Motivating the Next Generation of Afro-American Code Writers
We, in the honor of Black History Month, are currently emphasizing the three prominent leaders made it their mission in order to increase the number of Afro-Americans in the area of technology, working to bridge the gaps between communities across the country and beyond.
Amanda Spann
Amanda Spann, based in Chicago, the United States of America, is a consultant in the area of marketing. She is also an app entrepreneur whose expertise assists brands not only to promote their ideas from concept into action but to build buzz around them. Among other types of innovations, she served as the co-founder of Tiphub and also functioned as the CMO of Blerdology, which held the first hackathon particularly in order to target African Americans. Also, the name of “Blerdology” is very inspirational since it challenges the concept that nerdiness does not fit in the black culture. That is why “Blerdology” was established so as to encourage Blerds (i.e. black nerds) to cultivate their interest unabashedly in all things. Through her experience which includes the areas of marketing, technology, apps and publicity, she is a first-hand witness to the lack of diversity in the technology sector. Furthermore, Amanda has taken the initial steps so as to actively promote the inclusion of more minorities in the technology sector and to personally guide African American entrepreneurs through Silicon Valley.
Charles Hudson
Charles Hudson is currently one of the most well-known and one of the few African Americans investors in Silicon Valley. He also worked in new business development at Google, serving as a partner with SoftTech VC and functioning as the co-founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games before founding Precursor Ventures. Charles, who works in the technology industry, realized the importance of encouraging more African Americans to enter into the field and become themselves as business owners, innovators and leaders.
Charles spends a significant amount of his time to teach women and minorities as a part of his commitment to function as a kind of road map for the next generations of Afro-Americans seeking to enter into the technology industry. Together with his friend, Richard Kerby, he also founded the networking group, Stealth Mode, gathering African Americans working in Silicon Valley’s technology sector so as to network and share knowledge.
Kimberly Bryant
Kimberly Bryant, who was an electrical engineer, was searching for the pathways so as to motivate her daughter in order to become involved in the areas of technology and code writing while she saw the industry around her comprising few women and people of color. This matter encouraged her to run her own organization namely “Black Girls Code” in order for provision of many opportunities not for her own daughter but her peers too.
“Black Girls Code” aims at introducing the areas of computer programming and technology to a new generation of code writers who shall become the developers of technological innovations to pave the way for a brilliant future. Already, they’ve inspired more than four thousands of Afro-American girls in the cities and suburbs in the United States, continuing to encourage young learners to enter into the computer science world.
Accordingly, “01 Learning” would like to appreciate such pioneers and role models for making the technology more inclusive and providing help so as to create and develop code writers, software developers and problem solvers of tomorrow.