Digital Inclusion and Building A Pipeline to Change the Face of Tech in the Bay

Susan Mernit Social Media Bootcamp

October 2, 2014

We’ve all seen those tech buses in our neighborhoods

But most of the people on the bus don’t look like this--

They look more like this

6 percent of U.S. tech workers are African American

7 percent are Latino.

In 2011 13 percent of engineers & 27 percent of computer professionals were women

Tech isn’t inclusive

And most investment dollars go to White and Asian men

So I am not telling you anything you don't already know about the tech industry, right?

At Google, 1% of the staff is Black 2% are Hispanic 17% are female

But we can’t fix the employment problem until we fix the education problem—it’s all broken.

Young people of color need more access to learning…

Only 74 black students took the AP Computer science exam in California in 2013.

74 out of almost 5,000 test takers.

25% of high schools with the highest percentage of black and Latino students don’t even offer Algebra II

To qualify for new jobs… By 2020, there will be 1.4 million new computer science jobs

--and only 400,000 computer science students in the US

--unless we change things

Hack the Hood & others are working to build that pipeline

Hack the Hood won $500K from Google to reach 5,000 young people of color & shift the script.

Boot camps, weekend Hack Days, internships, intensives and career education & mentoring turn young tech consumers into producers—

And train and inspire them to pursue tech careers.

Hack the Hood Program Offerings:

They are no longer passive consumers of what's going on on the internet, they become actively involved. I think that’s really empowering and will reshape the internet. -Eric Soares, Mentor

It’s happening— here & now--

“If more youth are involved, they will be able to build websites and also get into the tech industry by creating personal connections with people who are already working in the tech industry” -Teresa

Ways to engage:

• Volunteer • Mentor • Partner • Donate --or what really matters--

Listening

Being an ally

Having hard conversations

#realtalk

Building a talent pipeline for the future.

THANK YOU

Sources and credits:

• Video, Catherine Bracy, What Techies Need to Know About Politics, Personal Democracy Forum • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ywblz8y8aQ#t=15

Video, Kimberly Bryant, Black Girls Code, Personal Democracy Forum • http://personaldemocracy.com/media/girls-color-coding-radical-act

• Blog Post, Mary Fuller, Hack the Hood: Let’s unite around diversifying the tech landscape - http://bit.ly/U6x9eZ

• Report: Disparities in STEM Employment by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin • American Community Survey Reports, Liana Christin Landivar, September 2013 • https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-24.pdf

• Article: Tech Companies Work to Combat Computer Science Education Gap - US News http://bit.ly/1pHp7kH

• Video: Van Jones, #YesWeCode, SoCap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPU6QXMw0cw#t=1421

Stay in touch:

Susan Mernit, CEO, Hack the Hood susan@hackthehood.org @hackthehood http://facebook.com/hackthehood