that's also from where innovation can stem.
I grew up alongside nerdy Black kids whose value was skipped over too often—the neighbors' kids, teaching themselves how to turn their home computers into beat machines, making their own music, and selling beats across marketplaces while helping their mothers pay the electric bill.
They didn't have space camps to go to or homes that were adjacent to doctors' or software engineers', but they existed and made do with what tools they had. They launched informal companies or helped the ones in their community, just like I did.
A startup isn't just what happens in a garage, dorm room, kitchen table, or tech conference. It's what builds a community, wherever that might be. And I think we wholeheartedly miss the opportunity to be transformative within our communities when we dismiss the opportunities all around us. From the coffee shop to the daycare center to plumbing services, we skip out on very necessary parts of the American economy when we hyperfocus and invest solely in things that will be high growth and high tech. Until robots can watch our children for the day, development needs to happen across the board because civics matters and ping‐pong tables in the conference room aren't and perhaps shouldn't be the only reality toward upward mobility.
Never, in the history of ever, do we name the inner city or lower or disadvantaged communities as hubs for innovation, despite the creators who live there. We don't name a science building, drop 3D writing spaces into the place, or see them as anything but city problems.
Building a Tech Future in Unlikely Places
When we think about innovation, we don't often think about a city like Jackson, Mississippi, launching the next great tech company or defining the future of tech talent. And yet, this is where artificial intelligence expert Dr. Nashlie Sephus is setting up shop to define the future of innovation.
Raised in what she calls humble beginnings by her grandmother in Jackson, Nashlie studied computer engineering at Mississippi State University before going on to Georgia Tech in Atlanta to earn her master's and PhD in electrical engineering. She spent her summers interning at IBM, Delphi, and General Electric.
Her first full‐time job after graduation was with a startup called PartPic, co‐founded and led by entrepreneur and investor Jewel Burks Solomon, where Nashlie came on board as CTO. After about a year and a half with the company, PartPic was acquired by Amazon, where Nashlie went on to lead visual search and applied artificial intelligence research for the tech giant.
Armed with company stock and a few powerful connections, Dr. Nashlie went back home and began acquiring vacant lots to build a live/work/play/multimillion‐dollar real estate development across 12 acres in downtown Jackson.
The development will take $150 million over the next five to 10 years to build and is slated to draw in festivals and restaurants, an idea to cater to the crowd and build community, with technology and innovation access on the periphery. From hosting hackathons to robotics clubs, Nashlie's plans are to make this tech district one where anyone of any profession can access the facilities, day or night, post up inside a workspace, or sit comfortably outside, in a safe space to build, create, think, and enjoy the local activities.
Jessica and Nashlie are exemplary examples of making use of their surroundings to inform their work and who they build for. They have been notably successful at navigating important spaces and bringing those resources back to the communities they come from. For both, the internship was a landing post that helped to launch them into some of the most reputable technology‐leading companies.
Marking Your Own Internship Pathway
Traditional internships can take place over the summer or during the school year. But not all internships are created equal or provide enough flexibility for students who may be nontraditional students and need more options for being able to learn skills and build up a portfolio.
Opportunities to get started and break into tech and other careers are expanding, especially with jobs and internships moving online, or externships being offered through vocational schools and boot camps.
Case Study: The Sprinternship
Women and students of color are often at a disadvantage when it comes to taking on internships, hindering their opportunities to build relationships and connections in the technology sector.
To help close the gap, Break Through Tech launched a new idea called a “Sprinternship,” which gives women and other underrepresented students a shot at interning at tech companies over the course of a traditional break during the academic year.
Piloted at the City University of New York, Cornell Tech, and other schools since 2018, the program provides paid internships to computer science students over the three‐week winter break between the fall and spring semesters. Students build connections with potential employers and develop portfolios of their work experience to be used as they complete their computer science degrees and enter the workforce.
The program has since expanded to Chicago and Washington, DC.
Over 80 companies have hosted over 700 student internships since the program's inception. Students are making connections and getting access to networks they might not have otherwise had it not been for the existence of the program.
Action Items
Find out which businesses in your city offer internship or apprenticeship opportunities for students within your area—start with your own community.
Create your own internship program if there isn't one by pitching to a company in your community. Detail the skills you have that they need and what you can do to help them improve their business. Ask for a two‐week trial or project to help them see why they should bring you onto their team.
Tap your local workforce development program to see what training programs they offer that also place you in an apprenticeship with a company.
Find online internship programs that allow you to work from home—keep a plan of what you want to learn and build relationships with your colleagues for future job recommendations.
Seek fellowship opportunities that are shorter in time and allow for travel or learning plus a stipend to help you transition in your skill (profellow.org is an excellent research tool that lets you search for opportunities here and abroad).
Build your network by joining associations and groups that are connected to opportunities within technology—be it a local boot camp or meetup group—and ask around about fellowship opportunities.
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