Last week, I was honored to speak alongside one of my childhood heroes, NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, on a panel at Jackson State University (a CodePath HBCU partner) about the crucial role that mentorship plays in our lives. As someone who grew up in a low-income household in rural Maine, I didn’t know anyone in tech or have access to computer science classes at an early age. As my career progressed, it became clear that you cannot be successful without an army of champions supporting, investing in, and taking chances on you.
Creating more opportunities for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, first-generation, and low-income CS students to build long-lasting relationships with technology professionals is foundational to the work we do at CodePath. We believe that if you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best.
We have doubled enrollment in our remote Technical Interview Course, and this summer, CodePath needs more mentors than ever! This 11-week course includes regular engagement with volunteering professional engineers who mentor students in small groups and work through practice problems and mock interviews.
If mentorship has been as life-changing for you as it has been for me, help us by sharing this post on LinkedIn and sharing this link with your engineering teams. Encourage them to learn more about this volunteer opportunity and apply before May 13.
CodePath volunteers, with as little as 1 hour per week of their time, can contribute immensely to students’ paths to success. This is also a great opportunity for your company to gain visibility as an inclusive, community-forward organization, your team to engage with diverse CS students, and for volunteers to practice their own technical skills.
I am very grateful for your help in spreading the word.
We are also excited to announce a new pre-internship summer program we’re offering in partnership with Salesforce. The Futureforce Tech Launchpad will provide underrepresented students in computer science access to hands-on technical training, capstone projects, and mentorship earlier in their career journeys.
Starting in June 2022, we’ll invite 25 rising college juniors to our headquarters at Salesforce Tower in San Francisco for a 10-week, in-person experience with technical curriculum and one-on-one mentorship with Salesforce employees. Learn more by checking out our feature in Protocol.
On behalf of the students, I’d like to say thank you all so much for your continued support of CodePath and your dedication to helping us transform the technical education system. Only by working together are we able to continue making strides in diversifying the tech pipeline.