Continuing on in our series of low-stakes blog posts, I decided to blog about CodePath, an organization that helps underserved youth become software engineers. I currently serve as a TA for this program.

One of the things that I am really passionate about is something called the leaky pipeline. As computer science depends on cumulative understanding in order to progress, the leaky pipeline, a phenomenon where we lose a non-trivial number of students whenever we progress to the next sequence in the education workflow, is a major problem.

Specifically, the CodePath mission is to help members of society who could be traditionally disadvantaged and be subjected to forces that exacerbate the leaky pipeline problem as a result of being a member of the disadvantaged group.

During my onboarding, I got to read a lot of articles on how these groups might be affected. Black employees might be affected by the fact that they are a minority amongst tech employees. The fact that their numbers in the organization are so small might make them feel less empowered than other groups.

Though these aforementioned problems are not in the domain of technical, these sort of issues deserve inquiry and good faith action. I plan to address these problems by serving as a TA and helping these students ignite a love for problem-solving, a skill that will aide them throughout their lifetimes.

It is then we hope that the sum of our individual actions will be enough to address some of the disparities that we see in tech.