Gear_Up_Pre-Work.md

Gear Up Pre-Work

Implicit Bias

Reflections:

• This video made reflect on the way I base my decisions towards other people and how others have base their decisions and opinions toward me based on previous experiences and our worldview. I'm aware of the problem I subconsciously knew was there but didn't know what to name it. We are guided by the things we expect to be true in the world. I agree that when we see someone we automatically try to map them and that shapes our conscious which guides our judment and decisions. I understand that fixing this problem isn't an easy task but when we expand the way we view people and look past skin color or race we can mitigate and almost completely get rid of this.
• Like I stated it before, I subconsciously knew that this implicit bias was there but didn't know what to call it. I've experienced it first hand being a Mexican-American. I know people have profiled me before and used it to map what was needed to fill in the blank. I really became aware of this when I decided to enlist in the military. The military brings in people from all kinds of backgrounds, so you begin to understand how other people see the world when you spend all your time with them. Once you look past skin color, race, or just appearance in general you begin to understand other's points of view. You learn from those experiences and even evolve your thinking. I adapted awarness and accountability. Now I only see a person as a person and nothing more. Before I let this implicit bias influence the way I see a person, I prefer to gather facts and watch for cues before making a decision on someone.
• I'm new to software and that's why I'm here at turing, I want to learn what can be done with it and how I can apply it to build something. I see myself building something that is user friendly and for everyone regardless of background. Without understanding biases the product could result being targeted to only a specific group of people.

Intersectionality

Reflections:

• The elements of my identity I'm most aware of on a daily basis is my personality, qualities, race, interests, and ethnicity.
• The strengths I get from knowing my identity are happiness, self control, tolerance, understanding others, and better decision making. I know that all these strenghts can be utilized at turing. When you're aware of your own struggles and and weaknesses you can identify with others. When you're happy you express you desires and that can help you get what you want. When you know what makes you resist bad habits you develop good ones. I know that's gonna be really important all throughout turing.
• If you get to know the people around you, you can learn about their personalities, their qualities, and their interest. You can use these elements of their identity to help them discover their strengths since alot of people don't know what they're naturally good at or they don't give themselves enough credit for it. If they are already aware of their strengths you can just build on that and have them do what they are already good at. Refering back to the military, we always had to work as a team so you really had to get to know the people around you to be able to know their strengths and know what part they were going to play in a project or a task.
• Once people see your strengths and recognize them, they know that they can trust your abilities. I plan to bring all my strengths to my cohort because when there is trust in a team your peers feel more confident to speak up and bring foward their own ideas.