[Events] economic diversity

[Jenifer Mylo]

On 1/28/13 8:03 PM, Sumana Harihareswara wrote:
> But we would still improve the economic diversity of our contributor 
> base by reaching out to pink-collar women who have clerical jobs, and 
> poor students at community colleges.
At WordPress, I'm just starting a new diversity workshop initiative 
(pilot planning: 
http://make.wordpress.org/community/2013/01/23/level-up-training-for-diversitygrowth/ 
) that is beginning with a focus on women, but is going to hit 
socioeconomic (with a splash of race) next, by trying to partner with 
less exclusive colleges as you suggest.

I specifically am thinking of community colleges and schools like 
CUNY-Lehman in the Bronx (an urban public college) where I was a student 
at one point -- frequently I was the only caucasian and/or the only 
person living above the poverty line in my specific classes. The 
students in my classes usually were very bright, but they lacked 
opportunity. Since schools like this already have computer labs that 
students have free access to, being able to practice is just like doing 
homework. Especially for the young single mothers in those classes, 
being able to work from home making $50 an hour setting up WordPress 
sites would be a lot nicer than the jobs they were getting after 
graduation that required leaving their kids and paid almost nothing. I'm 
also looking to partner with these schools on creating actual classes in 
their curricula around these skills for credit. Queens College has a 
WordPress class already, so I'm hopeful that we can move forward this 
way, making an impact in the places where it's clearly possible but 
needs some dedicated pushing.

Jen Mylo
Cat Herder
WordPress.org