sessions, she loves listening to music and has also been enjoying the beautiful autumnal scenery.
For Sophia, running the marathon in support of TTF is about giving young people access to tools, education and support, enabling them to build successful futures. We wish her the best of luck as she trains over the winter period and are so grateful to her for taking on this immense challenge.
Follow us to keep up to date with our marathon runners.