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Family Situation
Family responsibilities pull at her strongly. “My dad had to quit his job so he could stay and take care of grandma. That frustrated him. That made it hard to come here.” “If I program is boring I will quit it because I’d rather be home with my grandma.” She admires her mother’s hard work. She does not talk to her father, even though they live in the same home. Stumbling Blocks She lacks the right support from school or family to make college feel like an option. She only has word of mouth to give her a sense of the professional careers available. “I want to be a psychologist, but people are telling me they aren’t successful.” The pressures from home weigh heavy on her choices. If she feels like a program isn’t going to be worth it, she tends to quit it in order to stay home and help out. Attitudes Toward School She switched high schools to leave a school that was too large and impersonal. Once in the smaller school, she enjoyed the accountability. Having someone check on her every day helped her stay in school. She took a few college classes at Laney College while in high school. She really enjoyed Psychology, but is concerned that people say you can’t make any money with that degree. She has graduated from high school but hasn’t applied to college. She doesn’t know how the process works. How Hack the Hood Helped Hack the Hood is one of the first programs that she has completed. The social support helped her see that it was worth it for her to stay, “I tend to quit stuff, so I wanted to do this and I even did an extra week.” She heard that writing is a good career to have in Tech, and she is interested in pursuing that. The visit to Google was important to give her a sense that she can belong in a big Tech company, “We went to Google, and I’ve never been to a place like that. There were even people that looked like me.” What the Videos Can Do to Help Videos can offer Angela a sense of the different jobs and skills involved in tech, so she can see a long term vision and get started on her college education. Videos that inspire people of color to get involved in the Tech industry will keep Angela motivated to pursue a career with purpose. |