Google Donates Three-Quarters of a Million Dollars to the Cause of Diversity in Tech

Gaze into the staged smiles of the ever-improving future.

Non-profit CODE2040 announced yesterday at The Wall Street Journal that it has received $775,000 in grants from Google in order to further its mission of improving diversity in tech by helping black and Latin@ tech industry prospectives get the experience, opportunities, and networks that will help them succeed. (The program’s name, CODE2040, is a reference to the year 2040, when, population projections predict, people of color will outnumber white people to become the majority population of the United States.) So where’s all that money specifically going?

How about a two year span of free training programs for five thousand black and Latin@ studying undergrad engineering, including mentoring, training, and face-to-face interaction and networking with tech professionals? And another program about applying and interviewing for technical jobs?

As CODE2040 CEO, Laura Weidman Powers, points out:

One of the reasons that there is this opportunity gap for black and Latino engineers is that they have a smaller relevant network and fewer resources and insight around what’s required to get jobs in tech… The progress around transparency and willingness to talk about this issue of diversity in tech has been huge over the last year. What I’m hoping will be the next step is a willingness to be honest about what’s working and what isn’t.

The funds will also allow CODE2040 to expand its reach outside of the Silicon Valley area, to Chicago, Austin, and Durham, where the nonprofit will become offer funds and resources for the first year of a black or Latin@ tech entrepreneur’s startup, with a special emphasis on businesses that try to bring the local tech community and the city’s people of color together.

Really loving all these diversity in tech stories popping up lately. How about you?

(story via The Verge, top pic copyright Blend Images via Shutterstock)

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Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.

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