DEV Community: Margaret E. Ikeda

Glass Slippers and Grit: What the Bootcamp Experience Could Be

Margaret E. Ikeda — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 19:01:19 +0000

Some background: I'm currently in a career training program—think dev bootcamp but ten months long and with four of those months dedicated to the job search—called C4Q (Coalition for Queens). It's March 2017, and we've just finished a one-month project called Capstone and are beginning the job search.

It feels a bit like the end of the ball; there's no more October fundraising gala or fancy Capstone pitch to look forward to. The next distant goal is graduation and getting a job or internship, and I know for a fair number of people it may not happen in that order. People will start leaving, one by one—hopefully for jobs that will challenge and support them in their growth as developers and people. One step closer to a dream job, one step away from all the adventures, big and small, we've had at all our various classrooms across Queens.

To continue the Cinderella metaphor: I think I'm old enough not to be fretting over whether I'm Cinderella or a Stepsister or a fit for some silly glass shoe. I know jobs come and go, and while I'm excited by the possibilities that exist in tech, I know I'm going to have to learn from the good and the bad that comes with it, too.

That said, I suppose I am a little worried about turning back into the pumpkin I was before C4Q.

To me, pumpkin-hood means scrambling for any job that'll have me because I need the health insurance. Pumpkin-hood means dead-end jobs or, worse, a self-defeatist attitude even when opportunity exists. Pumpkins don't have passports because they don't have the time or wherewithal to take a vacation. Pumpkins are closeted because their office is in a conservative area. Pumpkins swallow down the lump in their throat because they know this is the best they can hope for, for now.

I probably felt at my most Pumpkin a few weeks into my job as a medical secretary. A doctor caught me reading on my lunch break and, after I told her the title of the book I was reading, loudly informed me I "should be in college." As someone who had had to leave higher education due to illness, those words stung me all the way down to the marrow. Especially the should. I knew I should. I should be a lot of things, and I was at a civil servant job I was bananas lucky to have because right then I needed something steady in my life (and health insurance). I knew I was in the right place for me at the time, but that should stayed under my skin for three years. It's still there now, obviously.

This is not a Cinderella story. C4Q is not a fairy godmother. Tech is not the ball. Future employers are not princes and jobs are not glass slippers.

This is not a story about so-called "grit" either.

I have a chip on my shoulder about the ascendancy of the TED-talk "grit" story. I feel like the Grit Story pushes the Cinderella agenda. Those with grit get the job/slipper because they're just special enough.

I don't feel grittier or more special than some people who didn't get to finish the program. More privileged, yeah. But not grittier. Have I seen real grit from students at C4Q? Yes, definitely. But sometimes it's grit I wish they didn't have to have. It comes at a price. It's grit that reminds me more of shrapnel than the tiny sand particles that oysters make into pearls.

We are not our shrapnel. I am not my coping mechanisms for dealing with what got me here. I want to be with people that support my attempts to heal myself and hold me to sustainable standards while I do so. C4Q has actually helped me do that. Amazing, helpful healers work here. But even with hearts full of good intentions, I fear what the Grit Storyline teaches C4Q staff about the kind of people C4Q claims to want to give opportunity to. Grit isn't a replacement for a roof over your head, food in your belly, or peace of mind.

So yeah, not a story about grit.

Today, this is a story about a pumpkin that had always wanted to be in a different story. Maybe a story with a pig. Maybe a story with a spider. Maybe the pumpkin/pig, through no fault of its own, is just a bit behind its peers. Maybe she just wanted someone to write "Terrific" somewhere she and others could see so as to avoid a sad fate. Maybe the spider and a rat named Templeton teach the pig Swift and re-awaken the pig's love of design, then find the pig a design mentor at Squarespace. The grateful pig avoids a sad, pumpkin-like fate and helps take care of the spider's offspring for generations.

It's a weird story, sure, but I think it could be a classic for years to come.

Originally published on mgtei.com.

Nevertheless, Margaret E. Ikeda Coded

Margaret E. Ikeda — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:43:57 +0000

I began coding because...

I'd always walked the line between art/design and tech. A year ago, while volunteering with New York Cares at a Coney Island Community Center with a bunch of eager nine-year-olds and Lego Mindstorms kits, the kids' enthusiasm helped me realize that technology was for everyone, so it could be for me, too.

I'm currently hacking on...

A choose-your-own-adventure (or any genre!) text game generator called StoryTell. We'll be presenting at Demo Day on 3/21 at Squarespace!

I'm excited about...

Product Design and learning R for data visualization.

My advice for other women who code is...

Share with your peers, whether through a blog or just in person. I've been open on my blog about my struggles with mental health and the program we're in (Coalition for Queens) and I've been surprised by how many of my problems have been echoed by my peers who read the blog. It's heartening to connect with my peers on a deeper level.

NYC Technologists Ring the Bells That Still Can Ring

Margaret E. Ikeda — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 22:03:54 +0000

Last night:

Jess Lee of DoSomething.orgÂ and COO of The Practical Dev
Saron Yitbarek (TwitterÂ |Â website, "Bloggytoons")
Ben Halpern (CEO, The Practical DevÂ | Twitter)

organized a meeting of NYC Tech for Good (Meetup) to address The Current Situation (i.e., the 2016 election outcome). This was a chance for the the NYC Tech community of devs (and Project Managers! and Data Scientists! Students! et al.) to pour out our hearts and put our heads together. Thanks to the organizers, including ClarifAI for providing pizza and refreshments and DoSomething.org for the space.

I highly recommend reading Kevin Scott's notes (including numbered takeaway list and helpful links) over on Medium. It will give you a broader idea of what was said, whereas my notes are more narrowly focused on what interested me and may go slightly deeper into the subject.

Concerns were raised last night and this morning on the Meetup Event Discussion about not duplicating efforts already being made by groups like the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Obama/Eric Holder's post-presidency plans focusing on redistricting, but instead reaching out to existing organizations to see how we can help.

One person emphasized the importance of applying tech to areas where it hasn't been already applied (e.g., the ACLU and SPLC already have apps for people to report rights abuses) and mentioned environmentalism as an area not covered by tech; of note, it was a private homeowner in Flint who first discovered lead in their water.

The effects the election has had and will have on children was brought up.Â I'll echo Dan Metz on the urgency to fix NYC's foster care system. The state of this system that serves thousands of NYC's most vulnerable children and young adults is dire, and I think it qualifies as an area where tech is not yet involved but could have a major and direct impact.

Cryptography/encryption and how to organize under a surveillance state was mentioned several times with TOR, 2FA, Signal (all described in this Medium article) and VPN (Wiki) being held up as the current standards. "Encryption should be the standard."

My favorite quote of the night was "Just give me a repo; I don't care if it's on Github or Bitbucket." People are eager to start coding from a curated repo. There was also discussion of planning a hack night/hackathon. But we need to get Project Managers involved, who can turn how to satisfy the client into a list of actionable items, targets, and resources needed. Project Managers, get involved!

Becoming active in smaller, state and local government races was bought up several times, especially in preparation of getting voters excited for the next midterm elections in 2018.Â In 2018, 25 Democratic Senate seats will be voted on compared to only 8 Republican ones.

One idea was to reach out to people who voted for Obama in previous elections but didn't vote Democrat in 2016 to find out why (whether because of disinterest or voter suppression), then target this audience with a First 100 Days mailing list that tells them what the next President is doing that affects them directly.

Republicans also have ALEC to make cookie-cutter legislation for their causes (Last Week Tonight made a video about state legislatures & ALEC). Should Democrats have something similar and also look to organizations like the Tea Party and how they mobilized people for local races?

Getting involved in "meatspace" with existing organizations you care about was suggested; to that end I would like to recommend NewYorkCares.org for volunteering opportunities locally and also echo a voice at the meeting the urged others to give their time and/or resources to Coalition for Queens (C4Q) which runs Access Code. As a current C4Q student, I can attest to our need for resources and volunteers, as well as the powerful impact the program can have on its students and diversity in tech as a whole.

Code.gov, the US Digital Services, and CodeCorps were mentioned as resources to look into using. There was also a representative from Witness there who spoke out for prioritizing compassion and solidarity over trite empathy and pursuing actions that would build a strong personal sense of connection.

Those are my tech-related take-aways from the meeting (there were a lot more emotional and personal takeaways, which I'm happy to discuss somewhere else). The picture on this post is of the notes Ben Halpern took for things to do with the group as it goes on. Thanks to everyone who came or wanted to come and is researching what happened.

Tech can't fix everything, but we as technologists can "ring the bells that still can ring."

Hi, I'm Margaret E. Ikeda

Margaret E. Ikeda — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 21:48:55 +0000

I have been coding for 1 year.

You can find me on Twitter as @Mgtei.

I live in New York City.

I work for Coalition for Queens.

I mostly program in these languages: Swift.

I am currently learning more about encryption, multi-threading, Core Data, and how tech can help NYC foster children.

Nice to meet you.