A Clarion Call to the Chicago Tech Community: The Young Tech Leaders of Tomorrow Need You Now, More Than Ever Before

I have worked in the Chicago tech community for over twenty years. It’s been an incredible journey with the most resilient people, the most supportive people, and the most giving people. 

After 9/11, I watched the tech community come together through a national tragedy more innovative, more empathetic, and with a deeper understanding of humanity and its collective place in it. We were working in the early days of digital. It was an exciting and productive time, but not everyone was participating in the digital evolution.

I watched it happen again after the 2008 financial crisis and now, in 2020 this Covid19 pandemic is yet another tragedy that has made us more creative and innovative while calling us to examine our humanity and our place in the world. It has also made us recognize how fortunate most of us are to be working from home, have meals and groceries delivered through multiple apps, and the ability to support our children with continuing their education. It’s also made us painfully aware of the inequities that still exist, especially in healthcare and education and that the digital divide still leaves millions across this country in rural and marginalized communities, unable to participate.

Most of us take home internet and computers for granted, but a recent Business Insider outline highlights that the “coronavirus outbreak is speeding up the push toward an "online first" world, but that many more Americans could be left behind.” It goes on to mention a “Microsoft study last year found that 162 million Americans lack broadband internet — nearly half the US population.”  

Chicago is a major American city, an international hub for innovation, but the digital divide is still a real concern. In this unprecedented time, schools have closed for the remainder of the 2020 term and families are left educating their children at home, but e-learning isn’t possible for many families. We are essentially leaving those children and their full potential behind. We are also fracturing the foundation of the business connections, educational opportunities, and empowering networks created by schools like Chicago Tech Academy.

Chicago Tech Academy is the only open enrollment tech based high school in the city. It educates over 300 children with a real world curriculum, even though for most of our students- their real world is much different than the ones we’ve had the privilege to work in. It prepares students with 21st century skills like innovation, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, collaboration and communication. It supports the dreams and potential of every student.

Eighty percent of our families are low income and twenty percent identify as homeless. When Covid19 hit the city, our first priority was for the safety of our students followed by feeding our students, their families, and the community. Then it was supporting internet access and computers for those without. Now, I’m concerned that the life-changing opportunities we’ve created at Chitech will be temporarily abandoned and precious human potential, forgotten. The toll of this Covid19 pandemic has impacted more than our physical health. It’s impacted the financial health of families, businesses and nonprofits like ours that have stepped up to fill the needs of our students, their families and our community in ways most people could never imagine. 

Last year, I was asked to write an article for the Lightfoot 100 series for Crain’s Chicago Business. In that article, I focused on solutions for the youth of the LGBTQ community, but honestly those solutions are the same for all of our city’s at risk youth. “The foundational success of our marginalized youth and the continued economic success of our city is a complicated one, but it starts with our city providing diverse, equitable and safe educational opportunities along with the fundamental tools needed to succeed. It continues with the city and our business community seeking guidance and partnering with the scores of organizations and disruptive companies already on the front lines of inclusiveness; including talent and culture strategists, diversity career platforms, sustainable growth and training opportunities, intern to hire programs, job shadowing and alternative experiences.” It also includes “life navigation mentorships, access to empowering networks, and a commitment to economic empowerment for all. It involves business leadership believing in the power of diversity of thought and committing to the potential promise in all of us.”

Chicago Tech Academy is an incubator for supporting and fulfilling potential. It has two major fundraisers each year and Little Black Dress Night is one of the most anticipated events in the tech community. It is a powerful night and for many, a life-changing event of inclusion, celebration, and empowerment. #LBDN not only supports our school, but the Young Women’s Leadership Society. This year it also supports our Covid19 relief fund. I am a passionate supporter of Chitech and I sit on it’s board. I joined because I have been fighting for women’s equality in STEM over the course of my entire career. I am a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion warrior, especially in technology. I am an economic empowerment leader and none of these missions can be accomplished unless we start the work where it matters most, in our schools- schools like Chicago Tech Academy.

Non-profit schools like ours will be greatly stretched and challenged as we continue providing a quality education and support the opportunities that our students deserve without the continued help of the tech community...especially now. When Maria Katris, the CEO of Built In started the #UnitedWeTech movement, I felt even more compelled to tell the Chitech story and implore the tech community to help support the next generation of tech leaders.

This year, like so many other non profits, we are going virtual with this fundraising event and we're keeping our original date of May 20th. This year’s event was going to be a spectacular one with a new venue, doubled capacity and an amazing group of speakers. It may now be virtual, but it will still be spectacular and has the possibility of reaching more people than ever before with our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion mission. 

The event has the great support of our speakers, including Brenda Darden Wilkerson, CEO of AnitaB.org, Ron Guerrier, CIO, State of Illinois and Secretary of Innovation and Technology, Colleen Egan, Founding Member of The Women in Entrepreneurship Institute at DePaul University, Andrea Zopp, CEO, World Business Chicago, Leslie McKinney, Chicago Director, Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision, and our first male ally panelist, John Higginson, CTO of Groupon.

It also has the financial support of our current sponsors, including ActiveCampaign, AHEAD, Zebra Technologies, Reverb, Motorola Solutions Foundation, Mesirow Financial, and others, but we need ALL of you in this #UnitedWeTech moment.

I’d like to ask the entire tech community to come together in support of Little Black Dress Night, our students, and our mission. Every dollar, every sponsorship, every relationship helps us prepare our youth for the digital world, helps us welcome them into an equitable and diverse tech ecosystem, and helps us champion these future leaders of tech. 

We depend on your support and partnership and there has never been a better time to lead. 

I believe in YOU, we are all in this together and #UnitedWeTech