Rian Walker
A car breaking down. Trouble making rent. Losing second (and third) jobs. Needing a laptop.
Those are just a few of the hurdles to complete software engineering degrees that a group of women talked about at a virtual event Wednesday. These weren’t challenges of coding, or even grades. But for many students from low-income backgrounds, overcoming these struggles are often the difference between finishing a degree and not. As tech inclusion advocate Ruthe Farmer pointed out, just 11% of students in the lowest income group graduate college within six years of starting. And without a degree, it’s tougher to get a job in the field.
So in considering how to bring more diversity to technology fields, it’s clear that alongside increasing skills, these life circumstances must be addressed to get those learning to the finish line.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
