Today the world marks International Women’s Day. While we have plenty of rock star women working here at SALIDO that we could gush about (you can read about some in our SALIDO Spotlights), we wanted to take some time to honor five extraordinary young women we’ve had the pleasure of working with over the past two months. Due to a friendship between our founder Shu Chowdhury and the founder of Girls Who Code Reshma Saujani, SALIDO took an active role in organization’s annual gala.
We assisted with some basic gala 101 and leveraged our food and beverage connections to secure in-kind liquor (Fords Gin/The 86 Co.), wine (Marc de Grazia Selections) and water sponsors (San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna). This included having bartenders Ranjini Bose (Dear Irving) and Monica Caban (Legacy Records) offer up four unique cocktails for the welcome reception. Though, what really made our hearts swell and had everyone in the office buzzing was working with Girls Who Code alumni!
Last year five high school students participated in Girls Who Code’s summer immersion program. At they end, they created The Truth Behind Us, a website that provides girls of all ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations and interests to find role models based on their interest, from STEM and business to arts and literature. We at SALIDO had the pleasure of working with these young women to assist with turning their website into an app.
Over several in-person working sessions and Google Hangouts, our team of engineers and designers met with Takia, Vania, Danielle, Shandjida and Anna. Not only did we have an opportunity to show them what we’re building at SALIDO, we provided them some practical experience of what it’s like to work at a tech company, from understanding coding basics to a design workshop that helped determine the app icon.
It was a true honor to get to know these girls, their passions and their drive to ensure that no longer will they be the only women in their computer science, engineering or computer design classes or clubs. Their work was showcased just this week at the organization’s’ gala on Tuesday, March 6 at Skylight Modern in New York. They spoke about their project and celebrated their app with 400 guests and also introduced the night’s honorees, including Arianna Huffington and Craig Newmark.
We’re so proud of this group and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for them (hopefully with us!). We are also extremely fortunate that we could do our part to support Girls Who Code’s mission to close the gender gap in technology and go beyond equity in the tech industry.
Enjoy the video below detailing our work with the girls, which we created with our pals at The Colony. Oh and and download their app here.
