Planning the Year

Over the past few days, I've asked ScriptEd's staff to participate in a calendar planning exercise for the next year so we can make sure that we're staying on top of everything.

I decided that this would be a good exercise when I realized that my first two weeks of January are nearly entirely booked with meetings already. I know there are really important projects I need to focus on in January that will require me to sit, think and write for uninterrupted periods of time, so I realized I needed to be more proactive about my calendar.  I'm trying to block out periods of work time in in advance so I'm not totally booked in meetings and unable to work on long term projects.

Here's what we did:

1) We took three pieces of chart paper, and wrote the months of the year out on them (four months per piece of chart paper).

2) We got stacks of post-it notes and different colored sharpies. Each pen color represents a work stream (Fundraising, School Programs, Internships, Strategic Planing, and HR-- there might be more additions soon).

3) We wrote the major dates for each work stream and posted it on the chart paper.  We are using post-it notes rather than writing directly on the chart paper so that we can add/remove dates as necessary.

4) As we went through each work stream, I began to block off time in my calendar to work on the projects I'll need to focus on through out the year.

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This calendar will stay hanging in my office through out the year so that everyone has a visual reference of the bigger picture of things.

We'll see how it goes! I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Want to read more on time management? Check out this article Becca shared with me.

My office wall

The hustle never stops

Our hackathon last Saturday was awesome. You can read all about the day and our students projects here.

We were lucky to have Fred Wilson stop by and check out our student projects. During his visit, we had a long conversation about fundraising. Fred blogged about it here.

One thing that really stuck out to me about our conversation was that strategies we use and challenges we face with fundraising are incredibly similar. The biggest difference between us is that Fred has many more connections than me and has the ability to access people that I am not able to at this point in my life and career.

Fred is still hustling though.  He's getting out there, pounding the pavement, getting his pitch down and doing his best to figure out how to inspire people to get involved with computer science education. He's doing the long, hard and necessary work for something he believes in.

This took me by surprise. I think very highly of Fred, and kind of automatically assumed that his reputation and credibility would make fundraising a cake walk.  The reality is that it's not and will never be.  People like Fred are so successful because they never stop hustling.

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Speaking of fundraising - ScriptEd is nearly half way to its holiday fundraising goal. Please consider making a donation here!

Tomorrow is the most wonderful day of the year: ScriptEd's Hackathon!

Computer Science Education Week is coming to a close, and we'll be giving it a great send off with our Hackathon tomorrow.  Our event has grown so much over the last few years that for the first time ever the event will take place in two locations at the same time: Google and Microsoft. Students will spend the day building projects in teams and will compete for prizes at the end of the day in front of a panel of very esteemed judges.

Another highlight for ScriptEd this week was helping to open the NASDAQ exchange on Wednesday morning with other CS Education champions. I've included some photos from the event below.

Stay tuned next week for updates on our Hackathon winners. And if you haven't donated to our holiday fundraising campaign already, please do! You can donate by clicking here. We're less than $1,000 away from reaching our weekly goal of $10,000. If we get there by Saturday, I've made a promise to dress up in 1984 apparel and share it with our mailing list and social media outlets. Have a great weekend!

$50,000 by the New Year!

Yesterday we released our ScriptEd annual report for Giving Tuesday, and launched our holiday fundraising campaign.  Our goal is to raise $50,000 -- the same amount we raised last year -- by midnight on New Years Eve.

We had a great start! Yesterday we raised about $3,000.  I'm competing in the New York City Triathlon this July as part of my fundraiser.  You can donate here.

This is why you should consider supporting us and making an investment in the future of the tech work force (even Karlie Kloss is on board!):

When Liz and I started ScriptEd in 2012, we had collectively worked with nearly a thousand students from low-income communities. None of these students had access to computer science or software development education in their schools or communities.

This was (and still is) a problem. In the US, we don’t have the capacity to meet current labor market demands in the tech industry. By the year 2020, 1 million jobs will go unfilled in the tech industry.

This isn't just a labor market problem - it's also an equity problem. The tech industry is wildly undiverse. The US is not doing a good enough job preparing students from underrepresented backgrounds for careers in technology, and they must be represented in the field. The creators of technology hold our futures in their code. Existing technology defines what we can do and how we interact. New technologies define the parameters -- so to speak -- of everything.

By teaching students from all backgrounds computer science, we will build a future in which our technology creators are fueled by a diversity of experience and thought.

That's why we started ScriptEd.

With your support, ScriptEd can reach more volunteers, teach more classes, partner with more schools, identify more mentors, and arrange more paid internships.

Even if you can't donate, we can still use your help. Tell your software developer friends about ScriptEd and ask them if they're interested in volunteering. Or, post one of these blurbs below to Twitter or Facebook.

• I’m proud to support @ScriptEdOrg, teaching #NYC students to code. You can help too by donating: bit.ly/1NDOPZj
• How can you give back this holiday season? Make your mark for #NYC #tech students & donate to @ScriptEdOrg! bit.ly/1NDOPZj

Thanks for your support!