 How about everyone? My name is Juan Fletch, and I am all around creative, do some design, photography, mostly in the marketing space. And I do a bit of creative, um, acceleration before I had a school program back in my hometown of Savannah, Georgia. Um, so today I'm just kind of, um, giving you a story on my experiences in these spaces. Um, I love the crowd. It was a great instrument, so you might have some fun with this one. Alright, alright, alright. So with your hands, I would like to know who's ever been to a Black Southern Baptist Church? Okay, okay, okay, okay. So me, I'm not religious by any means, but me going to this church was one of the best experiences of my life. Oh man, have you ever seen a pastor get on top of the cues and dance around? But that was amazing. Seeing the older women come down in aisles and their church crowns, I was like, girl, you're in style, and I like that. That is what I'm talking about. Seeing the kids running around, going into the fellowship hall, over the college greens and the yams. I'm like, man, I feel at home. Like, this is nice. That was the community. That was that culture. These elements are missing in technology for me. I am 22 years old and I was not introduced to Silicon Valley until I was 19. That is a problem. One of the greatest places in our generation I did not know of until I took my first steps into manhood. So if I was having that problem, I know the younger kids are having the same. That hurt my heart. So I figured I need to address this issue in my community first. I could tweet about it, I could cry about it, but let me do something about it. So I took five 13 year old boys. We sat down. I'm like, I want to teach you something about technology. So I figured I might need to introduce this foreign concept and a way that was relatable to them. So we decided to go into game development. So on the first day of class, I asked them, what's the first thing you need to know to build your game? One, without any hesitation, shot up and said, violence. I was like, you're right. You can tell he really felt like that was it. Like he did not need to know anything else. So this did not involve any red flags here. I figured, you know, he's young. So I tell them, you would need to know how to code. Then you scratch their heads. Once again, no red flags. So as the class went on, I went to introduce them into different elements of technology. At the class, the teacher come up to me and is like, why are you doing this? What is this? I looked at her. I was like, you're a lot older than I am. You're not aware of why are we doing this? So I said, okay. So I then had people from the principal to the librarian ask me, what are you doing? What is this? That scared me. So you guys are in a technological revolution and you have no idea that it's going on. So that made me understand that there was a lack of context in this community. They just really did not know why or where this fit into the world. So as I began to teach my classes, I realized that once I provided some type of context of what I was teaching, that the kids gravitated towards the content and the theory a lot easier. So that made me think, if these kids are having this problem, I'm sure it's a problem around the world. And that made me think that if we could provide context for people of color, that the content and the theory would be a lot more easily digestible, which would then fix a lot of our diversity problems within technology. So I began to discover different companies that were doing this. You have the great people like Beach by Drake. They're infusing a lot of context and culture within their product. You have the great people at Walker & Company that is introducing a product named Bevel for people of color, providing that culture with that context. So then I realized, okay, okay, there are people out there who get it. But it's a very small number. So with this, I ask you all, if you see a young person, if you see someone of color, talk to them about what you do. Talk to them about why we need software developers. What is a project manager? What does a product manager do on a day-to-day basis? And don't be afraid to offend. That's how we learn. We have to be open up to different cultures. We have to be able to step on some toes and really get down to the nuts and bolts. Otherwise, we will stay in our comfort zone. And nothing grows in a comfort zone. So with this, I want you all to sing a little bit more, you know, rejoice a little bit more. Hop on top of those pews. And infuse this context and culture within technology. And with that, thank you. So, a lot of that is being addressed, right? Have you heard of code.org? Yes, I have. And then our code. And so, like, I found, like, personally, my son's three, as soon as we get this written down, he'll be coding. But I mean, that's just how it is. And I do agree that there's a lot of people who don't understand that coding will be pretty much as essential as reading, writing, and math, right? It's just an essential skill. And I know that we're all, I mean, we're here, so we're biased, right? Absolutely. A little bit. But that's because we're a part of making things different. And other people kind of get the back in after it's already different, right? Absolutely. So as far as a quick way to kind of inject that code.org is awesome. If you can contact them, there are code.org-qualified instructors. They can go to elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and do the hour code. Well, do the hour code inside with the, in the school. But you can also just do hour code that is online, on code.org, that is completely done online, right? So there's no, I mean, as long as the kids can read, they really don't need any adult supervision. And it's totally contextual, too, right? So, I mean, they have belts frozen in the door of the floor. And you know, stuff to get kids interested, right? And want to do it. And so, like, as you do, you know, loops or, you know, Ruby loops or set up a raid or whatever. You know, you're helping Dore get through her adventure, right? So, it's not just a bunch of work. It's fun, right? And so, definitely, I would say look at that. And there's some stuff that they refer to as other, I guess, some of their inspiration as well. So, if you're looking for stuff for kids, code.org, hour code, just a quick shout out to Chef, they pay me. So, we totally came in and automated all their stuff for them just because we thought what they were doing was awesome. Absolutely. So, yeah, I would just say that is a mature place to jump off, right? So, if you want to enhance that, at least look at what they've done first so you don't reinvent the wheel. Definitely. I'm going to get you guys started. But to address that, we did Google CS first. Okay. So, that introduced a fashion component, a storyteller component, and game development. But the one biggest problem that we did have was that these kids saw LeBron James, they've seen your JZs, they've seen people who look like them, dress like them, and we felt like them. But code.org did not really address that for us. Yeah. So, how do they get the let's code.org password? Yeah, absolutely. So, I feel like now we need to have that superstar in tech that could dress like us, speak like us. I've just now found my LeBron James and JZ in the tech world. You know, I was like, man, this is my man. He looks like me. He talks like me. You listen to the same music I do. And that's Tristan Walker. That guy was like, we need more of him. And I think once we get more people like him, our kids will definitely gravitate towards it a bit more. Yes, ma'am. Hi. So, hearing this talk, you know, there's a lot of diversity here as it is. And so, to me this sounds like a call to action to everyone. What can people who maybe aren't already a part of that community do to help build that diversity? One thing you can do is just be you and very confident in you. So, if you're Asian and you are on Twitter, talk about your culture and how it relates to technology. And just basically saying, I'm an Asian woman. You know, we're not representing much in the technology. But there's some music I listen to. This is the things that I do because there will be another Asian young lady that seems like, wow, that's someone I can be like. You know, typically people in technology fields are, they are introverts. So, they're very introverted and they don't want to, you know, kind of be confident and show the world what you have. But I feel like that is needed because it's going to inspire someone to hop into this field. One thing I'd like to point out is being a minority in tech, a lot of times we are taught to blend in rather than just stand out. And that's something I've learned more recently is just to talk about my experiences in tech. Talk about how being who I am affects my perception of tech, the tech world, how I'm treated, how I act, how I respond to people. And that's one step that you can do is talk about it, whether it's publishing blog posts, whether it's tweeting, whether it's Facebook posts. People need to understand what it's like to be in this world and that it's possible for them because I'm no different than anyone else to be in this world. Absolutely. My man got it. I like it. We got time. Oh, okay. Time? We're done. Oh, we're done. I'm sorry guys. We can speak later. Thank you all for listening.