How Two Engineering Changemakers are Creating Impact

Diversity brings out the best in us.?

The more unique voices, backgrounds, and perspectives we have in the room, leads to new ideas and better products.

Women bring a unique touch to everything they do, and engineering is no exception. Their skills, perspectives, and unwavering determination add a whole new dimension to the world of innovation.

To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day, we explore the career paths and contributions of two remarkable women on Classy’s Engineering Team; Sushma Kini , Technician Program Manager, and Trisha Langlois , Software Engineer. These individuals are not only building products that are helping to change the world but leading inclusive culture in engineering both inside Classy and outside it.

Describe your role at Classy.

Sushma: I am a Technical Program Manager and drive the execution of multiple engineering projects at Classy. My main focus is Classy Live, a seamless and reliable software solution that carries out millions of little and big day-of-the-event tasks during a fundraising event.?

Trisha: I’m a front-end developer on the Supporter Center team. For the non-technical people out there, that means I build all the things you can see and interact with when you go to a website.

What inspired you to pursue engineering??

Sushma: My dad was a Computer Engineer, and I grew up around computers and being curious about how they work from a very young age. When choosing my undergraduate major, Computer Science seemed the most natural fit

During my undergraduate years, I spent most of my time learning to code in different programming languages. Still, I felt most accomplished when I wrote the pseudocode for the problem rather than coding it out. I started being less interested in coding and wanted to learn more about the logical steps I would take to make my program work.

Trisha: Helping people has always been a passion of mine, and working with children came naturally from years of babysitting, so going into teaching was a logical career path. Like so many other people in education, though, I burned out.?

I had some friends who had changed their careers and attended coding bootcamps, and I was curious but apprehensive. I thought, “That’s not for me” and “there’s no way I’ll be good at that”, but I still felt drawn to the possibility. I did an Intro to Coding workshop at Turing, the school I later attended, and was hooked at the first “Hello, World”.

What’s it like working on the engineering team at Classy?

Sushma: One of the best things about working at Classy is the people. Classy is a mission-driven organization that attracts people who genuinely care about empowering the world for good.?

I get my team's support to bring my projects to fruition. I am empowered to brainstorm ideas about bringing more good to the world. I see how each little feature we build impacts millions of people. Working on the engineering team at Classy not only satisfies my technical curiosity but also feeds my drive to make a meaningful impact.

Trisha: Being an engineer at Classy rocks. I feel so fortunate that I get to use my coding skills to make the world a better place. The engineers care about the product and the work that we’re doing. That permeates our day to day too—people are helpful, inclusive, collaborative, and kind.

When I entered the corporate world, I thought that I was going to have to balance being a cog in the capitalist machine with my philanthropic passions. But I was wrong!? There are plenty of companies, including Classy, where I get to use my little lines of code for good.

What has been one of your favorite projects?

Sushma:? My team has been working on enhancing the user experience for Classy Live and one of the features we added was aligning with Classy on our login flows. Most of our customers use both Classy and Classy Live to successfully manage their campaigns and events. However, since the inception of Classy Live we’ve had to use different credentials to log into Classy and Classy Live. We hold ourselves accountable to maintain the highest standards for our customers and provide them a seamless experience. With that theme in mind, this feature had to be built. Now, this might sound like a very simple change, but oh boy, the amount of technical detail that goes into implementing this “simple” feature has kept me up many nights (in a good way, thinking about engineering problems like this is the reason why I’ve always loved being in the tech space).?

Trisha: My favorite (and current) project is helping create a new Supporter Center experience for donors, which will be released later this year. Donors will be able to manage recurring donations, fundraisers, even look at their donation history with an organization. The impact and reach this is going to have is really profound – we have over 20 million donors who are going to have access to this new experience! It’s sleek, intuitive, mobile-friendly, and I’m very proud to be working on it with my team.

What challenges have you faced as a woman in engineering?

Sushma: I grew up in a middle-class family on the southwest coast of India, where gender disparity was normalized in many subtle ways. Fortunately, my parents didn't believe I needed to be restricted in the support or opportunities I was given because I was a girl. At home, I could focus on the dreams I wanted to achieve rather than having to prove myself to anyone.?

Engineering is still male-dominated, and the more I realize why there are fewer women in engineering, the more implicit responsibility or expectation I feel I have to never fail, because if I do, there is no longer that one woman in that room.?

Trisha: In my first job out of coding school, I didn’t have another female-identifying technical person on my team for over a year. I remember the first time I had another woman on my team in a technical capacity, she was the architect, and after our first meeting, I shut my computer and just cried. It was such a relief, and I didn’t realize how much I had been craving that female companionship until that moment. I felt like I could show up in a new, more fully authentic way, because there was someone on my team who would understand this part of me.?

How do the women at Classy support each other?

Sushma: I feel fortunate to have a fantastic group of women as my support system at Classy. With each of these individuals, I have a safe space. Most often, we brainstorm ideas before bringing them to a larger group. I can make mistakes in this space, and I am allowed to fall short. We vent about our challenges and also inspire each other to overcome them.

Trisha: One of the best things about being a woman in engineering at Classy is that there are women in management roles here. It’s easy to envision myself having a long career at Classy when I see others like me who have done the same.

Are you interested in building the future of fundraising? Join Classy’s movement for good by applying to one of our open roles!