What are you doing to change their stars?

[RobertFisher]

I read on PCWorld a piece by John Rebeiro (@JohnRebeiro) about Google's employee diversity. In it, Google in the US is 70% male and 61% white. There is more data and it's worth a read. My question for those of you who may employ more than a 2 to 3 people is are you actively engaged in doing anything to change the stars of young women, minorities, lower income children, etc.? Why do I ask? Because early on in my Mozziness I saw someone ask for some help with a site around children and autism. From Rand to every mozzer on Q&A there was an outpouring of help. I was truly moved. I would love to learn from others who are further along in these types of efforts. 
Google does make an effort in that they have RISE awards to assist with those who are working to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) with girls and minorities. These awards are from $10K to $100K to help expand these types of programs.

We have had paid interns for some time now and we get as much or more than we give from that effort (boastful disclosure: Our head of development today was our first intern!) We put on a one week Code Camp (go to our site/code-camp) a few months ago and it was amazing - for me and for our team. But, to see kids eyes open up as they realize they have found something they never even thought they would have an interest in is mind blowing.

We decided we would give a $25 gift card to Best Buy for the student who was most engaged and pushed the most to learn more, etc. That winner had never thought of coding as something SHE would have an interest in and she was an unbelievable sponge. She pushed our dev staff to give her more and more and it was truly fun and rewarding for them. Yes, we had to spend some time and money, but the break from the day to day of a marketing firm for our team truly invigorated them.

I just want to know what others might be doing in the areas of trying get more diversity in the ranks of those who work in our world? It would be great to share ideas and resources. I will tell you that if anyone needs tips, what we learned, etc. I would be more than happy to share all.

[fatetmpwcosl]

Try to use every channel of marketing to promote your business. I'm working on the business website of a job search project and I'm using an SEO channel to promote it.

[Christy-Correll]

Hahaha! Oh ya'll...

[RobertFisher]

Understood!

[EGOL]

Can she recommend someone to work at my office?

[RobertFisher]

My head of bus dev is tasked with keeping someone who is ADD and I guess moderately hyperactive... on course. She has no problem telling me what I should be doing instead (unfortunately, she is right!). That is why I am more likely to be on Q&A on a Saturday or Sunday morning than the weekdays. Luckily, we just got a big ecommerce site launched for a client and everything else is ahead of schedule. (She is not as mean at times like this!)

Best to you Christy!

[Christy-Correll]

Robert,

I totally did not pick up on your movie reference, doh! Good one. Nevertheless, I stand by my recommendation.

I am sorry you get yelled at for visiting Moz when you're on the clock. Boo! Wait... what? The President/Founder of drumBeat gets yelled at for visiting Moz??

[RobertFisher]

Christy,

OK fine, knock my title (taken from a truly great movie... A Knight's Tale!!!)

Just kidding. I may try that, thanks.

Best

Robert

PS I hate that so many are able to spend more time on Moz on the weekdays! I get yelled at if I am on Moz.

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Robert, this is a fantastic question! I have a hunch that if you post it on a weekday with a more specific title, it will get more Mozzy love.

[RobertFisher]

Thanks - You too. It appears not many liked the question...... oh well.

[EGOL]

Thanks for the details, Robert.  9th to 12th is a great age for this.

And, it is great that they have contact with your interns.  Maybe in a year or two some of your first code campers will be interning with students from their high school.

Keep up the great work!

[RobertFisher]

EGOL,

You never cease to impress; I love that action on DonorsChoose.org! Our code camp is 9th to 12th and we have both high school and college interns. We have asked the one school to let us start with the middle school kids so that we help them earlier. Public school is the next task and you are right about the teachers. The ones that are writing a proposal on DonorsChoose are going above and beyond. Rock on!

[EGOL]

I think that these interests are best when developed early - such as in K-12.   I think that waiting until college to recruit students into STEM is late.   Students should be introduced to it early so that when they graduate from high school they know what path they want.

To help with that I go to DonorsChoose.org once a month and sponsor a couple projects.  DonorsChoose.org is a website where enthusiastic teachers can propose a project and ask for citizens like you and me to contribute.  The staff of DonorsChoose.org review proposals, purchase the requested materials and have them shipped to the teacher's school so that you know that your money is spent as promised.  But, you should review the project too and support those that from your experience will give valuable learning to students.

A teacher who thinks enough about a project to write a short proposal, with a budget and articulates their interest in public is probably a pretty good bet.  And, since they must do this outside of their normal duties it is a pretty good bet that they are an enthusiastic teacher who goes above and beyond the minimum requirements.