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The Open Source for All Initiative: Investing in Underrepresented Minorities in Tech - How 2 Companies are Kicking Off 2020 with $20,000

Feb 5, 2020

2 min read

Here at This Dot Labs we are a development consultancy that is known for its work in providing opportunities to underrepresented minorities in tech. We are very excited to be partnering with StackBlitz, a company that is an online IDE used by millions of developers every month & adopted by open source projects such as Angular (Google), RxJS (Microsoft), and many others. We have teamed up this January to announce the Open Source for All Initiative to provide $20,000 of opportunities to those who need their first foot in the door.

With only 50% of boot camp students able to find employment within 3 months of graduation (Dice), we both feel passionate about trying to help bridge the divide between graduating boot camp and someone's first development job.

The $20,000 investment from StackBlitz and the supply of mentors (senior software engineers) from us will give paid apprenticeship opportunities for boot camp graduates to contribute to prominent open source projects.

We have over 20 bootcamp partners including Fullstack Academy, Coding Dojo, Prime Academy, Vets Who Code and The Last Mile.

“It’s tough to go from a bootcamp to an entry level developer role,” says Co-founder and CEO Tracy Lee, “and that challenge is compounded if you are a minority. Our apprentice program makes it easier for folks to transition to a full time job smoothly.”

StackBlitz is already used by open source projects such as Angular (Google) and RxJS (Microsoft) in their documentation.

"We have been very happy to work with the StackBlitz team and hosting the Angular documentation code samples on StackBlitz has been great for developers." said core team member Stephen Fluin.

“StackBlitz has been a great partner at helping provide code samples in our documentation, and I admire Tracy's work with under-represented groups in tech,” says Ben Lesh of the RxJS core team, “The pairing for this initiative is great and I expect good things to come out of it.”

Those interested in participating in the program as apprentices can apply here. If you’re an open source project who wishes to provide opportunities to underrepresented minorities and have great code examples in your documentation enhanced for free, sign up here. We can’t wait to work with everyone and make a difference in the tech world!

This Dot Labs is a development consultancy that is trusted by top industry companies, including Stripe, Xero, Wikimedia, Docusign, and Twilio. This Dot takes a hands-on approach by providing tailored development strategies to help you approach your most pressing challenges with clarity and confidence. Whether it's bridging the gap between business and technology or modernizing legacy systems, you’ll find a breadth of experience and knowledge you need. Check out how This Dot Labs can empower your tech journey.

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