Posts

The Power of Simple Authenticity

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The simplest connections can spark interest, and if that spark is cultivated well interest can create greater engagement, a listening ear, and eventually trust. One of the roles I play at Hope Tech is an instructor and mentor to our students. For most of my students, there must first be a connection before students will invest their time and energy in Hope Tech. But connection doesn’t have to mean something deep or profound. In fact, I have found that it is the simplest things that spark connection and greater engagement. All it takes is being your authentic self. If you have read my first blog you know that I’m an ex-suburbanite with no background in technology, and as an Operations Manager for a nonprofit that teaches coding to urban youth this comes across ironic at best and unqualified at worst. But I’ve learned that our so called “weaknesses” can be turned into strengths with the right perspective. It is my “weakness”, my unfamiliarity with technology, that so often sparks
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The Hope of Technology

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I love Hope Tech’s name. Our main goal truly is to breath hope and inspiration into the lives of local youth by introducing them to the world of technology and teaching them technical skills. It is by exposing students to something seemingly beyond their capability, and then helping them succeed, that we teach them that they are able to do more than they thought was possible. This is something that our youth in the inner cities desperately need. My new, while admittedly limited, exposure to the tech field is showing me that there is another reason Hope Tech’s name is so fitting. The number of open jobs in the technical field is astounding - and it only seems to keep growing. When I think of tech jobs, I tend to only think of IT and computer programming. But tech has infiltrated nearly every sphere of life and business. A large amount of modern marketing is done digitally on the internet and social media platforms. Web design, business analysis, the automotive industry, to name
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A Tale of Two Cities

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Different cultures have always interested me. It is fascinating how humans can have such a vast array of values, languages, politics, forms of art, sports, etc. We all share the same quality of humanity, but environment has such a significant impact on how each person experiences that humanity.  One of the main values for those who work and volunteer for Hope Tech is to listen well. Josh, my boss and founder of Hope Tech, always encourages us to be good observers of our community. To be in touch with the heartbeat of the community is crucial. To feel its fears, concerns, longings, and joys will not only inform us on how to be most helpful, but will also build trust-filled relationships with members of the community.  I have spent the last year listening and observing the students in my classroom, community activists, and next door neighbors. And let me tell you, I still have a lot more listening I need to do. I have a very different background and culture then most of my studen
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The Year for Desert Flowers

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Man, am I happy to welcome in 2019! It’s a New Year, and with that a new start. I don’t know about you, but the last few years have been a trip. 2018 seemed to be the year of the quarter life crisis for us Melilials. We’ve aged out of our parents health care; the warm fuzzy college memories have faded as real life has smacked us in the face; the sudden realization that we have to decide NOW what to be when we grow up has us reeling; our political climate leaves us unsure of whether we should laugh or cry. For many, its safe to say that 2018 left us feeling a little dry. A wise professors once said: sometimes the desert seasons are the ones in which we grow the most, even though in the moment it feels like we’re doing anything but that. I don’t know if 2017 and 2018 are best described as a desert, draining me with its overwhelming dryness, or an ocean drowning me in its tumultuous waves. (A bit dramatic, I know but the imagery was too good pass up.) Which ever metaphor you
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Hope With Hustle

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Well here we are folks, blog post numero dos! When my boss and Hope Tech founder first asked me to start writing blogs for the website my thoughts were, to be perfectly honest, pretty generic and a little boring. Topics included sharing about all the great things Hope Tech is doing, plans to do, and other general updates. But as it turns out, Hope Tech’s story has weaved itself into my own. It’s been an unexpected blessing to be challenged myself by the same things I seek to teach our students. So I decided to use this opportunity to share my own journey. I’ve found that personal stories are not only generally more entertaining, but also more powerful. Hope Tech really is about breathing hope into the lives of others. Its breathing life in to mine and into our students. My desire is that by sharing our story that same hope will be passed along to you. In this blog post, I am going to take a step back and paint a general picture of my new home, Oak Park, and what it has taught
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Dream, Develop, Deploy

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This is the story of how a self-identified technologically illiterate and 26 year old “grandma” (yes, that was my nickname in college) ended up working for a non-profit teaching coding to urban youth. The irony is too real, but so have the lessons I’ve been learning along the way. What follows is my journey and series of lessons learned. In Hope Tech we have what we call an Innovation Challenge in which our students compete to create a game that can be played on a mobile device. Being challenged to invent something can seem like a daunting task, but Hope Tech desires to teach our students that this is an achievement well within their grasp. One of the first things we teach our students in the Innovation Challenge is the Development Cycle, a formula to guide the students in their innovative process. This formula breaks down the innovation process to 3 basic steps: Dream, Develop, Deploy. The first step in the Development Cycle is to Dream. Dreaming often begins by
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