Representation Matters
By April Alvarez
Educational Equity Programs Manager, Diversity & Inclusion
Google
Ihave always maintained a deep
commitment to giving back to my
community, and in recent years, I
have had the opportunity to be a guest speaker
at numerous community events. I especially enjoy
speaking at events in the area where I grew up,
California’s Central Valley. The Central Valley is a
beautiful community heavily influenced by
the Mexican traditions of the many immigrant
families that settled there, but it is also one that
is very under-resourced. In my hometown only
about half of Latinx students finish high school.
This makes it even more important for me to take
any opportunity to reach out to the youth sitting
in the same seats I did years ago.
One of the most memorable events for me
was a leadership conference for young women in
my hometown. The focus of my workshop was
diversity in the tech industry, and as part of my
talk I asked the classroom full of young women,
mostly Latinas, to close their eyes and envision
who works in the tech industry. I prompted them
to think about what the person looked like, what
that person might be wearing, what would they
be interested in, and did they know anyone like
this? The person they all described couldn’t
be any further away from who was sitting in
front of me - across the board they saw the
stereotypical version of an engineer. It’s
challenging this perception of who belongs in
computer science, and the tech industry, that
fuels my work. I am passionate about opening
doors to places like the one I work, because I see
what participating in this culture of innovation
could do for any one of those girls in those seats.
The tech industry is reimagining the way we
live our lives, it’s challenging society to
redefine everyday interactions, and we cannot
underestimate the opportunities to begin to build
generational wealth when working at a place like
Google. The typical tech worker at a Silicon
Valley tech company earns well over 100k, with
a market that doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
I feel fortunate to have landed at a company
and on a team that is committed to creating
opportunities for more Black and Latinx students
to pursue computer science. In recent years,
many tech companies have released diversity
reports, sharing company-wide representation
numbers.
Some of the initiatives I have developed
were highlighted in Google’s latest Diversity
Annual Report and for that I am very proud. This
is a great first step, but we have a long way to
go as an industry, when it comes to Latinas
participating in the tech industry, we are sorely
underrepresented.
As Latinas, we need to open the doors for
others as we gain access to these spaces, if you
get a seat at the table, you better pull up a
seat next to you. Tech companies need to do the
hard work and invest in Black and Latinx
April Alvarez is the Educational
Equity Programs Manager
for the Equity, Diversity and
Inclusion team at Google. In this
role, she manages key initiatives
such as Code Next and Tech
Exchange, Google’s programs to
support and prepare more Black
and Latinx students for a career
in the tech industry. Her personal
mission is to bridge the tech
opportunity gap for Black and
Latinx communities in major
cities across the U.S.
communities, make a commitment to hiring and
investing in the talent of tomorrow, and focus on
improving outcomes in workforce representation.
As a nation, it’s imperative we work to remove
the barriers to access quality STEM education so
many young Latinas face in their educational
careers. I hope one day I am less the exception
at a company like Google and more the norm,
after all as they say, “if you can’t see it, you can’t
be it”.
LS
¡Punto Final!
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48 www.latinastyle.com LATINAStyle Vol. 25, No. 1, 2019
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