Our mission is to unlock human potential by training a diverse, inclusive student body to succeed in high-fulfillment technical careers.
- Reflect on intersectionality and how your identity impacts your experiences and interactions with others
- Develop greater empathy and awareness of the experiences of others in the field of software development
Step 1: Watch this video from Google.
Step 2: If you are unfamiliar with the term "Implicit Bias," take time to read this article to build your background knowledge.
Create a gist on Github and reflect (4-6 sentences) on the following questions:
- What were your reflections from the video?
- In what ways have you examined your implicit biases before coming to Turing?
- What kind of software do you imagine building in the future? How will understanding biases (or avoiding understanding biases) impact your products?
Watching the video, I realized that we really don't stop to think about the end user at all. Our entire day at work revolves around creating a product for a user whose "abilities, inabilities, special abilities, and disabilities" are not taken into consideration. The results of this unconscious bias can be detrimental in terms of who we decide is capable of doing or using something and who is not. I've examined my own implicit biases after watching the video and reading the article so that I'm aware that I make these types of assumptions and work towards overriding them by having an open mind and heart. I imagine building software that takes the end user's "abilities, inabilities, special abilities, and disabilities" into account and always allows room for improvement every step of the way. This will have a huge impact on my products and relationships with others because it'll open up a space in which we can have honest conversations about implicit and explict biases and how they may be having a detrimental effect on others and work towards ensuring that these issues are resolved.
If you are unfamiliar with the term "Intersectionality," take time to read this article to understand the theory and introduction of the concept. If you are familiar, move to the reflection questions.
On your same gist, reflect on the following quesitons:
“All of us live complex lives that require a great deal of juggling for survival,” Carty and Mohanty said in an email. “What that means is that we are actually living at the intersections of overlapping systems of privilege and oppression.”
- When you consider the way you move through the world, what elements of your identity are you most aware of on a daily basis?
- What strengths does your identity give you? How will you utilize those at Turing?
- How do you think you could value the identies of those around you to bring out their strengths at Turing? Has there been a time where you were able to advocate or include people around you?
- How will your strengths impact you as a teammate? What will you bring to your cohort?
When I consider the way that I move through the world, the elements of my identity that I am most aware of include being a woman and being Latina. The strengths that my identity give me is that I am not afraid to speak up about issues. I am also pretty relentless when it comes to bringing forth awareness about politics, economic inequality, and other social issues. I will utilize this strength at Turing to ensure that everyone who'd like to be heard, is heard. I think I could value the identities of those around me by allowing them to be unapologetically their most authentic self and hone in on the strengths that their identities offer by providing a space in which they feel safe and encouraged to do so. I've been fortunate enough to be able to include and advocate for people around me. I think my strengths will impact me as a teammate in terms of how effective I am at convincing others on how things could be accomplished if we worked collectively. I think I will bring a lot of awareness and drive for politial activism within my cohort.
- 9/24/21 Who is the developer you want to be?
I want to be a developer who empathizes with reasonable users in regards to how an app should work. I want to be the type of developer that also empathizes with my coworkers by providing written documentation on the code that I write so that they're able to understand what is happening and how it all works.
- 10/14/21 Who is the developer you want to be?
I want to be a developer who is open minded and caring of other people. I want to be known as someone people can rely on, trust and be vulnerable with.
- 12/3/21
- Code of Ethics
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- What do you agree/disagree with in the Code of Ethics? I wholeheartedly agree with everything in the Code of Ethics. More specifically, the fact that the principles are centered around the public good. This should guide everything that we do not only as programming professionals but also as human beings.
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- The Software Engineer Code specifically discusses public, product, and colleagues. How do these connect with your experience at Turing? I like that one of the principles is taking full responsibility for our own work and making sure that the public good is front and center.