The 2018 Innovation Fund, our annual crowdfunding competition, has officially launched! You can find all of the Innovation Fund participants here. Read on for the story of Hoodies for Diversity in Tech, led by 2013 Fellow, Kate Catlin, who is raising $2,018 for diversity in tech non-profits.
How not to learn to code
…and thus, why you should buy a hoodie.
Do you remember your first coding class?
Mine was entirely unintentional. I got a free admission to a 3-day Intro to Python. Did I know what Python was? No, but heck, it was free and in your early 20s you don’t pass up free.
The instructor was clearly brilliant. He’d been writing code for 20 years and started around the time the rest of us were working on reading. Unfortunately, he’d been immersed in tech for so long that translating the concepts to mere mortals was no longer his strongest skill.
“Any questions?” he would pause and ask. “Yes,” I thought to myself. “Many.”
I looked left. I looked right. My peers, mostly men, were not raising their hands. Were they secretly as lost as I was? I didn’t have the confidence to find out. I stayed silent. I left the class defeated on the second day, cried in a bathroom for an hour, and didn’t return.
I thought I was smart– Why couldn’t I understand code?
The ‘Cycle of Underrepresentation’ and the art of rewiring a brain.
Months after my disastrous first coding class, a friend would explain to me that human beings are not naturally wired to think the hyper-literal way a computer does.
To learn to code, you have to let your brain relax enough to reorganize it’s very wiring. No one can learn under stress, and it would be especially difficult for undertaking of this magnitude.
Kids are great at picking up coding because everything is relaxed playtime to a kid. But only some kids are learning computer science topics, which is where the Cycle of Underrepresentation (which I did not invent, but did make this handy infographic for) begins:
We get more underrepresented folks into tech by tacking each of these systemic parts of the cycle individually, but today we’re going to talk about stage #3 in the cycle: Education.
So how might we replicate that child-like state of learning for adults to broaden our pipeline of tech candidates? For those who have felt alienated, talked-over, or discouraged in the past, it may be best achieved by going the extra mile to create a safe and supportive environment.
What kinds of organizations are working on this?
Girl Develop It is a great example. They’re a nonprofit organization that exists to provide affordable and judgment-free opportunities for women interested in learning to code.
Denver Chapter Leader Cara Jo Miller has seen many success stories, but this one sticks out to me:
“There was a woman who applied for scholarships for every class because she was struggling to pay for things. I would help her out any time I could, because she continually came hungry for information and excited to learn. One day I saw she RSVPed and PAID for a class and I freaked out! I messaged her and told her if she needed a refund I would help her out and then issue her a scholarship. She replied, “Oh no I meant to pay– thanks to GDI I now have a job in tech so I can afford classes!”
The Code 2040 Fellows Program is a higher-touch model aimed at Black and Latinx Computer Science undergrads. They spend a summer in an intensive career accelerator, interning at a top tech company and participating in a series of workshops. Meanwhile, they’re meeting mentors and building a community of other Black and/or Latinx technologists.
This community gave one recent Fellow the backup she needed to persist in a particularly frustrating moment. As an underrepresented CS student, “People suggest I switch out of CS the minute they see me struggling,” she shared. She asked for help on AVL trees for an upcoming exam, and instead heard, “You should go into nursing!”
Facing this discouragement, she reached out to her former Code2040 community, “got a lot of support and advice,” and rallied emotionally for the remainder of the semester.
Blind Institute of Technology offers services and assistance to both candidates with disabilities, and their potential employers. One candidate they placed through their network endorsed them with this excited quote:
“FREEDOM!!!!! Finally, I am starting a job this October where I am able to utilize my web design skills combined with my unique perspective on web design to make a living wage worthy of my skill set…. [BIT] will come along side and partner with you. Together, that door does not stand a chance. Together, you will kick that door completely off its hinges. That is what BIT has helped me do.”
And lastly, we have Women Who Startup, which provides rapid learning and real-time engagement with a global community of female entrepreneurs, strengthening the pipeline of underrepresented techpreneurs. They offer both online community and in-person events.
Which bring us full-circle back to my story.
I didn’t stop learning to code after my first attempt. I kept taking classes: Online classes, weekend classes, women’s-only classes and full-on bootcamps. These days I’m web developing in Ruby.
And about 15 months ago, I contacted Lizelle van Vuuren, (Founder of WWS) to ask if she would help me promote a launch event for Find My Flock, the company I had just left my job to start. She not only said yes, she went above and beyond with tweeting, posting on LinkedIn, and funneling her network to our event. She’s continued to be a supporter, even sending the occasional business lead.
In an industry where I was repeatedly told that my company would never work, Women Who Startup saw one of their own and did what they could do make it a reality. We’re now revenue profitable with Fortune-500 clients and growing the team.
Why are you selling hoodies?
Find My Flock is focused intently on cracking stage #4 of the Underrepresentation Cycle (unfairness) by only working with companies that provide inclusive environments for all to work in. We post and promote their jobs, and provide extra support to applicants lacking confidence after years of underrepresentation. If they take a job through our network, they gain access to 6 additional months of career coaching.
But we also want contribute what we can to shatter Underrepresentation Cycle stage #3, getting more folks into tech skills in the first place.
So today we are selling hoodies, and you should buy one. All revenue from this campaign will go back to the non-profit of your choice from the options I described above: Girl Develop It, Code2040, Blind Institute of Technology, and Women Who Startup.
Perhaps you remember your first coding class– or perhaps you were always too intimidated to take one. Either way, if that memory or these stories stir your heart, provide the funds to stir someone else’s inspiration on this link.
You’ll get a super-cozy hoodie in exchange, but we’ll both know what your money was really about.