Girl Geek X volunteering with East Oakland public school teachers

Education equity is an important issue for many San Francisco Bay Area residents during the pandemic.

Girl Geek X’s new partnership with Oakland Public Education Fund means we have adopted CCPA (a secondary school serving 600+ students grades 6–12 in East Oakland) for the pandemic school year, providing valuable experiences for volunteers to engage with the local school community.

Preparing for back-to-school with teachers in classrooms

Girl Geek X volunteers (masked and vaccinated) sanitized surfaces, refreshed bulletin boards, and lended a helping hand for teachers preparing for back-to-school on a sunny Friday afternoon:

“I recently moved to Oakland and want to be more involved with my community, especially helping students,” said Tricia Decker, a software engineer at Lyft. “As someone with a learning disability, I can understand how important it is to have an organized, comfortable learning environment. I was thrilled to work with a teacher settling into a new classroom by decluttering, cleaning, and decorating the space, giving students a fresh start this school year. I’m looking forward to future opportunities to volunteer via the Oakland Public Education Fund and make a positive impact on student success.”

Hackbright alumnae Adelaide Chen connected with Adamma Izuegbunam and Jessica McElroy about their careers while stapling new, colorful borders to freshly re-papered bulletin boards at CCPA in East Oakland. (Photo credit: Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund)

Data expert Adelaide Chen said about volunteering, “It was an opportunity to give back to Oakland schools and Girl Geek X at the same time. I met amazing women who teach and run the school, on top of that, women software developers who were there to volunteer, that inspired me.”

Take an afternoon off to volunteer with Girl Geek X — and recharge!

Annie Chang practices and teaches yoga at Ohlone Park in Berkeley on Sundays. (Photo credit: Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund)

Project manager Annie Chang took the afternoon off from her job at Color in Covid-19 operations to volunteer with Girl Geek X at CCPA, welcoming the break from work.

The recent Covid-19 delta variant-fueled surge has quadrupled her workload in the last week.

Many tech companies are providing mental health days off and/or VTO (volunteer time off) to encourage employees to rest and recharge.

If your company would like to Adopt an Oakland school, please do encourage them to participate — it’s a great opportunity to gain leadership experience and visibility in the organization, as well as strengthen relationships within and/or across teams.

Future Girl Geek X volunteer opportunities at CCPA, a public secondary school serving students grades 6–12 in East Oakland, include career panels in the fall and spring, teacher appreciation in the spring, and more!

Join the Girl Geek X mailing list to be first to hear about Girl Geek X events.

More pictures of Girl Geek X community volunteers in action:

Vaccinated Girl Geek X volunteers put up new bulletin boards in classrooms in August for back to school preparations at the guidance of CCPA teachers. (Photo credit: Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund)

From refreshing bulletin boards to hand-lettering signs for the classroom, Girl Geek X volunteers pitched in to lend a land to CCPA staff and teachers getting ready for school reopening. (Photo credit: Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund)

Girl Geek X volunteers before dividing up to help teachers in their classrooms get ready for back-to-school on Friday, August 6, 2021. (Photo credit: Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund)