EES2024 REBOOT REPRESENTATION - Tech Beyond Coding: Leveling the Playing Field for Students in Tech

Hi everyone, welcome to our voices seminar which is hosted by reboot representation. Thank you so much for everyone who is joining today. Please drop where you’re joining from in the chat.

Today we’re talking about tech beyond coding. So we’re talking about leveling the playing field for students in tech. Our voices series are really opportunity for us to have authentic conversations around identity, tech, how it impacts you in the workplace.

And so we’re thrilled for this panel conversation today. I will be introducing our moderator in just a second, but first just wanted to share a few reminders for the session. PE please utilize the chat as you already are for conversations across the session.

Please keep your messages relevant to the topic and note that the presenters and production can see the chat. Our team will be monitoring and we will be answering questions live during the session. Following the session, you will get our feedback survey.

We really appreciate you taking time to give feedback on the session. And with the reminders out of the way, I would love to present bring up our moderator, Michelle D. Angel, who will be facilitating our panel today.

Welcome, Michelle. Hi, thank you Geneva. Hi everybody.

I’m Michelle D. Angel. I’m the talent engagement coordinator at Reboot Representation.

Many of you have probably, if you are familiar with Reboot, have seen my name in emails or I’ve spammed you on Slack about events and any resources that we have at Reboot. But I am and my colleague Jenny are the main forces that are with our students, our Reboot scholars as we march along to our main goal of doubling the number of black, Latina, and Native American women graduating with computing degrees by 2025. In our marching towards our goal, we have encountered some amazing leaders and some amazing nonprofits, our grantees as we like to call them.

And we want to welcome to the stage Alli Joy Sahe and Danielle Forward. Alli is the founder and CEO of Baddy’s in Tech, a professional development organization dedicated to create safe spaces for underrepresented women of color to thrive in tech. And Danielle is the founder and CEO co-founder and CEO of Natives Rising, economically empowers indigenous people through tech careers and entrepreneurship.

Welcome Danielle and Ally. I’m so happy for you to be here. Thank you so much.

So great to be here, Michelle. I kind of want to get things started. A bit of an icebreaker.

Just a slight icebreaker here, and it may be a bit of a controversial question, so I do want to preface. Do you believe a hot dog is a sandwich? Oh my gosh.

No, I don’t. Amazing. I don’t think a hot dog is a sandwich because it doesn’t have the things like it doesn’t have the lettuce and it doesn’t have like it doesn’t have the you can have a hot dog by itself.

Most sandwiches you don’t just like eat like a turkey and bread, you know, that’s not really a sandwich either. So, I would say it’s not a sandwich. Yeah, I’m gonna go with sandwich is bread on the x- axis only.

So, it’s my official answer. I I love this. We asked this question recently at a session that we gave at Topia and overwhelmingly we had a split crowd.

Half believed it was not a sandwich and half believed it was and to those who said yes, I respectfully decline. It is not a sandwich. I I don’t see it as a sandwich.

It just it does not compute in my brain. Well, thank you. Thank you for for answering the controversial question.

I know many students have answered it and have given me interesting answers. But particularly Danielle, I really appreciate the sandwich on the x axis only that very technical answer. Yeah, that was it.

That was it for me. But speaking of technical answers, both of you have very interesting journeys to come to from going to a completely different space into kind of the nonprofit sector and I kind of wanted to ask you guys what motivated you to leave your jobs in the tech sector and start a nonprofit. Yeah, I can start.

So for me it was just seeing a problem. It was a problem that I faced myself and kind of stumbling into the solution accidentally. So, I started my tech career back in 2018.

I had just graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s in biology. So, I didn’t have a techground or technical degree. And I’m from Ghana.

So, for the immigrant kids here, like doctor, lawyer, engineer. So, that was kind of what I was pursuing. And I was going to go to medical school and then my senior year in college I took a genomics course and we were really learning about the intersection of healthcare and technology but specifically we were started the the course with a unit on ethics.

So we were learning about you know the lack of representation in medical research for underrepresented people for black people and other people of color and that really sparked a passion in me. I was the only black person in that course and it was a 400 level course. I’m like, I’m at Syracuse University.

There’s 40,000 students here and this year I’m the only one that really deeply cares about this problem and feels the implications of it. And so that was really my spark to get into health tech instead of going the clinical route. And so when I graduated in June or in May I guess I immediately got my first job out of college was at an AI health tech startup and I was able to leverage my experience undergrad I worked in the emergency department on as a medical scribe and so we were working with electronic medical records which was like the key piece of technology that the the medical industry uses.

Is. And so the the startup I started working at was essentially revolutionizing that process and replacing like fiscal medical scraps with AI that would do the same thing. And so because I had a background in that, I was able to launch my career at that AI health tech startup.

But when I got there, I realized that it was even less representative than I thought. I didn’t realize that the tech industry was going to be so I guess male, pale, and stale in that way. And yeah, I was I was the only youngest person at the organization.

I was the only black person. I was of course the only black woman. And so I felt very out of place in that space, but I also felt empowered that, you know, I was able to be there and I was able to make a difference and be that representation.

And so, yeah, I definitely needed mentors and, a network. And so, that sent was really my way of putting out a smoke signal like, hey, I’m I’m kind of lonely. Who else is out there?

And, like I said, I didn’t realize at the time that it was a systemic problem. I thought that, you know, this was just something that maybe I was facing at a small company. And so did that.

And, you know, other actually started from a hashtag. I took a selfie one day and I was like hashtag baddies in tech and I clicked the hashtag and I saw never used it before and I was like, "Oh, this is really cool. I feel like it really describes me as like a young woman but also as a professional and I I think it should be a thing.

Like I want to make this a thing." So I just started an Instagram page kind of sharing my my experiences you know as a technologist and it took off from there. So then yeah after that I moved back to Ghana for two years and I was building startups in Ghana and just kind of following my passion for entrepreneurship and then you know the pandemic hit. So was in Ghana from 2019 to 2021.

The pandemic hit 2020 in 2020 and and then George Floyd was also murdered. And so because bad guys in Tech had we had already built like an online audience you know tech companies started reaching out looking for talent for you know spaces where they could recruit and diversify. And so that tech kind of was positioned to be that solution and I started connecting the women community to roles in tech.

And so when I came back to states in 2021, that’s when I started formalizing it. We started doing more inerson events and and then kind of became a formal entity and that is how it happened. So it was very much like I was well positioned because I felt the problem myself and I just kind of started a solution and then the timing was right.

I was well positioned to kind of be that solution. And I think with Bank of Tech specifically, like we the the name of it is almost like a dog whistle in a way in the sense of like it weeds out the people who it’s not for and it like brings in the people who it’s for. And so it’s worked really well in in that sense of you know, we’re able to really attract the people that this organization is for that we can help and and that has is what has made us successful, I think.

I feel like a lot of companies forget like how important the name that you give who you’re representing is because it really is something that attracts students to what you represent. And absolutely I agree baddies in tech. I was intrigued.

Like I heard that I was like baddies in tech. Yeah. Wait, I need to I need to research this.

Obviously I feel like Natives Rising too it definitely has that like ring of like oh what is that? Like I want to hear about that. Danielle would love to hear your journey, how how it was.

Yeah. So it’s funny. I never actually intended to start a nonprofit, but I feel like when the world wants something, you know, it’ll tell you, right?

So I actually started Natives Rising as my thesis in college. So I studied interaction design. I’m a product designer by training, so I’m not technical per se, but so Natives Rising was my thesis in college.

And we were supposed to answer what is both important to you and to the world. And my professor had said make something that you would pay to do. And because you were right, it’s like a private art school and you’re you’re paying a lot of money to to do this thesis, so you might as well do something that you’ve always wanted to do.

And I had always wanted to help my fellow indigenous people. I’m I’m Native American. I’m Pomo from Northern California.

And and looking at all the problems that indigenous people face in this country. The biggest one well there’s there’s a lot but over 25% of indigenous people are in poverty and so I started exploring economic empowerment and at that time I had already had two internships at Meta and I was uniquely and positioned to be in the Bay Area because I’m a Bay Area native and that was lucky. But I could have easily been born anywhere else, right?

But that was the privilege that I had by being a Bay Area native. And economic empowerment, tech was such a hugely transformative thing for me in terms of my economic empowerment. And I knew that if people just had a really good portfolio and they made some good connections and they got mentorship, then they could get an awesome tech job, too.

And at the time that this was way before COVID and so people were like, "Oh, remote work like yeah, maybe." And it’s so funny how, you know, later everybody’s doing that now. But it was possible. It was always possible, right?

So even if you lived in a rural area, you could technically work as an engineer or designer. And hiring was booming you know, seven years ago for tech. And I know we’ve been through a couple of layoffs recently.

But yeah, it just seemed so doable even even without a college education for indigenous people. And so I started exploring that as my thesis for economic empowerment for indigenous people is bringing them into the tech industry. So it just so happened that diversity folks thought this was really cool and interesting because there wasn’t really a lot of other native people in tech as well.

So similar to Ally, I also built this for myself too because I thought I was the only one in in any room at any time. I’m the only native person. I’m just going to assume that.

Which most native people probably are used to feeling. If you’re a a minority group in any way, right? It could be religion or any other type of minority.

So I remember when I was interning at Meta, there’s this diversity at it was Facebook then, but diversity at Facebook, there’s 27,000 members in there and I’m like, am I the only Native American here in this entire company? And two people responded and I was so excited. So there were two other Native women there.

And I do you see how excited I am that there were two out of 27,000? That’s how bad it is. Like that’s how bad.

So, I just started pulling together all the other indigenous people in tech just to see and I was shocked at how many I found. Just because there I didn’t even know I just assumed I was the only one, right? And and like how how Alli mentioned, it’s just so important to find these other people and to know that you’re not the only one and building it for yourself as well and to make those connections and and that’s how it started.

So it was my thesis in college and so and I had interned twice at Meta by then and so I went on to convert to full-time after that and so I just left the website up you know I just made a website and I had no intention of making it into a nonprofit per se because I was still you know I had to pay for a college all myself and so I’m just you know in a lot of debt and I’m trying to you know start my career at Meta and and then and then a bunch of people started finding my website so they started emailing me like people started being like, "Hey, do you want to be on this article?" And I was like, "Oh my god, people are actually, you know, finding this and then wanting mentorship." so yeah, I mean it’s it’s funny. It’s like in in in Y Combinator and in startup world and the way that we’re taught in interaction design is just build things people want, right? It’s like that’s how you know you have traction is when you build stuff and people are just like, "Oh my god, we we need this." And they just start they just start, you know, it just starts taking off on its own.

And I was working at medical time and I was like, "Oh my god, like this like I don’t know if I could do both of this at the same time." So for years, I mean almost five years, I I just had it as like a side project and I would do things when I could. And it wasn’t until Reboot that I was connected to Reboot that they were, you know, super excited to to find Natives Rising and we were just still an unincorporated community at that at that time and I was like, you know, I can make a program for you. You know why don’t we just make this a nonprofit why don’t we just do that because I had started doing research in the landscape about hey there are other organizations like this they raise money they they get community they get corporate partners like you can actually do this and and you know at that time I had been at Facebook for over four and a half years and I was like what would it be like if I actually made this a thing and you know reboot believed in us and I was like let’s just let’s just do it and then ever since then it’s just you know, more people find us and it’s just now it’s got momentum.

So, yeah, that’s how it happened. A I there’s something that I really resonate with and that both of you mentioned. It’s the idea of the only being the only in the space in the only in the class.

That was my experience being the only Latina in my computer science classes, too. And it’s it’s always kind of that idea of wanting to kind of help those because you’re like this is something I could have used. This is something like let me do something that not only I can use but all my friends, people I know can kind of use and benefit from and tell their other friends, right?

And this kind of becomes a chain reaction. Kind of that challenge. I I kind of want to hone in on this those challenges that you sometimes face that kind of sparked that initial nonprofit idea.

What were some of the challenges that both of you faced when it came to kind of transitioning from your previous career path to running creating a nonprofit? How did you overcome those? I guess Danielle, you can go first.

Ally went first last. Yeah. Well, the biggest one is a lack of mentorship, which isn’t that a theme or what?

You know, I am a big fan of being self-taught and DIY and figuring stuff out. I learned a lot of how to do design anything out of nothing, you know, because of the design process and design thinking. So, I’m pretty comfortable just figuring stuff out on my own.

But building a nonprofit is not that straightforward and there’s actually not I don’t know about you Alli if you found anything but there’s not a lot online even that’s really reliable and in terms of what to do how to do it and for a while I was going back and forth between is this a company is this a nonprofit and eventually chose nonprofit because reboot was you know funds nonprofits but yeah lack of mentorship was really hard but it was also super fun because I love learning and figuring stuff out myself. But yeah, I mean that’s part of the fun and part of the growth is doing stuff that I never had to figure out before and learning about accounting, you know, that’s never going to happen in a product team at a big tech company. Or learning more about legal and the fact that there’s all this stuff you have to do to incorporate in different states and if you get money from different states then you got to register and I’m like thought this was one country like it’s so confusing.

So it’s just there’s just so much to learn, right? And that’s so different from being in a team with a at a big company where everything else is taken care of for you and you could just be really good at your expertise. What’s cool about startups or entrepreneurship in general is that you get to learn a lot of everything.

So if that’s for you, it’s super fun or it could be overwhelming depending on your personality type. But thankfully I enjoy it. I’ve learned a ton.

Maybe I should write a course or a workshop with everything that I’ve learned because again, right, just creating what we wish we had. But yeah, that was definitely the biggest challenge for me. Yeah, I I echo all of that.

I think for me because I started baddies in tech like two months into being, you know, like working in general, I didn’t have that depth of experience yet. And so, you know, then kind of transitioning and and just building startups first in Ghana and then building daddies in tech from the ground up. It was very much like jack of all trades type of vibe and I I you know I’ve grown up I think especially as like immigrants as underrepresented women we’re very independent and we like to figure things out on our own and so it took me a while to ask for help and to realize that I couldn’t do it on all on my own and so you know to the point of Danielle like you have to learn, you know, how to do your finances.

You have to learn how to lead a team, how to build culture. There’s so many different things that you have to learn to be successful. And for a year or two, I was like, "Yeah, I can do this on my own." And it I really didn’t start growing and the business didn’t really start growing until I asked for help and I got my first mentor within this space.

And so yeah, I think that’s like the biggest thing is like really for me I had to unlearn hyperindependence in order to grow. I I I hear that as a child of immigrants as well. That idea of like not wanting to be either a burden or I’ve got to know everything because that’s that’s how it is.

You got to help out. It’s tough to unlearn especially when you’re coming into a space that relies so heavily on that trust and teamwork. Right and and so you’re like you need to kind of take that like almost gatekeepiness or like not trusting side and be like hey you can trust people even if they’re not like super duper close family.

They’re there to help you. They’re there to guide you. And it’s a a great thing to know, especially now, right, as you’re either starting in your career or even, later on in your career.

I know, I’ve had this conversation with some of our reboot scholars as well. I do kind of want to pivot a bit. And funny enough, pivoting from one space to another can be really difficult because you may not know what skills can translate really well into that new space.

And so I want to ask both of you, if you could name two of those skills that transitioned well from like your previous career into the nonprofit space, what are those? Danielle, I’ll start with you. Yeah.

Hard to pick just two. Like are these two or this is this one? Probably design thinking and user research.

I was going to say product like management skills like road mapping and stuff, but if I had to choose to definitely design thinking and end user research. I mean because it’s really talk to customers, build product, talk to customers, build product, right? And so it’s like the fundamentals of building anything valuable.

And thankfully I’m trained in human centered design. And so, you know, Natives Rising was built on user research and we continue to get feedback from the the women that we serve, from the folks in our community and to make stuff that really resonates with them. And so, yeah, it’s it’s been definitely a guiding light.

Yeah, I don’t want to keep echoing Danielle, but design thinking for sure. Like I was like I’ve been saying I spent a year in a tech entrepreneurship program in Ghana and the whole process was find African problems form teams build solutions and that problem finding part of it was all design thinking right how to identify a problem how to identify a user set talk to them how to conduct you know qualitative research quantitative research and come up with solutions to solve solve that problem and test that. And so we’ve done a ton of that with Betty’s and Tech as well.

And actually with what we’re launching soon, we’re launching a mentorship, a sister circle mentorship program. And that was we came up with that through a ton of quantitative research, but also focus groups and one-on-one interviews that we conducted with our community. And it was really surprising because when we put out the survey initially asked a specific question and we said why did you join guys in tech?

It’s a very simple question but we made it so that they could only pick one choice and the choices were pretty difficult I think to pick between. So, we had, you know, learn new technical skills, find a job, connect with like-minded community, and I think we had like two others. And what was really surprising is that 50% of the women given the choice to only pick one picked connect with like-minded community, like-minded individuals.

And, you know, I would have thought like, you know, wanted to get jobs to learn skills. But that answer was really, really telling in the fact that regardless of what stage you’re in within the tech industry, you could be an executive, you could be just graduating because we interviewed and we talked to both, you know, groups, they’re still looking for people around them that can support their career growth. And so that has really informed what we’re what we’ve built and what we’re continuing to build.

And so I would definitely say user research. I think the other thing is just client relations. My first job in tech at the AI health tech startup was in technical implementation.

So I would travel and I would implement the technology with doctors and the big part of that role was just being able to build relationships with the doctors in order to like get them to buy into your ideas properly. And I think that that skill has served me so well within the industry. I think relationships are more than everything.

You know I’ve had I’ve raised funding through relationships that for example I had I was trying to raise money for our conference and there I was talking to AWS and there was one individual I was talking to AWS who was like oh we don’t stop doing that. We don’t have any money. And then I had a relationship with another woman in AWS and you know she knew my work.

She you know we were very well connected and you know she like went out and advocated and found funding for us within the same organization from somebody who told me that they didn’t have funding. So, yeah, I think like relationships have served me so well and being able to maintain relationships, start relationships and maintain them, I think is so valuable for whatever stage that you’re in, especially now with the rise of AI. Like, you know, being able to cultivate relationships, be creative, and come up with creative solutions, I think, is like beyond valuable for where we’re going within the tech industry.

So, I would say those two skills for sure. Awesome. Awesome.

I I completely am surprised whenever relationships that you made, friendships, connections that you made years ago pop up, right? And and is the key to finding your next opportunity, your next your next big thing. That’s funny enough how I found my job here at Reboot.

Which which is huge. I feel like I’m gonna pivot a bit off book here, but I know this is a very big topic that students like to kind of hear about, but in your experience, where do you feel is the best place to kind of get started in in forming those connections? Where or relationships?

Where is the best to kind of say especially for those who are kind of introverted who like I don’t know where to start or it’s kind of hard for me to kind of randomly talk out of nowhere. Where’s a great place to start? So honestly I say that if you are introverted the best place to start ising events because people are there to network.

That is you like you start from a baseline knowing that like people gain to connect to network to find like-minded individuals to find connection and so I think it removes that like first layer of like does this person want to be bothered does does this person want to talk to me and then I think that like for me I’m an amateur so I don’t like like it’s not like my favorite thing in the world like I I like being around people but it does drain me and so because I know that it drains me at some point I set a goal and once I feel like I’m done, like I’ my my battery is done, I leave. And I think that a lot of people who are introverted or ambverted even feel like, you know, I’m in this event and if I leave, people will feel a type of way. It’s okay to like have that agency and say, you know, I’ve I’ve I’m setting a boundary and set, you know, set a goal like I want to meet five new people and and see if there’s anything that we can connect on.

And then I think the last thing is really following up. So, I’m kind of bad at this, but really like being able to, you know, say like, "Yeah, I got your LinkedIn." And like, "Let’s, you know, messaging people and saying like, "Let’s virtual coffee." And like remembering something from the conversation and carrying that over into, you know, a followup, I think is how you’re able to continue making those connections. I think the last thing for me is not reaching out only when you need something.

I’ve had to learn this that people are people and they just want to be checked in on. And somebody said something last week where it was like get to know your neighbors before you ask for sugar. So, it’s like it’s just that, right?

Like making sure that you’re building connections and you’re checking in on people and the first time they hear from you isn’t when you like need a job from them or when you need some sort of favor that like they can continue to see you and that you’re am reaching out and checking in on a periodic level. I a good example was recently I was meeting I wanted to get like coverage in in Tech Crunch. Was it Tech Crunch?

I think it was Tech Crunch. For our conference and I had a connect there and I hadn’t reached out to her in like so long ridiculous and so I reached out like yeah like can you like come to our event you know blah blah blah like we’d love to be covered and like it was a lot and it wasn’t like it was out of the box past but at the same time I hadn’t maintained a relationship with her so she didn’t end up coming this past week I hit her up and I was like hey like let’s like let’s grab coffee in the city this fall like sometime and she writes back immediately she’s like yeah like like when are you available let’s do it and so it just goes to show that like people don’t want to just reaching out to them because you want something like they want to build a relationship with you they want to be checked in on you know they want to just connect and so that was like a a good example of me doing the don’t want you to do. And then correcting it.

So, yeah, for me, I am an introvert. So, so I’m like, here’s the here’s here’s how I did this. So in having to be efficient with energy, with social energy, try to work with really smart people and a really big team.

So I was lucky enough to be at Meta which is huge and the people that I interacted with were all super smart and there’s probably like a team of 30 people max because the stuff that we did everybody had a specialization. So I got to meet a ton of people and then I switched teams. I was on four different teams.

So I met a lot of people and they all are doing great things right. So but the point being like I was paid for that social energy. So if you’re it’s like networking that you get paid for if you work at a big company almost.

So if you can that was awesome. Because a lot of those relationships were so strong and still are. Because when you work really closely with people you develop really quality relationships.

They see your work. They see how good you are. They’re going to refer you.

They’re going to they’re going to refer you to another job. They’re going to, you know, give you a reference. They they’ll hire you later for their startup.

Right? So, these are the really strong bonds where they’re going to think of you when they need an expert in something and that’s definitely where you want to be because they also know people. So definitely in your work relationships or school relationships, but where you already have a group of people that can see your skills.

And be friends with extroverts and just have them go do it for you. So, just go to a networking event with an extrovert and then you just hang around them and they talk the whole time and then they’ll introduce you to all of their people. So, it’s pretty easy.

Third tip I would say is read How to Win Friends and Influence People. I haven’t read this book yet, but my partner has and I mean so many people have. It’s just one of those books that really talks about how to build authentic bonds like like Alli was mentioning where people know and you care and it matters a whole lot when you when you actually do care about people.

So yeah, plus one to win friends that influence people. I did that and I can say that again because I am an ambivert that was one of the things that helped me understand how to have conversations with random people. And the key thing that I picked up from that book was that people like to talk about themselves.

So people are going to feel like you’re having a reciprocal conversation if you just keep asking questions about themselves and then like you know they’ll answer the question maybe you find something that you’re like oh yeah like opinion and then you respond with that because if you keep just like you keep asking them questions and not saying anything they’ll realize at some point. But yeah, like I think sometimes we feel like we need to talk about ourselves in in these networking situations, but asking people questions about themselves, it really makes them feel like they like you care about them. And people love talking about themselves, so then that keeps the conversation going.

So yeah, key tip from that book and I agree. Please do read that. Awesome.

Thank you. I I really appreciate those honest answers, especially coming from am another ambbervert, right? And the introvert, okay?

Because some of those social interactions can kind of catch you off guard. And I don’t know, it’s fun to kind of hear that, especially with professionals such as yourselves who are so successful in such great careers. Coming from me who’s just starting my career and also believe students who are listening in, it’s really nice to hear that like, hey, it’s not just me, you know, it is a universal thing.

I’m I’m not crazy. I kind of want to jump into a question that maybe some young entrepreneurs, some young nonprofiters, if you will, would like to know and that is what advice would you give to other tech professionals who are considering starting their own nonprofit? This is a tough one because they’re all so different.

I don’t know. It really depends on the context of somebody’s life. I mean, but I just want you to know that there’s probably definitely money for it somewhere.

The the one thing that I didn’t know that I didn’t realize before going into being in running a nonprofit is that I used to think on the outside as a consumer that the only way nonprofits really got money was direct donations from individuals, right? Like I thought I’d have to constantly be in the public and you know like like getting votes or something. But there’s a lot of private money, a lot of foundations, a lot of just wealthy individuals that love a certain subject and they dedicate money specifically to that subject and sometimes you might pro might be the only one applying for it if you know if it’s a niche thing.

And so I would just start doing some digging to see is the market and and when you think about the market there’s there’s two sides of the market for nonprofits at least and that’s the funders and your the people that you’re benefiting the community and so it’s got to make sense on both sides. Are there people giving money for this thing? You know who would I raise money from?

I would definitely start that looking at that comp that landscape and to see who are all the foundations funding this how do I know this is going to get funded what are other organizations that funded that that got funded and who funded this how much did they get so yeah so just do some research and then see if it’s a viable opportunity yeah I think on the other side of that going back to like design thinking like really validating that there’s And I would say this to any type of founder, whether nonprofit, for-profit, startup, whatever the case may be, is like validating that there is a problem first. And that when you when you validate that there’s a problem, is it a big enough problem to solve? I think that, you know, within my nonprofit space, within women in tech right now, as we all know, in DEI, there’s been an attack on DEI in general, on women in tech initiatives.

There’s been a ton of women in tech initiatives that have closed down recently. And so, and that’s because the funding is drying up. And so I think that in the landscape that we’re in, specifically if you’re looking to do something within the DEI space, validating that there, like Danielle said, there’s funders, there’s people who will give money, but also that like on the consumer side, on the on the people who you’re benefiting side, that they would be willing to pay for this thing.

If you find that you’re in a space where like DEI stuff is drying out, like for us, we’re looking to like figure out a a a balance and a mix of corporate funding and public funding as well as like BTOC, like what does it look like to build a valuable product, a membership, whatever the case may be, that the people who are benefiting would pay for in order to sustain the in order to sustain the business. And so yeah, I think it’s important to like really do some evaluation on how you’re going to make money because at the end of the day, like nonprofits are nonprofits, but you still need money. You need money to pay people.

You need money operate. Just because it’s a nonprofit doesn’t mean that there’s no money involved. And so I think it’s really important to to do that process.

That is eyeopening. I will not lie especially being in this space. You I feel like you learn something new every day.

Especially in when it comes to tech things are always innovating. You always kind of have to stay on top of things. Is always research in order to be able to provide either for those you are representing the best resources to set them up for success in the future.

And so I do want to ask u our last question, how do you stay updated with the latest tech trends and ensure that your nonprofit remains relevant and effective? Yeah, so for me it’s social media. I have a Google alert that I just kind of set up with keywords.

And that alerts me to like new news anytime that fatty tech has been mentioned. And then I also like use AI to kind of automate a lot of that stuff. So, I’ve started using Claude and Geneva ChatGPT a lot.

I think for me for a while AI was intimidating, but I’ve it’s really been integrated into my life. And so if there’s anyone who feels like, you know, AI is, you know, intimidating or people want to like touch it, I highly encourage you to because it saves a ton of time. And I think with the information age, with the flood of so many sources of information, it really helps to streamline some of that information for me.

So, that’s how I kind of try to keep myself up to speed on things. For us, being relevant, we our main goal is to create jobs, whether that’s through entrepreneurship or for our tech folks to get placed in jobs. And so relevancy for us is really looking at the hiring landscape and seeing what do our students need to stay competitive in the job market.

And AI is is part of that right for our tech folks. And so AI inside internally in the organization using that and then also making sure that our programming has AI incorporated into it and and teaching it and having our our our fellows teach it and just integrating it more into indigenous communities where you know it’s just digital divide part two, right? So we’re doing our our our best to make sure that that divide doesn’t continue to expand.

And really investing in in our students and the indigenous women in our in our fellowship program to learn that and teach it to the the rest of the indigenous women in coming for the next generation of of technologists. So, wow. Well, well, thank you.

Thank you. I I definitely wanted to give some time and ask for potential students who would love to connect with your programs. What is the best way to kind of get that information or to kind of see what resources you have to offer?

Yeah, for us follow us on LinkedIn. We definitely post the most there. On Instagram on our website.

We have three main programs for indigenous folks. One for indigenous women sponsored by Reboot and then for indigenous founders. Then we have a STEM camp annually for indigenous high school students.

Yeah. Same. Keep up to date with us on LinkedIn and Instagram is where we post our updates.

We also have a monthly newsletter that goes out. So, if you go on our website, you can find the the sign up form to get on our mailing list. Send resources every month in that.

And then yeah, like I said, social media post kind of our upcoming events. We have a apprenticeship program that is restarting. I think it’s actually the application is closed now, but if again you join our newsletter, we be sending out when the next cohort is on that as well.

Well, Ally Danielle, thank you so much for your insight, for your honest answers. It was a learning experience even for me. This was lovely.

And for everybody who’s listening, connect with me. I welcome all of your connect requests on LinkedIn. Connect with Reboot.

You can visit us on LinkedIn as well and our website to learn more about what we are and what we do. Thank you so much again, Alli and Danielle. Lovely to have you here.

I know we do have some time for questions, potentially questions for you. So I going and switching into the Q&A of our session. Hi everyone.

Okay, I’m going to support with the questions. First one that we will tackle, thinking about the fear of closing doors for others to walk through. How do you properly advocate for yourself and make sure that your needs are being met?

I’ll open that up maybe to whoever would love to answer it. Can you repeat the question? Yeah, absolutely.

So thinking about like how you properly advocate for yourself and making sure that your needs are met as you know both of you have kind of embarked in settings where maybe you’re the only one or you’re kind of new and so how you kind of find ways in those settings to really advocate for yourself and make sure that you’re prioritizing yourself. Yeah, I I love that question. I think it’s about finding your allies in those spaces.

A lot of the time when you’re new or you’re only in the space, it might be hard to find your voice. And I think there is going to be somebody in that space that cares about you, that wants to learn about your goals. And I think a good place to start is your manager.

And so hopefully you have a good manager that you know you can share your goals with and you can and they can you know be your sponsor within the space. They can be your advocate within the space. And if not, you know, there’s so many other people within certain companies that you can kind of like set up coffee chats with and and learn and connect with and and try to just find someone who can be an advocate for you.

And making sure that you’re sharing your goals with them so that you know when they come across opportunities when they’re in spaces that you’re not in they’re able to kind of put throw your name in the hat, put your name out there for certain opportunities. I think that you know it’s is a is a big way that I’ve learned in the corporate space to advocate for myself to add on to that as well. I think for me it was really demonstrating greatness and showing that, you know, it was worth investing in me, believing in me and and a lot of people believed in me and and wanted to mentor me that way.

And and that starts with us advocating and knowing our strengths and being really confident about what we have to offer, right? And that feeling will emanate and affect other people. And that’s how you gain influence.

But it comes from it really comes from within and then you won’t really have to worry as much, you know, about your needs because it’s pretty obvious. It’s like this person’s awesome. Let’s let’s do what they say.

So, you know, it’s really demonstrate the greatness that you have and really cultivate that and it’s then it’ll be really hard for people to ignore you. That’s great advice. Thank you so much for answering that.

We have one other question and then I have a few as well. Culminating looking at all of your experiences together. We have a question about kind of conflict.

So how do you handle conflict surrounding ideology in a work setting? I imagine that might pop up in nonprofits. So any answers or thoughts you have around that question?

Oh yeah. I have extensive training in communication and conflicts. Two books that I would recommend.

One is called Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. This is the my definite go-to when expressing feelings and different points of view and different needs. The second is studying boundaries.

And there are a couple of good books that have come out about boundaries lately, but that’s really just the idea of letting people be who they are and honoring their autonomy in their opinion and being able to draw that line between, okay, this is this person’s belief on this stance and this is my belief on this stance. And then allowing that to maybe be different and for both of them to be valid. And with both of those types of books, you’ll learn communication about how to validate both of your points of view without necessarily agreeing.

You don’t have to agree in order to understand or to make space for and honor that person’s difference. So definitely those two books. Yeah, I think adding on to that it, you know, I think it’s just about remembering what the goal is.

I think sometimes we get caught up in being right, you know, in my opinion being heard and that opinion being the correct. But I think when you go back to especially within nonprofit organizations or impact driven organizations, when you go back to what is going to be the best outcome for the people that we serve, for our funders. I think going back to those kind of like points and making a decision based on that versus opinion is is how I’ve learned to solve conflicts within my team.

I think also it helps to have I don’t know this might be a little controversial. So for me I started off trying to build a very horizontal organization where everyone had a say so and nobody’s opinion was more you know weighted than the the next person. I’ve learned that it actually helps to have someone that can be a tiebreaker in a sense.

And so I’ve learned to implement that within our culture as well as just accountability like being accountable to what you say how you said it, but also what you said that you were going to do. I think has been a big culture shift for me and my team is you know taking accountability for what you know the task that we set and being accountable to our teammates and stepping up to help people out when you can. And I think just having that baseline of like trust, baseline of accountability and and assuming positivist intent, has been a really big way that, I’ve handled conflicts within our organization.

Thank you so much for that question. Okay, this question is from me. So, if you want to put up a graphic question from Geneva, but I’m right here.

Which is you know a lot you know obviously all of you identify as women but we have a lot in our community that are either the first of their family to do something or the only person that looks like them in a space. What like what kind of skills or like habits did you build to feel really confident in those spaces where you maybe were the only one whether that’s the only woman or the only black woman in the space or the only Native American like how did you kind of build that confidence and any advice you have for our attendees who are in a similar situation whether that’s in class or in their future roles I know that’s for me yeah for me I think you know, it was really cultivating and mastering my craft. I think it was just getting really good at what I was hired to do, getting exceptionally good at it.

I invested so much in myself that, you know, like I said earlier, it’s like really hard to ignore me if I’m this have such good ideas and I’m so good and I’m so you’re already done with that, you know? So, it was it was this thing where I just was the greatest that I possibly could be. And I focused on that and you know in addition to those communication skills right that that I was talking about earlier with the other question and really understanding and empathizing with other people because sometimes I think maybe I at a few points maybe I was subconsciously thinking a little nervous about you know being a woman or being the only native in the room or but later on I was like does anybody else actually mind or is in my like it was sometimes hard to know, right?

And so I think maybe I was doing that a little bit to myself. And so maybe just yeah, maybe trying to talk about it with others at any point if if one feels brave enough because you know people might actually really respect and admire you more a lot more than you think. Yeah, I think to add on to that, releasing imposter syndrome is really important.

Like Danielle said, sometimes it it kind of is in our head. There’s 100% microaggressions in in these spaces and there’s things that you know people do that kind of set us back, but I think some of it is kind of imposttor syndrome and feeling like we’re not meant to be in certain spaces. And so I I really like advice of investing in yourself, but I think also having a community around you that you know is of like people people who might have faced similar things that you can vent to and really get advice on how to navigate that situation in real time I think is so important.

So yeah, really finding because at the end of the day like you might be the only black woman on your team but you’re not the only black in tech. Like there’s black women in tech somewhere else and so being a part of like communities like baddies in tech like natives rising and like finding people around you that have experienced the things and can give you advice in real time I think is so important like having a group chat right of of people that you’re sharing your goals with that you’re you know that you can reach out to and and talk about your professional challenges I think is so important. Thank you so much for sharing.

Last question before we wrap up. I would just love to know, you know, so many of our attendees are embarking on their journey in tech, whether it’s a nonprofit, going into a large company. What advice would you give for people just embarking on their journey?

If like there’s one piece of advice you give to people at the beginning, what would that be? And Ally, maybe I’ll start with you if you’re ready. Yeah, I I say the same thing every time I’m asked this question, and it’s to just take the first step.

I I feel like that has been the you know the the biggest thing that I’ve done for my career is I don’t know the full you know the full journey ahead but I’ve taken the step that was ahead of me and when you walk you know when you walk forward and you walk closer things might look hazy and misty but you walk closer and things get clearer and so yeah I think just to just not fear taking a step even though you don’t know the entire journey I think a lot of the times we want to have everything planned out and we want to have, you know, all the things figured out. And and that kind of paralyzes us, you know, analysis paralysis in a sense. And so, yeah, I I just advise people to like do the things that are around them.

Whether it’s, you know, you have someone who’s in the career that path that you want to be in that you know, like have a conversation with them. Take advantage of the free resources around you. Like maybe you don’t have all the funds that you need to take that boot camp or to take that next degree.

Like take take the courses that you have around you that are free and accessible. Like use the things that are around you. Because when you do that, you might meet somebody.

You might learn that oh maybe actually this career path wasn’t for me and I didn’t need to spend, you know, $50,000 to go back to school for it. And so yeah, I think every day we’re learning and so it’s important to just learn around you what with the tools that you have. Because the the path gets clearer as you as you walk it.

Yeah. And really quickly from me, just continue to learn. Have a growth mindset.

I think growth mindset, I mean, if you’re not familiar with it, there’s plenty of podcasts and and books about it, but just that you can learn anything. And to apply the you know lean startup process to that learning and to run an experiment and keep iterating and keep learning and to you know like Ally mentioned interview people that you are curious about their job you know find out learn from them try to reach out have a coffee chat a 10 minute 15 minute chat with people to learn from them and and and really see help guide you to where you want to go and learn from others that are farther along from you and with those two things you’ll do just fine. Thank you so much.

Please show your appreciation in the chat for these amazing panelists and our great facilitator Michelle. Thank you so much for your time today. Such amazing impactful information and just like it really warmed my heart to hear all of your advice and to share things.

So, thank you so much for your time. We encourage you to fill out the session survey, share your feedback with us on this session. And to close us out now, we will go to a brief video from our host, Bobby D.

Thank you all so much for attending. Thanks all. Thank you.

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