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Local community engagement efforts by Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH) have had a direct impact on the careers of many women, according to a few of them who provided personal stories about their journeys during the session “Lasting Impact: Empowering the WiTH Community” at the SoCal Women’s Leadership Summit 2022 on Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.

They also explained how they were able to change their career trajectories through the WiTH community engagement efforts.

The Summit was co-located with the Infinity Festival Hollywood event, and held as both a live, in-person event and online via the MESAverse virtual platform.

Introducing the session’s panel of experts from non-profit organizations, moderator April Schneider, executive director, IT – TV Distribution at Sony Pictures, and board member of Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH) Foundation, noted that she is co-chair of WiTH’s community engagement committee.

The committee’s “objective is to select and nurture … esteemed philanthropic organizations, really with a focus on those that benefit the underserved communities,” she said. And then also, “most importantly, those that have some kind of focus in that female demographic from the school-aged girls all the way through to workforce-ready women,” she added.

Schneider noted she was sharing the panel with “five women who represent so well the nonprofits that the Women in Technology: Hollywood community supports and engages with on practically a day to day basis on all kinds of events.”

During the panel discussion, “you’ll hear about their journey, their backgrounds, and really, most importantly, the impact that these organizations have had in their particular personal lives,” she said.

Codetalk

Venice, California-based Codetalk is a digital web technology job training program at St. Joseph Center for low income, underemployed and underserved women.

“Because of my lived experience, I was introduced to Codetalk when I was in a shelter, looking for employment,” recalled Karen Elzy, a Codetalk alumna who is now a workforce development and graphic designer at the organization.

As soon as she saw a brochure, she knew she wanted to be involved with the organization, she said, noting “they took a chance on me” and “taught me a new language: coding [and] website design.”

Codetalk looks to build people up “to be able to go into the workforce working in technology in an array of different areas,” she explained. “For me, I was hired on as a graphic designer because my passion was art. And so, while creating, I found a new medium with digital art and that’s how I became a graphic designer through Codetalk.”

DIY Girls

“DIY Girls is a nonprofit organization that aims to increase girls’ interest in engineering,” according to Patricia Cruz, a DIY Girls alumna and co-lead instructor of its Invent Girls program.

“We currently serve here in California in the northeast San Fernando Valley with 91 percent of our participants being Latina,” she said, noting that number is very important to us because, from the 14% of employed women who are scientists and engineers, only 2% are Latina.

“We really want to bring that hands-on experience to girls and inspire them to hopefully go into the STEM field,” she added.

STEM Advantage

STEM Advantage is a nonprofit organization that provides career science, technology, engineering and math opportunities for Cal State University students, noted Leslie Segovia, a STEM Advantage alumna and software engineer at Disney Streaming Services.

“This is especially important being a student myself,” she said, explaining: “It often felt like maybe at times we were overlooked by companies. And that’s understandable as it is a very competitive field. But STEM Advantage has made us feel like nothing but supported, valued and seen, so that’s why I really owe a lot of my career” to the organization, she added.

The organization does a lot through internships, mentorships and scholarships, she noted, adding: “I think that’s super important as one of their missions is to especially inspire and support women in underserved communities as we just talked about, which you can find a lot of at the Cal State system.”

Women’s Empowerment Institute

Women’s Empowerment Institute is a national nonprofit organization that  provides free job training and professional development for women in need, according to Temitope Adepoju, an alumna of the organization and Salesforce system administrator at Redpath Consulting Group.

“Women’s Empowerment Institute empowers women in every area,” she said, adding its value is “to support single women like me for work and also transition into technology.

Boundless Brilliance

Boundless Brilliance is a nonprofit that is very focused on empowering young elementary school-aged girls, according to Hailey Lister, Boundless Brilliance alumna and product manager at Kinotek Software.

She pointed to a study that came out a few years ago that showed girls as young as six already believed their male counterparts were smarter than they were.

“That was shocking,” she said.

Personal Journeys

Lister noted she was with Boundless Brilliance from its start at a single Los Angeles branch when it focused on talking to elementary school students.

“Boundless Brilliance has given me the opportunity to try things I didn’t even know existed,” Lister said, adding: “Normally we have to be way overqualified to get positions like” the ones offered at the organization. “I would not be where I’m at today as a product manager at a software startup if it wasn’t for those opportunities” she was given early at Boundless Brilliance, she added.

Adepoju reflected on the encouragement she was given to join the program, noting that after it was over, she started looking for a job and an opportunity came up at Redpath.

“I got the job,” Adepoju noted, adding: “They didn’t just get me ready for work. They supported me to get the job, and that is where I am currently now. I am a year and few months in my current role. I got my job. My family turned around for good. We bought a brand new house in January and all of this was made [possible] by the grace of God and the community that I have, which is Women’s Empowerment Institute. My life took a very great turnaround and I’m thankful for it.”

Segovia pointed out she “didn’t have the typical route that I would say a freshman in college would have,” noting: “I was thrown in the deep end just because I have a very, very supportive brother who thought it was a good idea to drag me into this networking event by STEM Advantage, which I had no idea what that was at that time…. But he thought that exposure would mean a lot of experience to me and serve me in the long run.”

Segovia added: “I’ve been so grateful for that opportunity because it taught me to be persistent and go back and do better.”

Now, after “all the resources that STEM Advantage has given me, it’s “really inspired me to give back,” Segovia added…. They really inspired me to start my own club in my school.” After being told she couldn’t be president for a school club because nobody would vote for a girl, she said she started her own club.

Cruz “first learned about DIY Girls during [a] critical time in high school,” she recalled. “I was a junior going onto my senior year, and I knew I had an interest in technology, in STEM but I didn’t know where I could go from there…. I didn’t know what opportunities there were. And thankfully I found DIY.” She joined its program in her year and the group encouraged her to work as an engineer, she recalled, noting that, during the program, her team had the opportunity to go to MIT to present a project. “It was such a great experience and it really shaped my  career path and who I am today,” she added. The project was a portable homeless shelter that was solar powered and created by a team of 10 girls, including her, she pointed out.

Unlike the other panelists, Elzy noted she had two master’s degrees, one in business and one in management.” But she was unemployed and ended up homeless before joining Codetalk, she said, noting she borrowed money from friends just to get internet service.

Schneider encouraged attendees to donate to her group because about 95% of the donations it receives go directly to these organizations.

The SoCal Women’s Leadership Summit was presented by Ateliere with sponsorship by Amazon Studios, Softtek, Fortinet, Prime Video, SHI, Amazon Web Services, PacketFabric and Presidio.

To learn more about MESA’s events, contact [email protected].