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Hack the Hood believes in highlighting the young people who have brought their skills and passions to our program to inspire others. We're profiling a different young leader each month to share their journey through Hack the Hood and beyond, with Ariel being our September feature.   1. How did you find out about HtH? What made you decide to join? When did you start with HtH? I heard about Hack the Hood a couple of years ago from my then-roommate, Jodie. Back then, I was already working full-time as a cafe manager but wanted to learn some tech skills, like coding. Jodie overheard me talking to my partner about how I want to get into tech and said, “you could join Hack the Hood. That’s the program I was a part of. Hold up, I actually just got an email from them. Let me forward it to you. I gotchu.” I was a little hesitant to apply because I had many things going on at the time, but Jodie encouraged me to. So I went through the interview process and was accepted. I felt like the timing was perfect. I was already about to look for opportunities, and it found me. I joined the Fall 2018 Tech Prep: Coding program, and it’s been my best tech experience yet. 2. What did you learn that was unexpected? Was there anything that surprised you about the program? There were a couple of things that surprised me! I distinctly remember sitting next to someone at the start of my class and was surprised to learn he was older than 24 - the age cutoff for the program. That’s when I realized that, even though there was an age range, Hack the Hood chose to prioritize their commitment to helping underrepresented and under resourced folks break into tech. It felt like “wow, y’all really are about what you say you’re about - which is trying to connect like underrepresented folks.” And I love that. Especially since that classmate I just mentioned spoke Spanish as his first language. If I can recall, I remember a conversation about how Hack the Hood was trying to figure out how to expand their program to include folks whose first language isn’t English and folks who were previously incarcerated. I’m not sure if anything has come out of that conversation; these aren’t things that I see talked about in any tech spaces. Not only are folks thinking about it, but they’re proactively trying to figure out how to make it happen. I feel like “community” gets thrown around a lot in different spaces like a buzzword. And I feel like it’s different when I actually see it in action. It felt like Hack the Hood was really embodying “community.” 3. What has your journey post- Hack the Hood looked like? I’d say I’m still working to break into tech. After graduating from Hack the Hood, I was still working full-time as a cafe manager while juggling to learn more advanced coding on my own. The cafe was a small mom-owned business. A lot of the work fell on me, so I pretty much ran the entire shop. It came to a point where I realized like I wasn’t able to dedicate the time to learn the things I want to while also being on-call all the time at work. It wasn’t healthy or sustainable. I decided to quit my job, live off my savings for a bit, and apply to other bootcamps. I got accepted into Techtonica and joined their Software Engineering Apprenticeship in December 2019. It’s a lot more self-learning than I was expecting, but they do provide stipends, and I read that they had a 100% placement rate with a sponsor company - so that’s what I was looking forward to. Unfortunately, due to COVID, a lot of the company internships fell through, so only 3 of 13 were placed with a sponsor company but they were able to secure a fellowship position for the rest of us. Now, I am at Major League Hacking. I’ve been a fellow since July and what I do is open-source coding (contribute to projects that are hosted on Github publicly). I’ll be doing that until October 2nd. It’s a little hazy after that. I’ve been offered a position at a Data Analyst bootcamp but I’m still figuring out what the next move will be. We’ll see, fingers crossed. 4. What do you do for fun? I do a lot of different things for fun. I love gardening and being a plant parent. I have a collection of indoor plants in my room, and I’ve been growing vegetables and herbs outside. It’s my favorite de-stressor. Another thing that I do is I try to have weekly video calls with my 10-year-old nephew and we try to do different activities together. He likes to introduce me to new games, so we’ll play it together. I’m also trying to slightly nudge him to learn tech. I also love playing video games. I have hella housemates, and we’ll have a regular gaming marathon playing Crash Bandicoot, Mario Kart, or Mortal Combat. 5. What are your favorite foods? I want to say if it’s spicy, I’m going to love it. If it’s not Mexican food, I really enjoy Indian or Korean food because it has the spice level that I like. Specifically, I love tortas ahogadas. It’s a traditional dish of the region where my parents are from - Guadalajara, Jalisco. I like it even more when my mom makes it, but truth be told, I made it recently, and I think it tasted better. (I’m not going to tell her that though.) This is going to sound weird, but I also love old people food. There’s something I love about fibrous foods - like oatmeal and like shredded wheat. I don’t know, like the mushy stuff. I love it. 6. What are three places you enjoy visiting in the Bay Area and beyond? I love being anywhere with water. My last name is Ríos, which means rivers so I feel super grounded when I’m in or near water. If I could live in it, I would. I also enjoy being anywhere that has super old, massive trees - like the redwoods. I feel like they’re the grandparent roots of the world. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m not a big fan of city skylines. I’d prefer to see views of mountains and trees - like in Joaquin Miller Park or Grizzly Peak.   7. Who are your top music artists? I feel so disconnected from this. A lot of the music I like or listen to currently doesn’t necessarily have words or lyrics to them. Lately, I just go to YouTube and search for low-fi hip-hop beats. I can’t think of that many artists I specifically listen to though. I’m trying to listen more to The Weeknd just because he’s apparently number one on Spotify. 8. Who do you follow on Insta? I don’t have much of a presence on Instagram. I tap in every now and then. I mostly follow cutie (QT) BIPOC centered pages, anything with a queer/trans lens. I follow a lot of fat pages and black, sex worker, (hood) healer pages. That’s pretty much all my Instagram content. 9. Where’d you grow up? What do you like about the Bay Area? I grew up in Compton, California. C-O-M-P-T-O-N. Straight outta Compton, all those things. That’s where I’m originally from, but I’ve been in the Bay area for about eight years, going on nine. So I’ve been here a minute. I came here to study at UC Berkeley and haven’t left since. I say I grew up in Compton, but then I grew up a second time here. Next to Compton, Oakland feels like home. Oakland reminds me very much of where I’m from. I’ve got deep love and a sense of responsibility for this place. Oakland is super different from LA’s vibes. They’re both cities, but I feel like LA moves so much quicker and, unfortunately, a lot more independently. I think folks out in LA have this mentality of “I’m out here to get my own,” which I respect and understand, but I think there’s a different vibe up here. This is where I learned more about community, honestly. I think the Bay area uses a lot of buzz words, which can get tiring, but then when you find those pockets, there’s a deep desire to build community in these spaces. And I think that’s why a lot of folks are here. Like you feel more seen, more represented. You feel more heard, and you feel like you can find those specialized places where you can talk, and people will understand. 10. What’s something you’d like to see change in Oakland? What do you want your contribution to that change to be? As a kid, I fantasized about somehow owning property and then sort of giving it away. It’s actually still a dream of mine. I wouldn’t know the legal aspects of doing that, but there are way too many homeless people. There should never be that many homeless people. And the unfortunate reality is, as someone who isn’t originally from Oakland, I do say to myself, “I’m not here making hella money and gentrifying the area, but I live in a house that isn't affordable for an average family to own or live in.” So I do have gentrifier’s guilt. Truth be told, I’m not from here, and a lot of these folks who are homeless are Oakland/Bay Area natives. So I would love to develop some kind of land ownership program somehow. I want to figure out how I can own property where people can rent to own at an affordable price in a shorter amount of time, so they’re not renting their life away or worrying about stability. It’s a huge dream, and I know there’s a lot of details and work I’m not aware of, but I aspire for that to happen. 11. What do you appreciate about today’s technology? I think the things that make me upset about technology are also the things that I appreciate about it. There’s a lot to be said. Unfortunately, I feel folks sometimes feel entitled to people’s time because we are connected so instantly - and that bugs me. At the same time, wow, we’re able to have long-distance conversations because of technology. I, and many others, have access to bootcamps that we wouldn’t usually be able to join. Parents who previously had to leave their homes all the time can now work from home. Well, not all of them. I also acknowledge it’s still a privilege, but I think that there’s so much power in technology to bridge access gaps. That’s what I admire the most about technology, where you can build apps and products that help folks who have physical disabilities or speech impediments or provide resources to folks who need it most. We just need to get the right people in tech. 12. What type of technology do you wish you had but hasn’t been invented yet? This is a tough question to answer, but I think it would probably be something aligning with health. There is a disproportionate amount of health issues in the black and brown communities, and I believe that technology could very much create a solution to provide more access. I’ve been battling to get my medical insurance for the last week and a half. I wish there could be apps to help streamline these processes for folks to instantly connect to their healthcare providers without having to play phone tag with the government as I did. 13. What would be your dream job? What do you want to be when you grow up? My dream is to work on the land. I know that sounds counterintuitive because my people have worked the land for so long, and the whole point of organizations like Hack the Hood is to give folks more economic opportunities. But that’s what I really want to do. It brings me a lot of peace and joy to put my hands or feet straight into the dirt. If I could own land, grow my own food, and somehow give that food to free for other folks (while still being self sustained, of course), that would be the dream.  Photography by Christine Cueto.
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Hack the Hood believes in highlighting the young people who have brought their skills and passions to our program to inspire others. We're profiling a different young leader each month to share their journey through Hack the Hood and beyond, with Calvin being our August feature.   1. What made you decide to join Hack the Hood (HtH)? When did you start with HtH? I found out about HtH after walking by the building. I searched it up online and learned about their coding bootcamps. I joined Hack the Hood because I wanted to gain new skills in tech. I started with Hack the Hood in February 2019 for their first 9-week Spring Bootcamp. 2. What did you learn that was unexpected? Was there anything that surprised you about the program? I learned that tech was more than just coding and software. It’s easy to fall into the idea that tech involves a bunch of people sitting behind desks and typing their days away. However, there are many different departments. There are the design team, financial department, human resources, and so much more. 3. What has your journey post- Hack the Hood looked like? My post-Hack the Hood journey involved plenty of job-hunting and reflecting on my goals. I eventually landed a job as a data analyst with the Surplus Lines Association of California. I have been working there for almost a year now. 4. What do you do for fun? I like to cook and write stories. I’ve always gravitated towards these things because they involve creativity and experimenting to get the best results. 5. What are your favorite foods? My favorite foods are tacos, noodle soup, fried chicken, and anything spicy. 6. What are three places you enjoy visiting in the Bay Area and beyond? My favorite places in the Bay Area are Alameda Beach, the local taco truck, and my grandparent’s house.   7. Who are your top music artists? My top artists usually change, but Ed Sheeran, J Cole, and Alicia Keys consistently remain at the top. At this moment, Lin Manuel Miranda (because of Hamilton) and Taylor Swift are pretty up there. 8. Who do you follow on Insta? I don’t have an Instagram, which probably means I lose about 10 cool points. 9. Where’d you grow up? What do you like about the Bay Area? I grew up in Oakland. I love the diversity in the Bay Area because it gives me the opportunity to learn about different cultures. By learning about other cultures, we expose ourselves to new ideas, practices, and knowledge that help with our growth. 10. What’s something you’d like to see change in Oakland? What do you want your contribution to that change to be? I want to see small, local businesses thrive even in the midst of gentrification and other changes to the city. I want my contribution to be buying from and supporting local businesses by connecting them to Hack the Hood so they can expand their business online. 11. What do you appreciate about today’s technology? I appreciate that it keeps us connected even when it’s difficult to see each other. 12. What type of technology do you wish you had but hasn’t been invented yet? I wish there was a bullet train that connected Northern California to Southern California. People from Northern California often visit Southern California, and the same is true the other way around. Bullet trains might be a little slower than planes, but they are usually more spacious and relaxing. 13. What would be your dream job? What do you want to be when you grow up? My dream job would be to help create stories for an animation studio. I want to be a writer someday. It isn’t a technology-based career, but technology often informs or influences the kinds of stories I write.  Photography by Christine Cueto.
Hack the Hood believes in highlighting the young people who have brought their skills and passions to our program to inspire others. We're profiling a different young leader each month to share their journey through Hack the Hood and beyond, with Terrence being our July feature.   1. What made you decide to join Hack the Hood (HtH)? When did you start with HtH? At the start of 2018, I was having a conversation about bitcoin and tech with a friend of mine. They brought up Hack the Hood and informed me about an upcoming bootcamp. I immediately went to the website to learn more about the organization and told myself that I have to join it ASAP. I applied just in time and was able to join the Spring 2018 Bootcamp. I joined because I believe in the end result of Hack the Hood - to give underrepresented individuals an opportunity to become the representations they’ve always wanted to see. I was looking for a way to help the youth see themselves in tech. 2. What did you learn that was unexpected? Was there anything that surprised you about the program? The fact that an organization like Hack the Hood existed was already a surprise to me. I couldn’t believe that their program would provide you a free laptop and pay you to learn. Everything I experienced during the program led to a shift in my mindset - business trips to tech companies, networking, learning about the impostor syndrome, and codeswitching. The Bootcamp helped me realize that I already have what it takes to succeed and that I can use resources like Hack the Hood to get me to where I want to go. 3. What has your journey post- Hack the Hood looked like? After graduating from Hack the Hood, I decided to save up money to join a more intensive bootcamp, Coding Dojo. This helped me get more acclimated to the tech scene and continue to network with folks in the industry. It was exciting to notice how my confidence in my technical abilities rapidly grew. After that, I spent time teaching software and robotic fundamentals at an after-school program called CodeRev Kids. In 2019, I became an Associate Systems Engineer for F5 Networks. I am currently working on a Full Stack Engineering Apprenticeship with Geekwise, thanks to Hack the Hood. I was introduced to the organization through Hack the Hood’s Director of Opportunities, Alex Mora, and a great time. I was already looking for work opportunities due to the impact of COVID-19. I’m really grateful that Hack the Hood continues to engage with their youth during these uncertain times. Since I started my apprenticeship, I have been able to work on an app for an international brand that’s available in both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. 4. What do you do for fun? Work, work, and more work. That’s fun for me, it’s my version of playing video games because I’m so addicted to learning and building my tech skills. I do understand that everyone needs a break, so I like to do activities with my 1-year-old son to help benefit both of us.   5. What are your favorite foods? Home-cooked meals hands-down are my favorite. I also like a good smoothie for brunch. 6. What are three places you enjoy visiting in the Bay Area and beyond? I don’t have any specific spots in mind, but I enjoy just being out in nature -whether it’s at the beach, hiking, or places like Yosemite. 7. Who are your top music artists? I don’t have anyone specific, I really just go on Free Code Camp Radio or Youtube and type in ‘jazz’ and just let it play. Ido enjoy FJK and Masego 8. Who do you follow on Insta? I honestly haven’t been on Instagram in a while. I’ve been taking a social media detox for the past couple of months. Whenever I am on it though, I would follow public speakers, health and wellness folks, and technology icons. 9. Where’d you grow up? What do you like about the Bay Area? I grew up in Newark. Growing up, I moved around a lot in the East Bay. I’m currently residing in Tracy with my wife and son. Though I moved out of the Bay Area earlier this year, what I like about it is the diversity. It’s a melting pot. You can learn just by getting to know people and their culture. I believe that’s beneficial, especially today when America is so divided and set in its ways. 10. What’s something you’d like to see change in Oakland? What do you want your contribution to that change to be? I’d like to change the hue of technology in the Bay Area, to make it more diverse, not just in ethnicity but also in backgrounds. I am doing this by constantly promoting and sharing organization, like Hack the Hood, to other individuals. There are already resources to help you succeed and I want my community to be aware of that. 11. What do you appreciate about today’s technology? I appreciate the fact that technology is openly available to the public. It can be difficult at times to get in-depth knowledge, but it’s there if you just keep searching for it. 12. What type of technology do you wish you had but hasn’t been invented yet? I believe the current state of technology has the ability to heal and stop diseases. We’ve advanced so much over the past decades and I feel like we still have a long way to go. 13. What would be your dream job? What do you want to be when you grow up? As cool as it would be to work in one of the top tech companies, my dream job would be to start my own company and create technology that is part of advancing healthcare.  Photography by Christine Cueto.
Hack the Hood believes in highlighting the young people who have brought their skills and passions to our program to inspire others. We're profiling a different young leader each month to share their journey through Hack the Hood and beyond, with Kesha being our June feature. 
  Yesterday was #BlackoutTuesday. Today is a new day and we’re going to start with love. A love letter to Oakland, from Hack the Hood We honor the organizers of the youth-led protest on June 1st. We honor Oakland’s Black businesses and their commitment to the Town. We honor each education institution and organization doing movement work, centering the experiences of Oakland’s Black youth. We see you. We hear you. We love you. We hold Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tony McDade in our hearts. In the 14 weeks since Ahmaud’s death on February 23rd, media outlets have been rife with traumatizing images of racist acts against Black people. Their offenses? Living. Sleeping. Birdwatching. The sobering reality is that we have been engaged in fighting systemic racism, including police brutality, high unemployment rates, and lack of access to quality education for centuries. Compounded with COVID-19 suffering -- losses disproportionately impacting Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income communities -- this unrest is a reflection of collective grief. This time is also wrapped in fear. Watching the U.S. erupt into outcries to protect Black lives is reminiscent of Ferguson in 2014, Los Angeles in 1992, and Newark in 1967, to name a few. These protests remind us Black lives are invaluable and Black futures are vital to the progress of this country. Period. Despite the heaviness of this moment, we rise. We’re at an inflection point and fortunately, we’re only going forward. The unexpected beginning is here and it’s important we not misuse it to reconstruct what has ended. At Hack the Hood, our mission is rooted in equipping youth of color and small business owners with the technology education and resources needed for economic mobility. The future of our communities rests on shifting from being solely technology consumers to technology architects. How we cultivate underestimated talent and leverage partnerships for career opportunities in this moment is key. Hack the Hood’s impact, nurturing technology architects, has reached over 1000 youth and 400 small business owners in Oakland. This work and the impact we’ll continue to make bring us joy! Despite Shelter-In-Place orders, we have doubled down on our efforts to serve Oakland and are proud to support 65 students in virtual bootcamps and Tech Prep sessions this summer. We do this work to promote economic and people power in Oakland. Our vision is to continue cultivating Black, Latinx, Indigenous technology architects nationally. Though there is a long road ahead. We remain steadfast and stand in solidarity with our partners doing this work. In Community, Tiffany Shumate and the Hack the Hood Family *** #BlackLivesMatter We honor the Black lives we’ve lost to police violence and those unknown. Amadou Diallo (NYC, 1999), Oscar Grant (Oakland, 2009), Tamir Rice (Cleveland, 2014), Eric Garner (NYC, 2014), Mike Brown (Ferguson, 2014), Sandra Bland (Texas, 2015), Freddie Gray (Baltimore, 2015), Alton Sterling (Baton Rouge, 2016), Philando Castile (Minnesota, 2016), Botham Jean (Texas, 2019), Atatiana Jefferson (Texas, 2019). Ahmaud Arbery (Georgia, 2020), Breonna Taylor (Louisville, 2020), George Floyd (Minneapolis, 2020), and Tony McDade (Tallahassee, 2020). These are only the lives that received national attention. Our hearts are with the countless families without the justice they deserve and the victims we’ve lost from Latinx and Indigenous communities. The fight against police brutality and racism is intimately tied to upending anti-Blackness, globally. For justice, there must be collective action across all disenfranchised communities and our accomplices. Ways To Support To our non-Black community members in Oakland and the greater Bay Area: None of us is free until all of us are free. We must collectivize our efforts to end white supremacy and the systematic oppression of black, indigenous, people of color. Educate yourself & share! Exercise your right to vote Consider donating to local organizations: Write your State Senators and/or Representative, advocating for police reform Support local Black-owned businesses and organizations
 Dear Hack the Hood community, After an intensive nationwide search, the Hack the Hood Board of Directors is pleased to announce the selection of Tiffany Shumate as the organization’s next Executive Director. Tiffany will take the helm of the organization on its continued mission to close the digital divide for youth and small businesses starting June 1, 2020. Tiffany Shumate is a dynamic leader with deep experience working in career development and youth-serving organizations. She defines herself as an educator committed to leveraging technology and business to drive access to quality workforce opportunities for underserved communities. Tiffany was previously at AI4ALL, where she led its university expansion and oversaw the alumni program, curriculum design, and student recruitment. She most recently served as AI4ALL’s Senior Director and grew university partnerships from 6 to 16 sites across North America, including Vancouver, British Columbia. During her tenure, she established the organization’s first partnerships in the U.S. South and the Midwest regions. She led her team in tripling the organization’s reach to 850+ students, globally, and in 2019, secured a National Science Foundation research grant to study AI4ALL’s impact on persistence in STEM for program alumni. Prior to joining the AI4ALL team, Tiffany served as the Assistant Director of Admissions and Multicultural Recruitment at Bryn Mawr College. There, she established partnerships that led to increased enrollment and retention of first-generation, low-income, and non-traditional age students. After Bryn Mawr, she continued her work in college access in leadership roles at College Track and Citizen Schools. In her transition to education technology, Tiffany worked as the founding Regional Director at Black Girls CODE where she managed partnership and program development in six U.S. regions and Johannesburg, South Africa. Tiffany is passionate about empowering youth with the resources they need to become future-oriented creators and technologists. Upon accepting the position, Tiffany shares:  We are grateful to Blueridge Advisors, our partners, staff, board, and key funders who played a crucial part of our decision-making, and to the entire Hack the Hood community for your encouragement and continued support through our search process.
This leadership transition is just another milestone in a proud organizational history characterized by continual learning, growing, and reflection. What the future brings during these unprecedented times may feel uncertain for everyone, however, we are confident that Tiffany Shumate will lead us onward and upward towards delivering on our essential mission to serve young people and our shared communities. We would love for you to get to know Tiffany better. So watch out for more information about a virtual meet-and-greet we’ll be hosting in early June. The Board of Directors is deeply committed to working with Tiffany to ensure her successful and visionary leadership as Hack the Hood enters its next chapter. On behalf of the whole Hack the Hood team, we are all very grateful for your past, present, and future continued support. In Community, Kamal Shah, Patty Mitchell, Luther Jackson Executive Committee - Hack the Hood Board of Directors The world is changing every day. As tech emerged, so emerged the digital divide. Today, the rise of COVID-19 and the resulting shelter-in-place has deepened the divide and the impact could be devasting for those without access to tech education and technology-enabled workplaces and careers. Hack the Hood was created to bring together young people of color, small business owners, and tech industry leaders to advance equity, inclusion, and innovation for the entire community - especially in the tech sector. In our 2019 Impact Report, we shared our vision for 2020 and we couldn’t be more determined to bring these plans to fruition. In these changing times, Hack the Hood’s mission to bridge that gap is more even critical than ever. As we face an uncertain world, we are certain about this: Hack the Hood is dedicated to doing whatever it takes to remain strong, stable and working to keep our community whole and we need YOU now more than ever to make that work possible. We intend to keep it 100 through COVID-19 and beyond by cultivating 100 Change Makers to help us further our work and impact all year round through monthly giving. Your monthly donation will help us continue to be the mission-driven change makers the world needs now more than ever.
When you give a monthly gift to Hack the Hood, you ensure that our programs and partnerships have the resources to equip our youth and small businesses with the tools they need to navigate an ever-changing landscape. The amount of small change you accumulate in a month can go to creating a huge impact.  Dear Hack the Hood community,
We hope you and your loved ones are staying well and healthy. In the midst of these uncertain times, we wanted to share some positivity with our 2019 Impact Report which reflects our aspirations and marks our progress as an organization. This past year, your continued support had a tremendous impact here in Oakland and with our partner organizations, who’ve taken our curriculum and empowered more young people. Hack the Hood was created to bring together young people of color, small business owners, and tech industry leaders to advance equity, inclusion, and innovation for the entire community - especially in the tech sector. Every year, our team aims to improve the experience of our young people - both current program participants and alumni. We kicked off 2019 with our first ever 9-week spring bootcamp, implementing 3 additional weeks to the program with 84 hours of advanced technical curriculum and 53 more hours of professional development. We continued to engage with our alumni by empowering them to lead our programs and bringing them together for Alumni Appreciation Nights. One of our key milestones for the second half of the year was the transition to our new partnership model. By collaborating with our 8 program partners, not only do we scale our impact, our students receive double the support. “In these changing times, our work is more critical than ever," said Zakiya Harris, Co-Founder and Senior Advisor of Hack the Hood. "We are proud of the collective impact our work has had on advancing the lives of young folks of color in tech." On behalf of the 1,015 youth and 400 small businesses we have served since 2013, thank you for your support of Hack the Hood. We hope that you take enormous pride in what we have accomplished together. We look forward to continuing our mission of changing the face of tech and improving economic mobility to our communities in the Bay Area and beyond. With gratitude, Hack the Hood  Dear Small Business Community,
In light of ongoing closures and cancellations due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we wanted to reach out to you to share resources to help support small businesses. As we stay vigilant to protect our physical health from the virus, we also need to protect the economic health of our community. Freelancers and small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, and right now, this lifeblood is at risk. The economic impacts of COVID-19 will likely have a ripple effect for months to come. And, while Hack the Hood does not have direct service to support our small businesses during these challenging times, we hope these resources shared below can:
We hope you stay safe and also want to share these resources to help cope with the coronavirus situation:
In community, Hack the Hood Hack the Hood believes in highlighting the young people who have brought their skills and passions to our program to inspire others. We're profiling a different young leader each month to share their journey through Hack the Hood and beyond, with Walter being our February feature.   1. What made you decide to join Hack the Hood (HtH)? When did you start with HtH? I initially joined Hack the Hood in the spring of 2017. I learned about the organization from a tech workshop that was happening at my school. I decided on joining Hack the Hood because it seemed like a good opportunity to try something new and learn new things and meet new people and I always want to learn how to code and understand how software works on the backend. I first joined their Tech Prep Coding and then after that class, I signed up for Hack the Hood bootcamp. It was pretty fun because we made websites and play with different programs and it was really cool. I would definitely do it again. 2. What did you learn that was unexpected? Was there anything that surprised you about the program?I learned that there are multiple ways to solve a coding problem. What really surprised me was how easy it was to create websites in the class, using Weebly. It was a great introduction to learning about web design. 3. What has your journey post- Hack the Hood looked like? My journey has been a bit tough. College didn’t really work out and I couldn’t be on the debate team and wrestling team due to some unfortunate circumstances. So I joined the Navy a few months ago. I recently completed boot camp and made a lot of connections there. It was fun. Now, I about to head to Japan for my deployment and I’m hoping I get to see all the amazing food, anime, and video games while I’m there. 4. What do you do for fun? I enjoy playing video games, I debate, and I also play and coach wrestling. I started wrestling in middle school and I have wrestled for 10 years. I have been debating for 5 years and I started in high school, during my sophomore year. 5. What are your favorite foods? My favorite foods are pizza, chicken curry, and lasagna.   6. What are three places you enjoy visiting in the Bay Area and beyond? I enjoy visiting Arkansas and San Francisco. Arkansas is such a beautiful place and there are a lot of cool landmarks - like the Buffalo National River. It is such a beautiful sight to behold. As for San Francisco, there is a lot of technology all around the city. Hanging out at the beaches in San Francisco is pretty cool. There are also a lot of gaming companies in San Francisco that have created some of my favorite games. 7. Who are your top music artists? My top music artists are Black Veil Brides, Halsey, Ellie Goulding, and Post Malone. 8. Who do you follow on Insta? I only follow people I know and a few famous people on Instagram, like Halsey, Post Malone, and Ellie Goulding. 9. Where’d you grow up? What do you like about the Bay Area? I was born in Oakland but I grew up in both Oakland and Sacramento. The one thing I like about the Bay Area is that there is a lot of diversity in the population and in the restaurants around the Bay Area. 10. What’s something you’d like to see change in Oakland? What do you want your contribution to that change to be? I would like to see these empty buildings being used to help out the young people and get them off these streets. I would love to contribute by trying to buy some of these properties and turning them into something that benefits the young people in our community. 11. What do you appreciate about today’s technology? I appreciate that today’s technology makes things more accessible. For example, smartphones make it so easy to connect with your friends and meet up. Also, it makes it so you don’t really have to do a lot to get the thing you need done, like how Uber has Uber eats that is an app that gets food delivered to you. 12. What type of technology do you wish you had but hasn’t been invented yet? I wish I had a flying car because it seems like fun. 13. What would be your dream job? What do you want to be when you grow up? My dream job would be to own my own gaming company, making MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing games) and VR games.  Photography by Christine Cueto.
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