An excerpt from RenderATL's Culture & Code podcast Episode #6: Increasing Access to Computer Science Education with Diana Kris Navarro (@_dianakris):

Ashley:
For sure, yeah. So perfect segue into my next question, actually, about the impact of exposing people from a young age to computers, education, especially those that are in underserved communities. So, we have those career concepts like lawyers, doctors, from an early age, you know what that is. It's in all of your cartoon programs and stuff. So with that and with what you mentioned where your misconceptions of computer science prior to, how do you feel we might be able to better socialize careers in tech from a younger age?

Diana:
That's an incredible question. Yeah. Because I remember especially being Asian, my mom, she saw all of these, especially being Filipino, specifically. I don't know if the audience is familiar with this, but a lot of Filipinos go into nursing. And that's Reshma, the founder of Girls who Code, always says you can't be what you can't see. And I thought that was profound to me when I heard that. Because I was like, "Wow, that is so true." I only went it into software engineering because I saw someone who was a software engineer. And then I got to do Girls who Code and I saw women who were a software engineer. And that's why that became realistic for me to do.

So lawyer and doctor that hits very ... It's really rooted at [inaudible 00:06:32], sometimes I'm like, "Maybe I should have became a lawyer or doctor." But right, that starts with a lot out of mainstream media. I think we had, Hackers, that movie in the 90's and then we also had the Internet boom, where it was white men. It was Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates and now we're seeing Elon Musk and it's these dudes who were super privileged from the start and had those opportunities to do technology. So when I say, how can we expose kids of all ages to what it's like to be a software engineer or make it more socialized for them, I think, it's really about showing them what it actually is.

And oftentimes it's not portrayed in that way. We see engineering as, again, I keep bringing this up but I genuinely believe that computer engineering was a dude in his basement coding. When in reality it's like the complete opposite, right? It's like we're talking to people every day and we're collaborating. And I remember at Tumblr, which was such a momentous occasion for me, was being able to pair program and talk to my team about what I was planning on doing. And I'm a big planner, I love planning. I have notion, I have all these other incredible tools for productivity.

But showing computer science for what it actually is and how sociable it can be and how there's fellowship in figuring how to solve a problem. I think it starts with there. And I think from all these different platforms of especially incredible, I love STEM influencers. I think they're doing the Lord's work because I think that because so many girls just see that on their feeds and they're like, "Wow, these people that look like me are doing this," and that does something.

This was an excerpt from Culture & Code, a podcast brought to you by RenderATL that is focused on leveling up your tech career and exploring new technologies.

You can listen to the full episode and read the complete transcript on our website here.