Vision 2024: 200 Black, Latina women in STEM (and an open letter to Senior Tech Leaders)

Time’s up.

The slow, grinding wheels of progressive progress have reached a deafening pitch and time’s up.

This past Saturday evening, Code2College hosted its inaugural Inclusion, Diversity & Equity in Action (IDEA) Awards via Zoom. The Code2College IDEA Awards event was focused on recognizing and celebrating the volunteers and partners who make our impact possible. If you’re reading this and have never heard of Code2College, I invite you to visit our website. For the sake of this post though, I’ll give you a quick update:

For the past four years, Code2College has been partnering with volunteers and leading Tech companies (SEE: every company is a Tech company) to develop the next generation of diverse, technical leaders. We provide after-school coding and web development education, professional development, STEM (a popular acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics . . . basically, technical fields) career exposure and case competitions, ongoing mentorship and paid, technical summer internships (to a portion of) the minority and low-income high school students whom we serve. Actually, our program is open to all students, but at present we serve a student population that is 76% Black or Latinx, 53% (yes, fifty-three) female, 51% economically disadvantaged (as calculated by those who qualify for Free or Reduced Price Lunch, a common proxy for low-income household status) and 36% First-Generation (i.e. first in their families to pursue a college degree).

At the close of the event, I announced Vision 2024. In short, Vision 2024 is an initiative to launch the STEM careers of 200 black and Latinx women by the year 2024.

It’s that simple.

As I said, for the past four years, we’ve been delivering FREE programming to a population of students who — demographically — exist in rarity within technical fields. Here’s some supporting data that I commonly share: 50% of female and low-income, two-thirds of Latinx and nearly three-quarters of Black undergraduate students who initially select a STEM undergraduate major ultimately switch to a liberal arts degree or drop out completely.

That’s why we exist as an organization. Here are a few of our outcomes though:

• Annie is a Black woman who just graduated from our program and high school. She is currently a software engineering intern at athenaHealth and will attend the University of Texas at Austin in the Fall to pursue a degree in Computer Science and minor in Environmental Science.
• Carolina is a Latina woman who just graduated from our program and high school as well. She is currently a software engineering intern at Atlassian and will attend Texas A&M in the Fall to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

You: I keep seeing ‘currently’. Sounds like they just got into this high school intern game.

Me: Oh, how about . . .

• Adriana is a Latina woman who graduated from our program last year and high school this year. She’s been interning at Cirrus Logic as a software engineering intern for the past two Summers. She’ll be starting at the University of Texas at Austin as a Computer Science major this Fall.
• Angela is a Latina woman who graduated from our program two years ago and high school last year. She has been interning at RetailMeNot as a software engineering intern for 3 years. She just completed her freshman year at the University of Texas at Dallas and is pursuing a degree in Computer Science.

What pipeline problem? What are you even talking about?

We’ve been doing this for FOUR years. Our partners are leading Tech companies. We’ve never lost an internship host partner. Our return offer rate for our high school interns is north of 90%. More than half of our interns’ projects go into production and several interns have directly contributed to revenue-bearing products.

Oh, and for those of you who are more data-driven and intellectually curious, 80% of our interns are black or Hispanic and more than half are women.

Our program works and has been bearing fruit for FOUR years.

At the IDEA Awards, senior leaders from Cirrus Logic (John Forsyth, President), Atlassian (Steve Goldsmith, Austin, TX Site Lead and Head of Product, Integrations), RetailMeNot (Vivek Sagi, Chief Technology Officer) and several other leading firms stated their commitment to partnering with Code2College because of the impact that they invested in years ago and have already witnessed firsthand.

We’re raising $1.5M to launch the STEM careers of 200 black and Latinx women.

Somebody recently asked me “why so much?”

Really? Why so much?

Here’s some quick math: $1.5M divided by 200 Black and Latina women = $7,500 per woman.

I used to work in the private sector. 15 years ago I was in charge of a budget for my department’s holiday party. It was not an insignificant amount of money, but let’s talk about the now. Most of our partners have holiday parties. I know how much it costs today to rent out venues, order catering, decorations . . . and the alcohol. Oh, the alcohol.

And though Black and other founders of color often receive advice in lieu of funding, if $7,500 is too much to invest in bringing ONE Black or Latina woman into the Technical workforce, please miss me with your advice.

If $7,500 per woman strikes you as high, please save your “what you should do”-isms.

I’ll repeat just one more time (because I’ve had to say this several times over the past month and, honestly, several hundred times over the past four years), if $7,500 is too much for you for what we’re building — we have nothing to talk about.

In fact, due to COVID-19 adjustments, here’s a list of just a few areas where you can scrape together $7,500 in funding per woman:

1. Office Happy Hours (it’s BYO now that these are Zoom-based)
2. Your 2020 Holiday Party (wait, were you still planning on having a few hundred of your employees packed into a rented out restaurant/bar/lounge/museum? Also, this is a biiiiiig line item)
3. Office Snacks (again, BYO)
4. Copier Paper (now that you’re paperless, you can call yourself “eco-friendly”, it’s a twofer!)
5. Forego YOUR raise (*gulp*)
6. Forego YOUR bonus (*double-gulp*)
7. Company Retreat (see #2, also you’re able to scratch that line item for all of those entertainment vendors you were using, as well as the travel budget attached)
8. On-Campus Recruiting (ok, this is an interesting one. Who knows which campuses you can visit and when — also, Code2College internship host partners get resume books, so there’s that)

If this wasn’t clear, this isn’t up for debate, negotiation or discussion of a discount. These women don’t deserve a discount. This is premium talent.

Also, we’re doing the work at Code2College. We’re preparing them. We’re training them. We’re exposing them to STEM careers. We’re vetting them. And only after that are we introducing you to them and giving YOU the opportunity to hire the very same talent that you’re looking to your Talent Acquisition team to find, Diversity Recruiters to court and diverse employee base to refer at the FTE-level. You’re already spending an inordinate amount of budget that is orders of magnitude greater to recruit just ONE. Note I didn’t say retain. Recruit just ONE.

Speaking of retention, did you know that our interns not only RECEIVE return offers, but they also TAKE them? I haven’t yet met a Code2College intern who hasn’t emphatically said that they want to return to their host company. You should have heard Angela rave about the culture around support, normalized failure and inclusion at RetailMeNot. Or Adriana talk about how interning at Cirrus Logic has been the most rewarding experience OF. HER. LIFE. and how it’s the #1 reason why she is pursuing a career in software engineering and a Computer Science major.

Do you honestly think that they’ll be jumping ship within 12-18 months of converting to a FTE?

Now, I’d like to speak directly to Austin-area CEOs.

I’ve seen nearly all of you say #BlackLivesMatter, #BLM, #DEI and every other hashtag over the last few weeks. It’s time to put up.

If you are truly invested in changing the landscape, bringing about equitable outcomes for blacks, Hispanics and women, this is your opportunity to put your money where your mouth is.

That said, I’m sure you have some questions. I know, because I’ve heard them. So here are the FAQs:

Q: Seriously though, why so much?

A: It’s a fair question. You wouldn’t be where you sit if you just wrote checks at the whim of a stream-of-consciousness Medium blog post. Well, I’d like to address a few concepts that you are familiar with to help mitigate your concerns:

Capital efficiency: This year, Code2College served 550 students. We only have four FTEs on staff. That means that (yes, quick math again) we serve over 135 students per staff member (if you include me, and you shouldn’t). Also, as of next month, we’ll serve our 1,000th student. We’ve operated for only four years and those three other FTEs I mentioned only started with us 11 months ago. That’s right. We’re a lean and highly-effective team. That also means that your dollar goes much further with Code2College.

ROI: How do you quantify the entrance of an additional diverse hire to the technical workforce? How do you quantify the retention of a diverse candidate in the Austin technical ecosystem? Code2College interns consistently return to their host partners and stay in the Austin technical ecosystem. We specialize in diverse, homegrown technical talent. Every woman who secures a role increases the diversity and, given our intensive preparation, the overall quality of the Austin Tech landscape. It’s all about perspective and if your perspective is that “a nonprofit shouldn’t be asking for so much”, then of course, $7,500 is a lot. If your perspective is, I want to work with a proven operator that consistently demonstrates high-quality results in an efficient fashion, then your question is “why not more?”

Q: Where’s the money going?

A: Another great question and not a dollar is going to me or any other non-program staff. Our team has done a great job thus far, but to reach this goal there is a great deal of additional curriculum development, capacity-building, program management, alumni support and HIRING that will take place. Remember that we only have three FTEs supporting program work . . . also, one of them isn’t even program staff (SEE: capital efficiency).

Q: If I support at X level, do I get a board seat?

A: Wait, are we still talking about Vision 2024 or you?

Q: I’ll support once I see other money in, just don’t want to be the first if this isn’t going to get off the ground.

A: First, that’s not a question. Second, you’re not the first money-in. This has already been seeded by the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. They’re a global venture philanthropy focused on funding early-stage, high impact social enterprises. Also, the vetting wasn’t a cakewalk. Venture philanthropies operate just like VC firms, only they’re focused on social returns vs. dollars.

Here’s how the DRK process works:

An application gets submitted. About 25% of applications get moved to a first interview. After the first interview, about 25% of candidate orgs move to the early diligence phase. Then about 15% of candidate orgs move to the final diligence phase. Then there’s a series of on-site visits, stakeholder interviews, etc.

So yea, wayyyy less than 1% of applicants even get funded. Code2College got funded. The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation has committed $300,000 to fund our efforts. That’s 40 black and Hispanic women. How many are you funding?

Q: Ok, well this all sounds great. We support diversity in STEM, so we’ll take a look at your website and get back . . .

A: Ok, let me stop you right there. Our team just published the 2020 Diversity in STEM Report. It’s an exhaustive, 38-page document that outlines how companies in Austin have supported diversity in STEM in partnership with Code2College. The first group of companies could be considered the “Sweet 16”, or our top 16 corporate partners as calculated by volunteer hours invested. And I’m having this conversation with those companies as well about what they can do, but let me just say this:

If your company operates in the Austin area and says that it’s committed to #DiversityInSTEM, but you’re not in the Diversity in STEM Report, don’t ask me why — ask your CEO. And if you’re the CEO and scratching your head, get a better handle of your “diversity” and “inclusion” efforts. And then after that, have a talk with whomever handles your “diversity” and “inclusion” efforts.

In closing, if you’re a CEO at an Austin-area company, I’m officially putting you on notice. The time for lip service is up. The time for hashtags is over.

You have an opportunity to bring out real lasting change for Black and Latina women in our community, the Austin Tech landscape and our nation.

Commit real dollars to Vision 2024 and close this raise of $1.5M by July 31, 2020. We’re already 20% of the way there and the clock is ticking.

Visit https://code2college.org/vision-2024/ for more information and email me at matt@code2college.org to get started.

The clock is ticking.