Transcript



Ashley:

What's going on y’all! This is Culture and Code, a podcast brought to you by Render Atlanta. If you're not already familiar with what Render Atlanta is, we are an organization dedicated to increasing the presence of black and brown people in all stages of the tech pipeline. We do so with different events and at experiences focused on not just tech, but also culture and how it brings people together. Our main experience, which I am personally super excited about, is our annual Render Atlanta conference held in Atlanta. Our next conference will be June 1st through fourth in 2022. It is super exciting. We have a ton of great speakers lined up some amazing food, and even an after party music festival, it's going to be incredible. And I absolutely cannot wait for y'all to experience it. You have got to get in on it if you haven't already. To learn more about us and keep up with our events, you can visit our website renderatl.com. You can also follow us on Twitter or Instagram @renderATL and join the conversation on our Discord at renderatl.com/discord.



Hello and welcome. This is an episode of Culture and Code brought to you by Render Atlanta. My name's Ashley, I'm a dev advocate for Render Atlanta. And today I'm here with Diana Kris Navarro, who is a software engineer at Tumblr and a founding sister at Girls Who Code. Today we're going to be chatting about increasing access to computer science education. I actually had the privilege of getting to know Diana while interning with her way back in 2017 at Tumblr. So I'm really excited to catch up. So hey, how's it going, Diana?



Diana:

Hi. How are you? I'm good.



Ashley:

I'm good. Thank you. So, of course, I wanted to start with a little bit on your background. Just how you got into tech and then how you got to where you are currently.



Diana:

Wow. How did I get into tech? I guess, my mom came from the Philippines. Well, I'm starting really far it back. This is important, I promise. But my mom came from the Philippines in the 80's and the family that she worked for as a housekeeper or Yaya, we call it, she was like a nanny slash housekeeper. The kids that she took care of, the youngest one decided to go into computer science. So she took care of this kid. And then she had me in '95, October 18, '95. I'm a Libra. She had me and that's kind of always just been viable option for me, kind of.

I remember growing up and he would just be ... His name is Luigi. He works at Code for America right now. He's actually in Atlanta. This is a great plug for him, too. He's in Atlanta. He just had twins. Yeah, we were still a big family. But yeah, he was the one that was like, "You should apply to Girls who Code." And then everyone kind of ... I talk about that story a lot. But it was in 2012 and that was where I was like, "Wow, this can be what my career could be." And yeah, now I'm a software engineer. I went to Rutgers, I studied computer science and then interned at Tumblr with Ashley. And now I work [inaudible 00:03:14].



Ashley:

Nice. Thank you for sharing that story. Could you, just for those that aren't familiar with Girls who Code, talk a little bit about Girls who Code, what it does and what the mission is at the Org.?



Diana:

Yeah. So our mission is to close the gender gap in tech. Historically, women have never really been exposed to computer science or have been socialized to even like ... That's a whole beast to talk about. But women usually aren't, especially at younger ages are dissuaded from going into STEM fields. And our goal is to introduce computer science through Girls who Code club. We have those now, are a Girls who Code summer immersion program, which is what I did. And introduce them to all of these bad ass software engineers who are women and introduce them to what being a software engineer actually means.



Because I think that, at least when I was younger, I thought that being a software engineer was a dude in his basement trying to hack it with Internet connection, trying to hack into the FBI and then that green screen would pop up on his computer. It'd be like, "You're in." That's what I thought it was and I thought there was such a huge disconnect with coding or anything that had to do with hacking for me. And so our goal is to introduce STEM to underserved girls from 13 to 17 through our summer immersion for program or clubs. Yeah.



Ashley:

Amazing, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I feel like it's now such a far reaching org. Even in my college years, seeing people starting those clubs. And those outreach programs through Girls who Code it's just increased, like the impact is so far reaching for it.



Diana:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I think it's been ... Oh wow, it's 2022. Yeah, sometimes we forget what year ... It's been 10 years. Oh my God. Yeah, it's insane. Yeah, it's like every college has their own Girls who Code club or I've met so many girls I've gone through the summer immersion program and it's incredibly rewarding.



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.



Ashley:

What's going on y'all? If you're loving this episode so far, we'd love to invite you to join the conversation about it by hopping into our Discord at renderatl.com/discord. We'd also love to have you at our upcoming conference this year, June 1st through 4th in Atlanta, you can visit renderatl.com for more information. You can also find us on our updates on Instagram and Twitter @renderATL.



Also talking about that aspirational girl in tech involvement, recently you went viral for a tweet about Girls who Code and them being involved in Web3. So I wanted to dive into that. What do you feel is the significance of Girls who Code being involved in Web3 or just other new up and coming technologies?



Diana:

Yeah, I did go viral. That was a very interesting experience for me. So that tweet was a response to Girls who Code did this partnership with this up and coming NFT organization or DAO, Decentralized Autonomous Organization. And they got a lot of flack for it on the Internet. And it was like a response to that because I was so ... That's when I learned to not tweet when I'm angry, which is funny because some of my greatest tweets come from when I'm really angry. So maybe, but that was when I was ... Maybe I shouldn't tweet when I'm angry. But I tweeted that in anger but also as a response to people who think that we shouldn't be educating these communities.



And I get extremely passionate about things like this because oftentimes these black and brown communities, young girls get left behind. And our education system is already failing us in this country, so we have to look for locally ... Girls who Code isn't local anymore. But there are incredible locally led initiatives trying to bridge this gap in education in our communities here. Even in New York, there are so many different organizations that are doing the good work. So my response was really to that. It's incredibly controversial, right?



Nonprofits can get controversial, as well, because it's like, we're still trying to do what we believe is right. But then, what is right and what is right under capitalism and how do we sustain ourselves under these parameters? So that's a little background for that tweet. But yeah, I was actually studying a little bit about education the other day and I was looking at the, No Child Left Behind Act. And I was like, "I think we're like five [inaudible 00:11:11].



But basically it kind of failed a little bit because it wasn't very specific, but we got a lot of insight to how our education system is working. And people were starting to realize that we're seeing this resegregation of schools and how underserved communities are a certain type of race and how all of these better public schools or better educational institutions are predominantly white. And that tweet was more so of like, we need to start educating these kids about things that are up and coming and super buzzy.



Web3 is an incredibly buzzy topic right now. I think the super bowl had three crypto commercials or something, I don't know, yeah. And these kids are going to ... It's not like they can ignore it. Where are they even supposed to go to learn about ... To get a well-rounded education about these things? And that's where organizations like Girls who Code or even smaller led initiatives, which I love smaller lead initiatives because you can see direct impact even more so. But yeah, I was mad. That tweet was more, yeah.



Ashley:

For sure. Thank you for that. Yeah. I think the buzzy point, especially that you made is really important because kids aren't dumb, right? Younger people aren't dumb. They have more access to information than ever. They're going to get that information from somewhere. So having safer, more legitimized avenues to provide that information is really important.



Diana:

Exactly. And especially with BLM, right? There's this organization called Gen-Z for Change. And it's a couple of Gen- Z'ers who realize that their education at school was like, bull ... Can I curse on this again?



Ashley:

Yeah, you can.



Diana:

Yeah. It was bullshit. And there were so many kids that realized that they didn't get a well-rounded education on slavery. And they're like, "Wait a minute, that wasn't 400 years ago." Oh, I mean, that was 400 years ago but the impacts, like Martin Luther King was alive at the time my parents were alive and some people didn't even realize that. Or even Ruby Bridges, right? People didn't know that Ruby Bridges is still ... Like she's still alive today and that was jarring for kids. And so I have a lot of hope in that generation actually, yeah.



Ashley:

Awesome. Thank you so much for that. And thank you so much for taking the time to chat. I did want to ask you one more fun Render question, is what food reminds you the most of home?



Diana:

Oh my gosh. Wow. I'm going to cry. Oh my gosh. I went to, it's this soup called Nilaga and also Ube ice cream. But those two, all Filipino food reminds me of home because I don't really get to eat it that much here in Brooklyn, unless I'm cooking it for myself. But Nilaga and Ube ice cream, because my mom would always feed me those when I was sick. Yeah, I've been doing a lot of diving into why I love food so much. And I'm like, "I love food because it was given to me when I was sad," time and time again. But yeah, those two foods, those really remind me of home.



Ashley:

That's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing. How much nostalgia we attach to the food and how comforting it can be.



Diana:

Wait, what's yours?



Ashley:

I honestly, I think, probably some sort of congee. I think my mom also used to make that for me when I was sick with the oil slicks, like the cruellers, too.



Diana:

Oh my gosh, wow.



Ashley:

So good, yeah.



Diana:

Wow. That's so good. Ugh. I love that. I love that the foods that we hold close to our hearts were the foods that were just like, if you're sad, what did your parents give you? And it's like, that's the answer. I think that's so funny. Yeah.



Ashley:

Yeah. Thank you so much again, for taking the time to chat with me. I really enjoy chatting with you. Always have admired your work with Girls who Code and just who you are as a person. So just really great to catch up. So to close out, I just wanted to see if there was anything that you'd like to plug, whether it's for you or for orgs or meme accounts, anything that you're really into.



Diana:

What am I into right now? hackNY, we are going to open. That's another organization that I'm in. hackNY is opening our applications soon, I think. Incredible organization. It's changed my life. Yeah, you live in a dorm. I don't know about right now with COVID. I think we're doing it if you're vaccinated. But you live in a dorm with 20 other people and in New York City, in the middle of New York City, you're in Union Square and it is amazing. Yeah, so if you're in college, apply to hackNY.



Ashley:

Thank you. I'll be sure to link the website and if you want to send me a link to the app-



Diana:

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.



Ashley:

... then I'll also link that in the transcript, as well. But thank you so much, Diana and thank you so much everybody for tuning into this episode of Culture and Code. We will see y'all next time and don't forget to stay looped in on, all things Render by following us @RenderATL on Twitter. And you can also join the conversation at RenderATL.com/Discord. And you can also follow me on Twitter @Ashley_in_tech. Thanks so much everyone and we will see y'all next time.