Sunday, February 7, 2016

Doers of Good Works

Be doers and act on what you hear
(James 1:22)

We are raising an amazing son. We take great pride in exercising our parental bragging rights. Here’s the backstory:  Yesterday was the first mentoring session of #CodeRoadClub, so my husband and son attended with me in support. While the program targets young women, as a mom, I saw it as great opportunity for Q to gain exposure to careers in technology. To learn more about women in Memphis, Nairobi, Nashville, and Toronto meeting weekly in a live classroom for educational, cultural, and social exchanges, visit http://www.memphisworks.com/coderoadclub
or follow us as I live tweet on Saturdays from @LTR_Latrobe_Mfg to @CodeRoadClub.

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry…life happened and we began the day with a few minor technical difficulties that were quickly overcome by a remarkable support team from all four locations. I privately joke that I live with #ProblemSolver #1 and #2, so in their true nature, their immediate response was to jump in to fix the technology fails. While the girls from different parts of the world took turns introducing themselves and learning valuable information about the importance of networking and demonstrating abilities, my son was purposely listening and looking for opportunities for improvement. When the program ended, he quietly sent me a text that he had “a few ideas to help this work a little better.” Then he proceeded to network by starting a conversation with one of the coders/presenters who recommended building solutions that solve problems.

I woke up this morning to find a professional email from my fifteen year old son that laid out his suggestions for improving the technical production of future sessions. With no edits, I forwarded his email to Mary Hayes, CEO of Engage Learning Systems, and the braintrust behind #CodeRoadClub. She responded with a prompt thank you note to Q, with an offer for him to attend next week’s session as a part of the tech support team, lol! Of course, he accepted!!!

When I wrote about #CSforall in last week’s blog post, I knew that I would begin mentoring with the #CodeRoadClub as my contribution for exposing local young women to this aspect of STEM education. What I did not anticipate was how this act might impact or benefit my own son.  Nor did I expect his level of engagement or participation or excitement about a Saturday morning project.  As a parent, I am most proud that instead of criticizing imperfections in a process, he took professional actions to offer solutions to make something good better. He’s a doer. How are you incorporating technology into your educational, cultural, or service projects? Let us know by commenting or sending an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.