KIMBERLY BRYANT

I didn't want my daughter to feel culturally isolated in the pursuit of her studies as I had as a young girl. I didn't want her to give up on her passions just because she didn't see anyone else like her in the classroom.

It's always been my dream to be an attorney, and I'm that weird breed of human being that loves being in a courtroom.

Jobs in technology have the rapidest rate of growth. The need for computer science is so incredibly large, and it's important that girls of all colors have the opportunity to move into that field.

We need to really focus on getting this digital equity across the board in all of our public school systems, for both girls and boys.

I believe it is incredibly important for women and people of color to become the builders and creators in technology. In order to do so, we need to know how to code or, at least, know the language of coding - what I like to call 'code speak.'

As a little girl growing up in the Deep South, my mother told me that my future lay in my education. And she was right.

I think that if companies build for diversity from the beginning from the ground up, that's definitely the ideal state for how to build diversity into your company.

Girls are almost always socialized to be perfect: 'Smile, do well in school, don't take too many risks.'

I loved school, was an exceptional student, and found a passion for math and science that led me to Vanderbilt University, where I discovered the world of electrical engineering. I did well in college, loved the work I was doing, and soon found myself climbing the corporate ladder after graduation. I was one of the lucky ones.

I had originally wanted to be a lawyer. Even when I went to college and majored in engineering, I still thought I'd get a law degree. Then I started taking electrical engineering classes where I saw some of the innovation happening around computers and solid-state technology in the mid '80s.

I was doing a lot of networking in the Valley, and I found that it was not a very diverse environment, and most of the conferences and meetup events I went to, there weren't many women or people of color in those rooms.

When I started Black Girls Code in 2011, there weren't any programs that had a foundation in communities of color to teach our kids about technology.

We want to create a community of girls who will be empowered to become catalysts for transformation in their communities.

If I understood the great opportunities that are available to women and underrepresented minorities in the field of tech I would have made the transition from traditional engineering to the technology field much earlier in my career.

When you've already experienced great challenges in your career, it gives minor setbacks a different perspective.

If people are not tied to the work from a mission-driven focus, I don't think you're going to motivate them.

By reaching out to the community through workshops, hackathons, and after-school programs, Black Girls Code introduces computer programming and technology to girls from underrepresented communities.

It's critical for girls to see role models like myself that are in technical fields. Looking for ways to come in as speakers or do a career day, or just find a way to connect with students or invite students to their workplaces to shadow them for the day... is critically important.

If technology is designed mostly by white males, who make up roughly half our population, we're missing out on the innovation, solutions, and creativity that a broader pool of talent can bring to the table.

For me, if a company is really committed to diversity, that means everything. That means gender diversity, that means sexual orientation for me, that means race, ethnicity.

The images you see in media are vital to impacting not just what the world sees in terms of who can be a computer scientist, who can be techie, who can be a geek or who can be a creator; it also impacts the girls and what they internalize.

While there is still certainly much more work that needs to be done, Lyft actually believes in increasing diversity and inclusion within their workforce, and also, they believe in being a strong supporter of that in the community.

We understand bringing girls into the tech space is about giving them skills to create social impact and change in their community.

Women are both talented and innovative thinkers and tend to use computer science as a tool to solve larger problems.

We want to teach girls of color the skills they need and create a diversity of voices into the tech community.