-
One of the biggest lessons that we hope to model for several folks, including some of the young women of color who come to me, is the value of understanding your worth, standing up, and demanding the best for yourself and not taking less.
Kimberly Bryant -
Gender is not central to coding.
Kimberly Bryant
-
I was doing a lot of networking in the Valley, and I found that it was not a very diverse environment, and most of the conferences and meetup events I went to, there weren't many women or people of color in those rooms.
Kimberly Bryant -
Our camps and workshops offer a space where girls of color can learn computer science and coding principles alongside their peers, with mentorship from female role models who have established themselves in tech fields where women, and minority women in particular, tend to be underrepresented.
Kimberly Bryant -
I think that if companies build for diversity from the beginning from the ground up, that's definitely the ideal state for how to build diversity into your company.
Kimberly Bryant -
For me, as a woman in one of the less diverse fields - electrical engineering, which is what I studied in college - it was hard to persist and really build a career. Some of the things I experienced were really scary, and they weren't experiences that I wanted for my daughter.
Kimberly Bryant -
We really pride ourselves on the notion that what makes our program special is that we really do our very best to make sure that everything we do is culturally responsive and relevant.
Kimberly Bryant -
I did not grow up around computers, so technology was not a tool used every day in my household. I was drawn to computer science due to the creative nature of programming and the technology focus.
Kimberly Bryant
-
I had been tracked from grades 1 through 12 in an accelerated program in the public school system in Memphis and had done well in math and science classes. When I was getting ready for college, my guidance counselors suggested I look into engineering.
Kimberly Bryant -
I grew up in a close-knit community where I was expected to excel, and it was a different experience when I got to the university. There were very few students of color, and those numbers were extremely low in the school of engineering.
Kimberly Bryant -
I believe it is incredibly important for women and people of color to become the builders and creators in technology. In order to do so, we need to know how to code or, at least, know the language of coding - what I like to call 'code speak.'
Kimberly Bryant -
When I started Black Girls Code in 2011, there weren't any programs that had a foundation in communities of color to teach our kids about technology.
Kimberly Bryant -
Our goal is to really have young women of color embrace the tech marketplace and the tech innovation space as both leaders and creators.
Kimberly Bryant -
We need to really focus on getting this digital equity across the board in all of our public school systems, for both girls and boys.
Kimberly Bryant
-
Although we use a lot of technology and consume a lot of technology as people of color, we're usually not the ones at the tables doing the creating of it.
Kimberly Bryant -
Technology is a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, and the accompanying geeky lexicon has infiltrated every facet of our modern day society.
Kimberly Bryant -
I think my biggest mistake was deciding not to go to law school directly after I graduated from college.
Kimberly Bryant -
The images you see in media are vital to impacting not just what the world sees in terms of who can be a computer scientist, who can be techie, who can be a geek or who can be a creator; it also impacts the girls and what they internalize.
Kimberly Bryant -
I don't think quotas are necessarily an evil. I think when we look at industry in general back to the '60s and the '50s, the way more diverse people like my dad and mom's generation were able to break into industry was because of affirmation action, because of quotas.
Kimberly Bryant -
It's always been my dream to be an attorney, and I'm that weird breed of human being that loves being in a courtroom.
Kimberly Bryant
-
Women are both talented and innovative thinkers and tend to use computer science as a tool to solve larger problems.
Kimberly Bryant -
We understand bringing girls into the tech space is about giving them skills to create social impact and change in their community.
Kimberly Bryant -
I loved school, was an exceptional student, and found a passion for math and science that led me to Vanderbilt University, where I discovered the world of electrical engineering. I did well in college, loved the work I was doing, and soon found myself climbing the corporate ladder after graduation. I was one of the lucky ones.
Kimberly Bryant -
We like to say we hope to be like the Girl Scouts of technology, having many different chapters in many different states as well as many different countries.
Kimberly Bryant