Making Inclusion Happen Through Mentoring

my name is michelle jackson everweb

strategist at Palantir and I am here

with Alison Manley who is a sales and

marketing manager and today we're not

going to talk a whole lot about what we

do in regards to our work at Palantir

but we are going to talk about a really

cool initiative that we started last

year so last year there's a lot of

bustle about inclusion and diversity and

what is the community mean what does it

look like who is really part of the

community and and how do we define that

I've spent a lot of my life talking

defining explaining and discussing

diversity and at this stage in my career

happening worked in youth education I

just wanted to get to work I didn't

really want to talk a little bit about

you know how are we going to communicate

with people to make them feel included

what words are we gonna say to make them

safe I spent a lot of my life talking

about those things and I was a little

bit more interested in you know the

action part of of what it means to

include people so I partnered with

Allison who also likes to get to work

and so essentially today we're just

going to give you an overview of the

history of the initiative you know what

we're doing this year our process for

implementing something like this you

know what worked well what didn't work

well how do we even begin to measure

what success looks like what's next and

then definitely how you can get involved

as well implement something like this

with your agency or even in your

community

so allison is gonna take us back to the

history of this year's initiative hi so

I like the one thing I do want to say

about Palantir not necessarily about our

processors or anything but one of the

things I'm particularly excited about a

Palantir is that we are a very diverse

group we're more than 50% women many of

those women are in leadership roles we

have a fair number of minorities that

also work at our place and I think

that's a wonderful thing and so in our

own little tiny Palantir bubble we're a

very diverse which is very great as our

own little marker but of course we know

that the technical Astrium Plescia the

tech industry as a whole is not very

diverse so we were looking for ways to

try to expand this out elsewhere so last

year you may recall if you were here

last year that Chris Rooney did give a

talk in one of these rooms here at

DePaul just about how do we make the

tech industry more diverse and I am

fortunate enough to be in a position

where since I'm a sales and marketing

manager I have a budget that I am in

control of and I'm also not billable so

I have time to do with what I want so I

went up to him afterwards and I said you

know Chris it's only three weeks until

DrupalCon but I had a crazy idea how

hard would it be if we could just

sponsor some students in Baltimore to

come join us at DrupalCon for a day you

know that's probably all we can pull off

in three weeks but how can we just

sponsor some students to come for a day

and we can just show them what Drupal

looked like and that he said yeah you

know that sounds great and I said you

know I've got the time in the budget to

make some stuff happen I'm sure we can

get some things donated like Drupal con

tickets and and and passes of all sorts

so we teamed up and Michelle

conveniently at the time was not

resourced very heavily she also happens

to be based in Baltimore so there were

there was a lot of serendipity there

where we just had two of us with some

time on our hands and money and the

tenacity to get some stuff done

we did start initially looking at some

organizations for high school students

right girls who code things like that

that had local chapters you know when we

talked about how are we gonna find these

students what do we do we very quickly

realized high school students was

probably a terrible idea because with

that little notice they'd have to miss

school and then there's absenteeism

problems with you know their grades and

their report cards and spring break

didn't align and all those things so we

said you know what maybe we need to look

more at the 18 to 24 crowd and end up so

moving ahead we we did manage with

partnering with npower who is an

organization that Michelle found that

had a Baltimore chapter they have

chapters nationwide to get five students

to come we very quickly cobbled together

with the help of the DA lending us this

room and Ryan price on our team and

Chris Rooney a day of training it was

basically training on the basics of

Drupal in the morning and then they had

the afternoon free to themselves to meet

with some people for lunch within the

greater community we did this ad hoc

lunch where we asked other people at

Lowell about media current you know

other firms you know who wants to come

and sit and have lunch with these guys

and just tell them about Drupal and and

all the ways that you got into jubal

because of course nobody goes to college

to get a career in Drupal right that's

not a thing so everyone comes at it from

such different avenues so we we had a

huge turnout we we had more people

interested in talking to the students

than students which was fantastic so we

were able to pull this off with just

three weeks and get a day of these

lovely gentlemen just learning about

Drupal so then we thought okay once that

was over how do we actually now that we

have a year to plan how can we make this

a little more organized and better and

so I'll let Michelle take it from here

but that's where we are now right so we

came out of the con really wanting to

answer two questions one what is this

gonna look like moving forward but to

how we're gonna resources you know I

don't have the luxury of always being

available to do the

you know activities and so a big

question we have they'll talk about

later is actually capacity issue how do

you address that how do you actually

resource it we already got into the

capacity issue when we were first trying

to figure out what kind of students

you're going to you know recruit and one

way we addressed this by was by

partnering with existing nonprofits who

had already pre vetted these students so

we didn't have to actually go through

and do an extensive vetting process or

having to go out and find a recruit

students so having a pre vetted pool of

students who were already exposed to a

lot of those principles concepts what's

really important but in 2018 we were

wondering okay what are we gonna do next

is it something they want to keep to

Baltimore this isn't really something

that you know is limited to Baltimore

just because of the vast opportunities

available to partner with the chapters

all across the country um specifically

with empower in 2018 we did end up

partnering with Genesis Works which is

based here in Chicago but like empower

has other chapters throughout the US and

because a Drupal community is so vast we

found that this type of partnership was

key

just because this would allow us to

actually scale the initiative that we

have started in 2017 and you'll notice

Nashville's not on the list so this was

something that we actually discussed was

well do we stick with the organization

and power that we started with knowing

that they don't have a national chapter

and we have to fly people to Nashville

or do we try to every single year as

DrupalCon moves try to find a different

organization in each city partner with

them and do it that way and not worry

about travel costs so that was something

we had to make a decision and in the end

we decided you know what Palantir is

based here in Chicago we've got people

on the ground here and power really

worked out well with us partnering with

us so since they had enough locations we

figured we'll just absorb travel costs

and we'll do it that way

also partnering with an in with an

organization that was based in Nashville

that perhaps doesn't have the that

breath that regional just opportunity

that you know these two organizations

have is probably not as ideal I mean you

have digital take echidna that's based

close to Toronto we just felt like this

was a little bit more realistic in terms

of other agencies involved and on board

some talked a little bit about goals so

our vision for 2018 program was a lot

different than what we had for 2017

which was really just what are the goals

for this day wouldn't accomplish so our

goal essentially coming into the 2018

program was how we're going to provide

students from either underserved or

underrepresented groups with Drupal

training networking and conference

attendance opportunities it was really

important for us to identify goals that

were achievable and we're constantly

looking on how to identify new goals but

also things are really measurable we

wanted to expand the number of students

so this year we have 10 students

originally had 11 and our goal was

really to again you know scale this

initiative we didn't want to do

something that was just going to be a

something that actually would have

traction and actually the partnerships

that we establish in 2018 were really

crucial to our ability to be able to do

that we also wanted to expand Palantir

support for underserved underrepresented

community members to have access to

opportunities within the Drupal

community

so now I'm gonna talk a little bit about

how we did it essentially we implemented

a remote program of remote training

program we first had a kickoff that was

based in Baltimore and connected with

the Chicago student cohort virtually

this was done through the

teleconferencing system that our other

new partner fake we've had when training

the students in triple so the entire

program with the exception of the

kickoff for Baltimore students of course

DrupalCon and mid camp everything else

has been remote so this is very much in

line with what Palantir has done just

professionally in terms of how we work

with each other in clients and so this

was something that was definitely a

corkle and i guess a core format of how

you were teaching and mentoring the

students we decided to use slack as a

communication tool in addition to our

weekly lab meetings where we are

connecting on the I think it's for

Microsoft right with an Adobe Adobe

Connect and then we were able to

schedule both lab in class times where

we had both the educational component

and then also were ad-hoc coaching and

training for the students we have this

checkpoint at midpoint of mid camp where

we have students were coming in and then

of course this program will culminate at

a DrupalCon in NASH Nashville of course

we do hope that we can continue the

mentorship component beyond that but

that is the scope of what we did this

here

so adding on to what we talked about

before in terms of recruitment some of

the questions that we asked for really

about scalability in terms of number of

students in terms of partners what types

of skills should people have we found

that it was really amazing that Genesis

works and empower both had just existing

programming in place so the students had

you know basic understanding I have a

lot of concepts so it was relatively

easy to add this additional drupal this

is something I've been working on

additional drupal experience that wasn't

really giving them a crash course in

basic computer concepts or tech concepts

or even programming a lot of the

students already had existing experience

so this was something that we found was

also really key in what we were doing at

a capacity assessment you know one of

the things that we're wondering is also

ensuring how do we ensure continued

student participation you know how do we

not only mentor and coach throughout

this whole process but you know what

happens next

as Ryan price says is you know

mentorships often a lifelong thing it's

a lifelong relationship it's not just

something that you you do for a summer

so these are some of the questions that

we ask ourselves when we were defining

this project early on

strategic partnerships are really the

backbone of why we're able to do this we

decided to continue the empower

partnership but given that as Alison

said we're based in Chicago our

partnership with Genesis works were also

instrumental and allowing us to anchor

this program in these two two core

regions I think our partnership with

fig-leaf

who as I mentioned is actually

sponsoring the training because that is

their specialty Drupal ëismí and then

others was just really crucial because

we learned a Palantir like I mentioned

that I don't always have that type of

bandwidth to do those activities and so

how are we going to actually address

this capacity issue we wanted to partner

with other agencies and get them to

donate time and resources so that we

could make this more sustainable when I

am resource to other projects and have

other obligations as well yeah because

remember Palantir is not a training

company you know I mean we work for

clients most of the time so that was a

concern actually was well Palantir wants

to train people but we're not designed

to train people that's not our business

model that's not something we're set up

to do so actually partnering with

fig-leaf who was really interested in

this initiative you know that's that's

their specialty that is what they do and

Dave who's one of the owners of fig-leaf

who is a veteran and really liked the

idea of underserved communities like

finding a way to to help them work we

are blessed to have him sort of on board

because we're hoping that I know it at

least for n powers groups they also

serve veterans who are looking for work

after they come back from various tours

so that's another facet that we could

expand into that we're excited about

and then also just allowing other agency

professionals to provide mentorship was

also key as well because many Palantir

were already volunteering their time in

developing and funding the program and

so we definitely needed to have just a

little bit more security in terms of

what people are capable of doing in a

week something else I want to talk about

is just this idea of social capital

you'll see here that there a lot of it

is about who you know and what their

skillset is what their background is and

I think the reason it has been so

successful is because we have been able

to crowdsource social capital whether

it's through these organizations that

are you know well established or through

Michael Dickey's connections with

fig-leaf

that that really has been instrumental

and that in doing so we are trying to

really just leverage the power and and

privilege that we have so that we can

actually include that's what inclusion

is essentially is is taking people by

the hand and basically introducing them

to the people who are going to provide

them with those opportunities and by

that time you know the hottest skillset

all they're really needing is access and

that is a that is the the court youth of

what we're trying to do here so again

implementation um this really was a big

question

the Allison has already touched upon

who's going to do the training we do

have a colleague who has a history of

doing this type of training but there

were some issues around capacity in

terms of his involvement so our

partnership with fig-leaf was really

again instrumental I mean nowhere is

this going to be hosted where the

students projects going to live this was

another question that we had to address

early on will these students have access

to the internet all the time do they

have access to laptops and technology

and so that was something else that we

had to consider just basic

infrastructure so we actually found here

donated refurbished laptops to the

students because we want to ensure that

they actually had this type of equipment

to be able to complete the course how

are we going to get them to Chicago in

Nashville Allah Allison speaking a

little bit later who is going to pay for

their travel tickets accommodations

where are they going to stay what is

their stay going to look like what are

the expectations for our interaction

with them during these conferences how

are we going to get mentors and what are

the expectations and then he was going

to review and evaluate student work

these are all questions that came up not

just in the beginning about throughout

the project as well because again not

everybody's availability is going to be

consistent throughout the lifecycle of

the project

so this is our timeline in terms of

where we are

prior to mid camp so the students

received their laptops and they were

paired with mentors are early on in the

project shortly after the kickoff during

and shortly after the kickoff you'll see

that we have classes beginning in late

January and then we have those

milestones I had mentioned of mid camp

and DrupalCon

so here is a photo taken in Chicago

during the kickoff so these students

were actually connected to our Baltimore

students and the instructor because as I

mentioned fig-leaf was implementing the

training and Dave was space in Baltimore

so the Baltimore students had an

in-person training and then the Chicago

students were connecting with us

virtually here is this the Baltimore

group Mac Plunkett who works at Palantir

came down along the skin who's on the

photo from Philadelphia to help with the

training as well so yeah I mean thanks

to the students for being willing on

Saturday January 6th right after

everyone you know was coming off of New

Year's vacation to do our kickoff it was

a we've spent a full Saturday in the

Genesis works offices and then where

were the offices and was it mind rub in

Baltimore that donated the office in

Baltimore you were there oh you went to

the offices okay yeah but I think yeah I

think migrant might have been involved

Yeah right so so yeah we went to their

various offices and we held the training

remotely Lauren was there just to answer

any specific tech questions if Dave on

the on the video was talking too quickly

or they missed something you know she

was there on hand to help with any tech

problems

and so it's here here's kind of where we

are now looking forward just if you're

wondering what are the students actually

learning they're learning a much more I

guess in in-depth triple concepts that

will really help prepare for future

internships and job acquisition in the

Drupal community so the coracle of the

training isn't just to give them

exposure as it was on that day of Drupal

but really to build them in core

competencies provide them with resume

review and other coaching so that they

actually can land professional

opportunities that is really the end

goal here is not just a mere exposure

but what inclusion looks like is

actually employment and then continued

advancement but I but to add to that

like if they don't want to stay in the

Drupal community if they've spent four

months with Drupal and they decide this

is not my thing

that's fine you know you know hey that's

it yeah there's no there's no obligation

you know after all this is said and done

that they have to get a job in Drupal

nuts

that's not what this is for yeah it

would be ideal I love to assimilate

[Music]

we've covered today our scene of cycles

analytics content modeling content types

and fields information architecture or a

menu structure blocks form social media

and we're just halfway through the

program so we already have another month

to go and students are also working

simultaneously on a variety of projects

these are more like passion projects so

we have students who are building web

sites for various social organizations

of which to remember churches I believe

was one there's a mariachi band so in

some context we would have you know

students actually partner with clients

but in this case it's more of a passion

project that's just for my personal

experience in terms of what students

might do so

we're really excited to see where their

work is in april me because we've

already as Alison mentioned had people

were doing their work to date we had a

session actually earlier at mid camp

where Lauren was actually reviewing

their code and providing them feedback

on what they've done to date so I'm very

excited to see what is next on when they

present their final work at the con

let's talk a little bit about success

and some lessons learned yes it's just

quickly in service based on our the

mentor matchups the students one-to-one

yes yeah so they the way we set it up is

that they have class every Friday night

which was actually just the best time

when everyone could meet that was the

sort of aggregate time

so there's class hours I think it's 5:30

Central time 6:30 Eastern time where

they meet it is recorded in case they

can't make it they can watch it later

but then there are three lab hours

during the week where the mentors and

the students can pop in and just work

one-on-one together and then of course

they also can just do it ad hoc

everybody's in slack we hooked everybody

up with slack together we created a

channel where everyone can talk together

so there's a there's add hot stuff that

goes on that I don't even know about you

know like um but any and then some

parents of course are busier than others

right like there are some pairings that

need absolutely every week at the same

time all the time and then everyone else

is a little more here and there

today their missions

[Music]

so we got some positive feedback and you

know past few weeks about kind of the

virtual approach that we took so Alison

just mentioned that we could actually

record the training so because students

are so busy I just like to remind

everybody that they're not only

generally working some of our working

and doing internships in addition that

are related to their existing

organizations but they also have

obligations that their organizations

have so students who are connected you

know with these existing programs may or

may not have other obligations and may

be doing that program as well are those

program requirements and so we want to

be mindful of that so I think the

flexibility actually really worked out

were people who could miss class but

could still stay up to speed by actually

watching the recordings and then if they

couldn't necessarily get to lab can

always ping or text their mentor and say

hey you know I have this question so I

think that that type of versatility has

been really just optimal because it

allows students to to still be included

and still be able to see their own

project their own progress and their

peers progress but not necessarily

feeling like okay I wasn't in the

classroom today so I've missed all this

material this is a quote from Baltimore

participant who actually is my mentee

[Music]

so there's a lot of hard lessons than

these hipster projects terrible scrap so

we have had a few speed bumps some of

these might include web hosting that was

an issue that I'll let Allison speak to

you later

mentorship and those expectations are

constantly being negotiated and

renegotiated because life goes on and

the mentee availability might shift the

mentors availability might shift even

with a you know the three at lab hours

that we have sometimes we only might see

a few students actually in you know

engaged in lap and so that's also been a

question is so if we don't see them how

do we know how they're doing how do we

know if they have questions and so

understanding when people are not

communicating that it doesn't

necessarily mean that they don't

understand or aren't engaged but

understanding that we need to then

figure out okay how we connect with them

how do we check in with them so that

they that they that we do check for that

type of thing something else is the

two-hour class a benchmark once a week

um that was really challenging to

schedule I think another something else

that came up was the idea of measuring

which we'll talk about later measuring

success measuring milestones measuring

improvement we don't really have grades

that great we don't with McCants now you

have mid camp so I'll talk about this a

little bit later but how do we

how do we identify and measure these

milestones is a big question another

thing is we started with eleven students

and now we have ten students we actually

have nine who are actively engaged here

at the camp so another question is how

do we support students so that they can

continue this type of work and then what

type of reality do we need to actually

have in terms of our own expectations so

before we dive into measuring success

would you want to talk a little bit more

about the some of the some of the

logistics and things Church so see yeah

I mean between like I said last year we

had three weeks to plan and sort of

throw something together in for just a

one-day thing at DrupalCon and I thought

it went incredibly well considering that

it was such short notice you know and

and we were able to pull it off so with

a year we we really did try to

anticipate everything I would say we

probably anticipated about 85% and then

there's another 15% that I found myself

triaging here there because it's the

first time we're doing this right so

you're not going to get it perfectly the

first time it's very agile in that way

so some of the speed bumps with early on

were just okay well how do we get them

laptop so what you know how do we do

that and thankfully George at our

company since we did a bit of hiring

last year we had refurbished laptops

that we could give them so we then it

was a matter of okay well who's gonna

refurbish them who's got the time so

then there was shipping half of them off

to Philadelphia new her half to MIT to

Meg Plunkett and then Lauren on our end

helping us in Chicago get those laptops

up to speed getting them to the students

we had to order things like just cables

okay we had the laptops but we didn't

necessarily have the right cords anymore

you know Apple changes their technology

often enough that you know those cords

are obsolete so those were some of the

logistical things things like travel

just and then the class time I think was

sort of the biggest thing that we ended

up starting

even though the kickoff was January 6th

we ended up not having class for the

first week because we just hadn't gotten

our act together in December in order to

figure out what day's work best for

class that was just a simple logistical

thing that we didn't figure out early

enough so then we had to send out a

quick survey to all the students and say

okay what date works for you actually

like if we're gonna hold a class what

day is actually good so thankfully they

got back to us pretty quickly and we

were able to figure it out but that's

just some of the examples of some of the

things I mean even just yesterday I was

doing a little bit of triage

it's just hosting but now everyone's up

to speed and we're we're all set to go

so codes been migrated but everything's

been my so I talked a little bit about

measuring success and this is something

that's really difficult to do in a pilot

program because not only are you

implementing but you're also ideating on

how you know what are the KPIs are you

do this in our in our in our redesign

product so what actually are the things

that are happening on the site that the

client needs for their business to run

for paychecks to be delivered and so we

don't have that exact same model but we

do have that big question of you know if

we are going to scale this if this is

going to be the business is going to

stop being a pilot

you know what types of benchmarks are

folks looking for what types of

milestones do we need to identify and

how do we measure it so some of the

questions that we asked were you know

what do students know at the start of

the program what do we want them to

learn and why how we're going to measure

this type of progress that's still

something that we're working on what you

know do attendance and participation

numbers of like should that be a core

part of measurement or is it really

about what their final project looks

like and whether or not the final

project encapsulate all of those core

Drupal concepts that they've learned

additionally our students meeting

curriculum milestones again is that

something that we use a project to

measure or that's something that we use

something else to measure our students

completing deliverables our students

checking in with Mentors

how do we adjust the program in the

middle of the project and then what does

that do to our milestones and then how

do we engage with students after the

program what are our expectations around

that so these are questions that we've

formulated and are we're constantly

evaluating how we're going to

demonstrate just not only competence but

then success in the program

and at the end we'll invite you to share

your ideas on this as well so this is an

example of more recently review of the

didn't work cuz then yesterday when we

say recently we mean yesterday and

getting the environment set up on

Pantheon sandboxes yesterday yesterday

so in terms of what's next we're going

to send what looks like ten students to

DrupalCon Nashville we really would like

students to try to find internships if

they are interested in pursuing people

related commerce than anybody we're

going to be looking for that final

deliverable which is that personal

project which for those who just walked

in our sights for a mariachi band a

church music act or cycling blog a tech

help blog and then more we did try to

give them a well-rounded introduction

into user experience and strategy not

just Drupal just that they have some

context for how Drupal fits into the

broader website ecosystem like we're

just building content types to build

them we wanted to make sure that that

learning was anchored and in real goals

and in objectives can I just jump in

absolutely the other thing too is that

you know we wanted to keep the whole

thing flexible structured enough that we

could you know show the students you

know like here's what's available right

here's what's out here but also flexible

enough that they could I didn't have to

dictate everything right like I you know

even with mid camp we you know when I

sent out last week the email saying okay

well here's the general schedule for mid

camp there there's much time in them in

there for them to pick what sessions

they want you know look what you're

interested in do what you need to do you

know see what's out there and then we'll

meet back at this particular time and

we'll do these particular things and

that's what I'm going to be trying to do

for Drupal con as well I mean some of

them have been to conferences before

some of them have not Drupal con as many

of you know can be incredibly

overwhelming like it's 3,500 people and

just you know hallways and hallways and

hallways of sessions and a lot going on

and so we're going to meet at particular

times but for the most part I want them

to explore and just choose your own

adventure right you know pick pick what

works for you so we're trying to provide

enough structure so that you know it's a

program but also let it be very very

self-directed also something that was

really successful last year is actually

introducing the students and

participants to other agencies who were

not necessarily involved in our

initiative but might be interested in

hiring the students for potential

internship or mentoring the students as

well so I think looking at naturally do

you want to set those hips of

connections as well just because they're

incredibly valuable you don't know what

you don't know and it's possible that we

have folks who are have the exact skill

set that someone that's looking for so

you want to be able to make those types

of connections you want to speak to

what's next and sure so so I I'm showing

this slide again only because I want to

make it very clear that I mean I know

that most of us here in mid camp are

chicago-based but we are presenting this

again at Rubicon and my goal was showing

this slide a second time even though it

just magically disappeared is that since

we do have these partners that have a

lot of help me offices location up thank

you

they have other chapters elsewhere is

that we hope that other Drupal firms

will come talk to us and say we'd like

to implement something similar and if

they see that they're near one of these

locations they can just sort of dovetail

on what we're already doing so I mean

between empower and Genesis works we've

got a lot of the u.s. covered you know

and Tirana so I think that would be

terrific if he can move along so some of

the things that we would definitely

recommend are just making sure you

identify those strategic partnerships I

think it's unfair to assume that fig

leaf if 50 other Drupal shops wanted to

mimic this and do the same thing fig

leaf could not possibly handle all of

that training right so finding ways to

find other ways to train there I'm sure

there are other shops out there that do

something similar of course crowd

sourcing all the resources and talent

that you you can tap into those

pre-vetted pools of talent and then

incorporating additional programming

into the existing framework that we've

set up and then just creating a plan

upfront you know out learning outlining

your costs and needs so let's let's do

talk about costs because I think they're

probably going to be some questions

around that so

since I am as I said in charge of my own

sales and marketing budget

I put aside $8,000 for mostly travel

that's in hard money I mean there is

unlimited hours that we all spent

between just organizing and arranging

travel and of Michell's time of Lauren's

time you know she did the Saturday

kickoff things look of that nature but

it's been $8,000 in card costs for just

travel and hotel and food and venture

cards to get them through Chicago fig

leaf donated approximately $12,000 in

classes there their basic Drupal class

is about eleven hundred dollars a person

so they donated that to the students

Drupal ëismí donated six month three

subscriptions to every student we just

this morning God so they're not on the

chart phpstorm

just tada guess what guys you got PHP

storms descriptions so and then Acquia

and and again also Pantheon stepped in

to help with some hosting and then the

Mentors you know we had 11 or 12 mentors

signed up to help and donate their time

just on slack and on the lab hours to

help the students do that but one-to-one

help and then also people who had extra

DrupalCon tickets donated their extra

tickets to our initiative and then the

mid camp organizers gave us free tickets

for all the students to come here as

well so it's it's not free yeah let's

just make that clear but we did we we

really thought that this was important

you know some of Palin tears values are

all about diversity and inclusion and

collaboration and this very much fit

into what our value structure is and so

we thought it was important enough and

since I conveniently had money to put

aside I made it happen so and I will

also add that we welcome other donations

so if you think of something that you

think these students should have like

phpstorm came to us out of nowhere like

that I was literally sitting downstairs

an hour ago and Andrea surfer came up to

me and said today I got two free

subscriptions and I went whoa

and I didn't even know that was a thing

so you know we are

I'm sigh dying you Ashley we are looking

for help with hotels and Nashville

Ashley might have a solution for me so

that's why I'm SIA dying her so anyway

if you have any other ideas that we

haven't thought of feel free to to jump

in so it as I mentioned on the previous

slide you see that it does take a

village this is a list of all of the

people who have been helping out with

mentoring all of the people who have

been sort of primarily involved in

organizing this initiative Julia Logan

is here from Genesis works

she gave a lightning talk yesterday if

you were there to see it just giving an

overview of Genesis works and what

they're about and then just some

additional support from some

organizations Steve Pershing Dwayne

McDaniel stepped in yesterday to help us

with some hosting needs that we had and

and of course you if you think of

anything you want to do to get involved

please get in touch with us and that's

really good other people also if you

look at this list of locations I'll go

I'll go back really quickly and you can

you know people who are running triple

shops in these cities and you want to be

involved but perhaps don't have the

bandwidth but know that they're

available you know please pass their

information our way please facilitate

those connections I think that also the

fact that we have video recordings of

all these trainings is also not

unsubstantial because essentially we can

use some of the existing material to

help coach students looking forward at

as well

so do stay in touch with us we are going

to be a triple con speaking about the

same topic but if you want to learn more

or chat with us about this or to know

more about our students and their skill

sets we invite you to reach out any

questions yes you mentioned since you

have a whole year to start

Logistics are what you need in the plant

war once you figure that out how do you

most remember determining what to do

first oh my god so many meetings we met

I think once a month to start starting

in late April we sort of did a

retrospective of like okay what did we

do well planning this in three weeks for

a day you know what went well and what

what with more time could we do better

and we just started making sort of a

wish list of all the things we wanted to

do really it didn't I pay that it really

didn't start to come together until we

identified who our training partner

would be because that was really the

biggest logistical challenge we had is

that that's not Palin tears business

model we don't train people interval

right and and apparently before my time

at Palantir and I've been there five

years it was attempted and it didn't go

very well so that wasn't something we

necessarily wanted to go down again

another Road we wanted to go down again

so then Michael Dickey as she mentioned

earlier on on the Palantir team hooked

us up with David fig-leaf who is set up

to do that and he's got training

materials ready to go and he's got you

know lesson plans and video conferencing

I mean he had the whole thing planned

out so it was really a matter of I feel

like that's when we hit the ground

running was when we identified that

partner to help us with the actual

training piece because I could I could I

knew I could do like hotels and

logistics and getting people to from

point A to point B and getting laptops

like that I knew I had covered but I

didn't know how to absolutely teach

anything so that it sort of would have

fallen apart if it hadn't have been for

that also there was one situation where

actually Dave couldn't come to class

because he was sick and Ryan Price who

actually works a pound here was able to

step in and so Ryan has been pretty

active in all of our classes just as

kind of back up back up

and can provide a lot of contacts during

the labs - I mean that was another thing

I was like I'll mentor but I mean I'm

like do I need your resume looked at you

know so I think the question is are the

people who are available or willing to

be available also give students

constructive feedback that was another

thing because I could sit in on the lab

but all I can really do is kind of you

know feel questions for Ryan and and

Lauren and so that was another question

that came up right yeah time would you

say he's dependent on this practice

business so I'm not billable I don't

actually know but I would say for me if

I had to average it out probably three

hours a week four hours a week obviously

some weeks were heavier than others I

mean just yeah and but but and next week

- because not now I'm buying plane

tickets for Nashville right so I'm gonna

be spending a lot of time doing that

next week just looking up flights making

sure I can get all that done and even

just typing up the emails to everybody

just making sure okay like here's what

we're doing here's the list you know

that's time consuming stuff and so I'd

say for me it's probably three four

hours a week I'd say for Ryan who he

does all of the labs he likes to show up

for all the labs just to be there if

anyone has a question he's probably

three hours a week

I don't know Michelle it just varies

yeah it just varies you know it was

closer to 12 hours but then mentoring

any ranges from you know a half an hour

to an hour then if it pulls me in it's

you know a couple hours this week

obviously there's more happening over

the weekend but I think it's definitely

doable and if you want to be a mentor

it's definitely not something where it's

like you need to spend ten hours a week

on this you know it's really about

checking in with students being

available answering questions and then

you move on from there so I think your

level of involvement also can vary if

you're interested yeah I mean but but I

think obviously in the beginning when we

were organizing it it was a lot heavier

you know I mean there was weeks where it

was easily two days of my time you know

especially when we were planning the

kickoff and when I was just doing

logistics for laptops and things like

that it was a lot more time consuming

and fig-leaf I think probably has one of

the more significant time commitments

mm-hmm any other questions

come hear from some of the students made

me about your experience especially

blake since you were there for the day

of drew of drupal last year and then

you're doing this one you know you wanna

say that introduce yourself alright hey

guys my name is blake james as you see a

little bit about my journey i started in

power i was always into tech but i never

actually had in I have a new to get from

I'd say what I knew about HTML CSS the

JavaScript stuff like that take that to

an actual platform that I can actually

build upon empower kind of shoehorn me

into getting serious about it at first I

just kind of just did things on the side

as a hobby and they showed me a lot of

bad news if I can take as far as just

the tech community in general

I started out elite you started

bless you I got my certification I'm

still working with that as well too so I

have different avenues to go through as

far as you know where I want to go and

now I have people as well so that's

something else that I can put in my pop

and say okay well if I want to be a

Drupal developer I can do that if I'm

going to be up I hope that's technician

I can do that so it's been a really

rewarding opportunity for me and I'm

looking forward to whatever else will

come out and the things that I can learn

and think about has any questions can

you speak about your project my project

that I'm working on right now I'm

working on a fan site for you can do

payment coming up sometime later next

year

it's called cyberpunk 2077 and right now

I'm just alertly exactly what what what

actually can be contained in the website

or a fansite this case

partially challenging trying to figure

out exactly what content I can put in

and on the other side trying to figure

out exactly what Drupal is the

components behind it exactly how to work

the different modules in distributions

and I'm completely like that

[Laughter]

Natasha or Vanessa you wanna guess me

I'm sorry I got

my name is Andreas I am currently a

first year computer science major here

in Chicago in a muscle part of Jensen

works in middle um so when I got started

with Jensen swearing stuff they they you

know attract high school student in

becoming more prepared for internships

as giulio spoke about yesterday and I

let him talk so Julia wasn't what to

speak to me about Drupal and like

Palantir and like joining together and

doing this like seemingly really cool

and rigorous kind of learning this new

entire system that I've never heard of

before so for me because I am going I

think it was like very important to me

that it was flexible which is something

that they highlight or not like recorded

classes and laugh hours that vary from

day to day was important for me because

because I was going to school I have a

job so it's like you know have making

sure that I can found settle up was very

important there they were a key role in

building that possibility so my personal

project I am also excited about what I

just stated I'm a mentor and a buddy at

your organization here based in Chicago

and

so I really wanted to show them like an

idea of what they could how they could

promote themselves and attract more

students from ranging from the

elementary to the high school level of

music musicianship which is just

something that I'm comfortable

hello my name is and I support that and

I'm also not alone at Genesis wigs I

went for a year UIC and then from there

I went to another year at Europe which

is similar to Genesis works whoever I am

going more towards cybersecurity and the

aspect and as one drop one looking more

so if I do end up going more in that in

Drupal looking more into let's the bug

area that would go more towards my

specific what I think about majoring as

an undergrad so throughout this whole

program I'm also working on United for

nutrition specifically in their

information security team so I sort of I

like the flexibility as well as I in

able to you know be at work and then try

to get there and time for the package or

five hours regarding that therefore the

classes I'm able to go to the recordings

so I'm just so trying to figure out a

way to be able to maneuver through the

day on my skills that I really have been

security as well as implementing towards

Drupal and community and I'm working on

a church on site my church doesn't have

an actual web site so I'm also going to

be promoting the website and to them to

feel like if they're actually gave me

feedback right now and so like what it

is that they're sort of looking into

I still haven't told ins that I'm

actually building it but I'm saying

if you would like a website what would

be your consideration

very smart outcome and I'll show it to

them to see how far I die into it so

that's what I'm working on right now I

write and actually and we directed me to

a group that they have become for church

and the community whoever the last post

wasn't like 2015 so it's not really

helpful right now I'm still trying to

looking for more like on the community

and their involvement and church

websites and mostly for 2.8 she's also

doing her own with her website in both

Spanish and English yeah we should hook

you up with lingotek then multilingual

action

thank you thank you hoping Yasmin can

tell me more about mariachi any

questions for the participants questions

for us

okay we have business cards up here so

if you want to grab one to connect with

us later feel free to come up here and

begin to connect now or a better just

awesome to have this great idea and even

like last year when you're saying we

have three weeks what can we accomplish

I mean we can all well think thank you

and you know it's funny I mean I feel

like most people you know in in just in

general want to do things right they

want to help they want to do things I

mean I I wish I had more time to do all

sorts of volunteering things you know

I'm a single mom of two boys so that

just doesn't happen like I they're just

a lot of things I'd love to get more

involved in and I can't so it was um it

was interesting because you know I'm in

this very fortunate position where I'm

not billable when I have my own budget

you know and and and I'm also really

tenacious much to the chagrin of my

bosses so I love it and then George goes

oh god what is it but yeah so I I was

getting a little frustrated to be honest

that I as Michelle mentioned earlier

there was just a lot a lot of talk like

how do we fix this there's you know

there's not enough diversity in Drupal

and I hear I was and I just thought this

is so easy you know I've got three weeks

can I find some students to go to Drupal

con like can't we do something like it

just seems like such an easy thing and

it wasn't of course but right it's in

theory it seemed easy and so thankfully

it just it like I said it was very

serendipitous that Michelle had the time

and she was based in Baltimore to really

do some initial digging and to help me

make it happen so I also did youth get

four years before I came to Palantir so

for me I had heard a lot of

conversations about diversity a lot of

diversity committees I was kind of tired

of talking about diversity to be honest

and

as a person of color I think for me it

just was a matter of you know time

budget resources and you know when is

this gonna happen

and what can i what can I do what can I

do and I think essentially I was

thinking based on all of this

conversation around diversity in Drupal

I really was like let's just let's just

implement something yeah and you know

it's like our clients just give them

something to react to right let's give

them an idea for people to you know

build upon and that was something that

was really crucial yeah and I and I

don't think we did everything right you

know like I said I mean you know I'm I'm

doing my best you know but I think we

did pretty well most valuable player and

also MVP product

but I'm just curious are you doing this

you said it's a four-month program is it

going to be an annual thing we're like

every year you intended for it to kind

of follow that same schedule and every

year you kick off with a new group in

January or as are you intending to kind

of grow it and maybe just it's always

it's an ongoing like essentially we have

three different programs in a year right

if it were to grow with um like I don't

think we did the capacity to do three in

a year I think it would have to be just

this like you know maybe December 2

through April you know leading up to

Drupal con I I don't think any of us

have the bandwidth to be able to do this

three times or four times in a year

as for would we do it exactly the same

way next year I think we got it

yeah I think we'd do it again next year

I think it's to be determined if it's

the same students or if it's a new pool

of students my secret you know very

diabolical wish is that one of them

would like to intern for us you know

that's just throwing it out there

and yeah I mean again it's it's really

my hope is after DrupalCon we're also

gonna do some career support right like

we've yet we've got our HR department

who's willing to help them with their

resumes they've already got resumes

already I mean they're they're there and

I'm gonna ask them to bring them to

Drupal con hint hint so that when you're

meeting people they have them at the

ready but we we want to help them with

that support to help find work if they

want to stay in Drupal you know maybe

again maybe they come out of four months

and say then it's not my thing you know

and that's fine but they've got another

set of skills that they can speak to and

draw upon

so yes we'd like to repeat it again next

year

it'll probably be similar I don't know

if it'll be exact it's to be determined

I'd like to see more engagement from

other chapters so it would be great if

some of these other chapters within and

power and Genesis works that also are by

other Drupal shops could actually begin

to mentor people holy that would be

fantastic because that would help with

our capacity

Wow right and I do and I do think if you

look at sort of the way we're doing it

from December through April you know

you've got mid camp very nicely sort of

tucked two-thirds of the way there and I

believe there's a Drupal camp somewhere

in Southern California around roughly

the same time as mid camp if I'm if I'm

remembering correctly so I mean it would

be great if we could sort of write this

playbook and say okay well here's the

playbook on how to do this give it to

another Drupal shop who can implement

something similar and maybe they don't

have the budget to be able to do as many

students as we're doing maybe it's only

for right maybe it's two whatever but if

we can create it in such a way that

other Drupal shops can copy us

I mean think of how many more students

we could you know bring in sure can this

work in an entirely remote setting or is

it really necessary for the mentors and

mentees they have face to face

all right so far I don't think any of

them have met face to face I have

because I was in Baltimore and I met my

mentee at the kickoff but I have not met

with her since okay just whatever

describing the classes I was assuming

traditionally classrooms no no it's all

virtual and I mean my hope is that of

course at your book on most people go

right so I think there will be sort of

like this big happy Ryu Drive mentors

and mentees that can finally meet face

to face but so far I don't think with

the exception of Michelle they made any

of them comes up they're mentors and

then also did Chris Rooney hosts some

students he did but the mentor was out

of town bad day was I feel like there

was mentorship happening and there's

face-to-face with people but they're not

necessarily that one-to-one but also I

think something I'd be interested in is

getting the students involved in

speaking at Drupal camps as well now

that they've actually you know mastered

some of these components actually

practice speaking about Drupal concepts

so we have people gov can I have

mentioned this to the Baltimore crew at

all right you have Drupal gov con coming

up and so be great to see some

submissions on that as well

um since it's so close by so getting

them exposure through public speaking

also is something I think that

be really valuable as well so the

in-person commitment as far as a Drupal

shop in another city getting on this

model is the space for a weekly class

and someone to be there in the back like

so we're sort of like I mean if it's

just another four people would they be

able to be added on both the way Chicago

is replacing the very critical role that

right yeah so so there was so Dave did

get sick one week and he unfortunately

slept through class because he was so

ill he couldn't even like get up to tell

us he wasn't going to make class that

day and luckily the the Brian was there

and was able to step in but but more

specifically that meeting invite was not

only to Dave's you know he wasn't the

only one who could start the meeting so

we had an accent thank you

yeah so and and I and I deliberately set

up the lab hours the same way too so

that I didn't need to be the moderator

right of any meeting anybody could

moderate you know so it was just little

logistics like that making sure that

everybody had access to the meeting time

so that the meetings could happen right

come from no matter what happened and

the students were only together as far

as my I understand unless of course

you've taken some of the Lasser classes

yeah together the students are signing

on on their own laptops from various

locations some people they get off work

and they hop onto class they're like you

know running home and they hop on a lap

so with the exception of the kickoff mid

camp and DrupalCon everything else has

done remote and there was one class I

think it was last week because of the

blizzard that went through Baltimore

only one person showed up because the

others lost power you know I mean that

happens right so it was recorded they

watched it later

all right thank you thank you thank you

only person