On International Women’s Day, we want to highlight the female makers who help build Learn.co. Across Learn.co, from instruction and technical support to product and engineering, women play a critical role on the platform – by infusing their ideas and hard work into each feature, by mentoring and helping students, and by providing unique perspectives into what it’s like to be a woman in tech. Here’s just a small sample of the women in tech at Flatiron School and what inspires them every day.
Kaitlin Vignali
Product Manager
Q: What features are you proud of on Learn.co?
A: The IDE. It’s super complex and was a ton of work, but it opens up access to Learn.co to those students who do not have a Macbook. This is what Learn.co is all about –accessibility to coding!
Q: What do you like about working on Learn.co?
A: I enjoy working on Learn because I get to iterate on a complex product. I like that I can experiment and do user research to inform the way we build Learn.co. I also love working with my team on Learn.co. They are smart, funny, and we’re a close-knit group. They make me laugh every day.
Jessica Rudder
Developer // Engineering
Worked on:
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Blogging
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Onboarding
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Public lesson pages
Q: What features are you proud of on Learn.co?
A: I’m incredibly proud of the work done to bring blogging into the Learn.co platform. Flatiron School has always emphasized the importance of having a technical blog to our students. It’s a great way for them to solidify what they’ve learned and help contribute back to the community of new coders. Adding blogging as a feature to Learn.co allowed that to be a more cohesive part of the experience for students and enabled instructors to keep track of who was completing their blogging assignments.
Q: What makes Learn.co friendly to women?
A: Whether it’s an elderly relative or young children, women are significantly more likely to have responsibilities as the primary caregiver. This means it’s very hard for women to take three months off with no pay to spend all day at a bootcamp learning to code. By making a world class curriculum backed by a job guarantee available online to people that can only study part time, Learn is doing a lot to enable women to transition into jobs in tech.
Lisa Jiang
Director of Product
Q: What do you like about working on Learn.co?
A: Learn.co is an incredibly inspiring product to work on. My personal mission is to build great products that provide high quality education for everyone and working on Learn.co means I get to chip away at that mission every day. An online platform like Learn.co means that we can deliver education that is flexible to our students’ needs – whether it accommodates flexible hours, remote geographies, or different price points. We have a lot more work to do but I’m proud of what already is possible through Learn today.
Q: What makes Learn.co friendly to women?
A: The flexibility of online learning makes it easier for a lot of our students, particularly women. They might hold part-time jobs or are the primary caretakers in their household so being able to log in and study on their schedule is a welcome option for these career-changer.
Q: Who is your female hero?
This lady is kind of my personal rock star.
Corinna Brock Moore
Learn Instructor // Online Education
Q: What does working on Learn.co mean to you?
A: Being a student in Flatiron School’s first cohort changed my life. I went from walking one step behind someone as an executive assistant to changing the existing world every day by releasing new, creative code onto the Internet. I had a job as a full time developer, but I didn’t feel as if I was giving back enough. As a Learn.co Instructor, I get to help people every day change their lives in the way that I did, and along the way I get to know our incredible student body. It’s crazy hectic and busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Ashley Muller
Learn Expert // Online Education
Q: What makes Learn.co friendly to women?
A: There are tons of women to talk to within the community for extra support, and the platform itself is friendly for any gender, age, ethnicity or creed. There is a good male to female ratio in the community and it’s awesome to see other women being active on the platform and passing labs. It’s been such great motivation for me.
Kate Travers
Developer // Engineering
Worked on:
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Learn CSS Framework
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Backend analytics integration
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Career Services Coaching platform
Q: What do you like about working on Learn.co?
A: When I was a student, Flatiron School completely changed my life, and now I get to spend all day building the platform that helps other people do the same thing. I get to work alongside awesome people doing good work that makes me happy and helps make the world a better place. The things we build are lowering the barrier to entry into tech for underrepresented groups, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of that. Plus, I’ve learned how to be an effective leader and teammate, not just within our engineering team, but collaboratively across our whole company.
Tracy P. Holmes
Educational Coach // Online Education
Q: What do you like about working with the Learn.co team?
A: Many times I am the only woman working on a team, and one of a few in a company. It is so great to see so many women and not all in “traditional” roles. Learn.co isn’t focused on what you are – it’s focused on what you do and how you better others.
Tracy Lum
Developer // Engineering
Instructor // In-person Education
Worked on:
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Onboarding flow
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Student performance analytics
Q: What do you enjoy most about working on Learn.co?
A: Flatiron School and Learn.co gave me the tools and education I needed to change the course of my career. I was lucky in that I was able to attend Flatiron’s in-person NYC program, but what I love about Learn.co is that it makes the amazing curriculum and community accessible to students all over the world. To be part of an awesome team of brilliant developers and innovators who work incredibly hard and also just happen to be super nice and funny has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. Education is empowering, and I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity to help shape the future of education through Learn.co.
Visit Flatiron School’s Women Take Tech page to learn more about Flatiron’s dedication to helping more women break into tech.
