Title
Recognizing Philly Tech Sistas on their work to diversify the tech scene in Philadelphia, with special acknowledgement to Ashley Turner for leading the group and her dedication to this effort.
Body
WHEREAS, Under the leadership of Ashley Turner, Philly Tech Sistas has taken a large step in diversifying the tech world in Philadelphia. The National Center for Women and Information Technology released a report describing the demographic makeup of the tech world. They found that women represent 26% of the computing workforce but African American women only make up 3%, and Asian and Hispanic women make up 7% and 2%, respectively. Emboldened with this knowledge, Ms. Turner identified ways she could change this. Through Philly Tech Sistas, workshops focused not only on coding but also leadership skills, goal setting, and more have provided women of color with the skills they need to enter and be successful in the tech industry; and
WHEREAS, Ashley Turner began her career as part of the theater world as an audio engineer. She gained an interest in coding and building websites and sought to gain the skills she needed to enter the field. She took programming classes and attended local tech events to get her foot in the door. Throughout this time, she found herself isolated and saw a need for more diversity in the tech world. She says, "When I attended these events, I always noticed that there weren't a lot of people of color, and especially women of color ... I always had a desire to have a space where women of color could attend these workshops together and not feel so marginalized"; and
WHEREAS, Philly Tech Sistas was established in 2014 as an informal organization where women in a similar position as Ms. Turner, feeling isolated in the industry, could come together and attend conferences and events with one another. Ms. Turner joined the group and a week later gained the opportunity to step up as the group's leader. Since then, she's transformed Philly Tech S...
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