Chime in the community: Our partnership with Justice Through Code
“It’s really hard being a convicted felon trying to get a job,” says Jermaine, a software engineer and graduate of Justice Through Code (JTC), a free, full-stack web development intensive designed to help individuals who have been formerly incarcerated grow and develop into the technology leaders of tomorrow. “I went through JTC because it’s a program that puts you in front of employers and people who care about justice-impacted people,” Jermaine adds.
The program, which is offered by Columbia University’s Center for Justice and the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School, provides technical training to participants and equips them with soft skills to apply and interview for jobs, internships, and other future training and work opportunities.
And that training is necessary: with over 2.3M people currently incarcerated in the U.S. and those previously incarcerated facing a 5x higher unemployment rate than the general population, the work JTC does is truly important to improving the lives of many (JTC). Mass incarceration is a huge issue in this country. It creates a cycle of poverty because of barriers to employment after — which not only impact the individual but their families, too.
Tarun Gulati, a software engineer at Chime, got involved with JTC after he saw an internal Slack post about it. “I decided to be a mentor because I wanted to help serve JTC’s mission, to give justice-impacted people another chance at their working lives — I saw a lot of alignment between JTC’s mission and Chime’s,” he says. “I was hesitant at first because I don’t know much about what it’s like to be justice-impacted, but at the end of the day, I showed up to teach, and Jermaine, my mentee, showed up to learn — there was nothing for me to worry about.”
Several other Chimer software engineers were involved with the program, including Devadas Mallya, Kristine Saryan, and Yijie Li.
Here’s a look at why Chimers volunteered for the program, what they took away from their experience, Jermaine’s journey at JTC, and what’s next for his career.
Why we got involved
Upskilling and workforce development programs are key pathways to financial health and generational wealth-building. At Chime, we recognize that there are even more systemic barriers to employment for individuals who have been impacted by the justice system, and as a tech company, we want to support the development of tech talent where it is needed most. While Chime’s JTC mentors all had their own reasons for wanting to volunteer with the organization, one thing they had in common was a desire to help an underserved community.
“In a way, I feel like JTC has a similar mission to Chime — it’s helping people the system has put at a disadvantage,” says Devadas. “Through my experience volunteering, I learned how hard it is for justice-impacted people to get back on their feet after being in the justice system. It felt really rewarding to give back to their community.”
For Yijie, the opportunity to become a JTC mentor reminded her of her own journey into software engineering. “I didn’t major in computer science, but made the switch when I got to graduate school,” she explains. “It was challenging to make the leap at that time, and I felt I could use my experience to help and motivate JTC participants; I hoped I could give them confidence by sharing my experience.”
And Kristine, whose first career was as a teacher and who later attended a coding bootcamp, enjoyed the chance to teach again. “My own bootcamp experience was a great one, and volunteering was, for me, an opportunity to do good in a tangible way,” she says. “I love seeing people learn, and to be their teacher is even more rewarding.”
Volunteering with JTC
During the program, Chimers were paired with a mentee for 3 months and met with them in group and one-on-one settings weekly to help them with both technical and soft skills.
Yijie helped her mentee with project feedback and guidance based on her interests. For example, her mentee wanted to do backend software development, so Yijie provided suggestions for optimizing structure and making solutions more flexible, as well as an introduction to databases and database migrations. “I also helped her consider the implications of her backend work on the frontend,” she explains. Following the course, Yijie’s mentee became a TA for the next cohort of JTC participants. “I’m so proud of her for stretching and applying for the TA role,” Yijie says.
Chimer mentors also helped their mentees with job application preparation, such as resume writing and interview skills development. “I helped my mentee talk through technical problems that might be asked in interviews and encouraged him to analyze his own code,” says Devadas. “He was also curious about the day-to-day of working in the tech industry, so we talked about that.”
Walking away enriched
“I felt so humbled by my JTC experience,” says Tarun. “It really made me realize what’s important and what’s not. And, at the end of the day, watching my mentee and others learn and grow was a huge gift.”
Several mentors learned a ton from their mentees during the experience. For Devadas, his main takeaway was understanding how to teach different audiences with varying skill sets and levels. “I loved hearing their questions, and talking through them helped me improve my understanding of concepts and my presentation skills,” he says. “Not only did I help my mentee improve his soft skills, but I also improved my own, too.”
For Kristine, the fortitude her mentee showed stuck with her: “She was working full time as a chef while going through the program, and she faced a natural disaster and was forced to evacuate,” she explains. “Through it all, she kept coming to class prepared; I was endlessly impressed by her work ethic and dedication. She made me realize how much we can do as humans and how rarely we tell each other how impressed we are. Although it took me a while to realize I should tell her that, by the end of the program, I kept repeating to her how impressive she is!”
Jermaine’s JTC journey
When he entered JTC, Jermaine hoped to get a grasp of Python and Django as well as shore up the soft skills necessary for getting a job. “Starting JTC, I was excited about the skills I’d learn, but also about the employment opportunities that would be available to me after the program,” he says. “Through a partnership with over a dozen tech companies, the program provides exposure to jobs and helps companies remove their biases about justice-impacted people.”
One of the biggest takeaways Jermaine walked away with is a firm grasp on how software engineering environments function and what he needs to do as an aspiring software engineer to take his career to the next level. “Before the program, I lacked structure and insights into what working in tech is really like,” he says. “Tarun gave me some great tips for navigating the job hunting process and working in a software engineering job.” Jermaine also worked on his public speaking skills (and he’s the first to admit he wants to improve even more).
After his initial JTC bootcamp, Jermaine secured a role as an e-commerce specialist at global shipping company, DHL. At the same time, he’s pursuing additional courses to learn about IT support so he can have a basic understanding of networking, hardware, and software. After his IT support course, Jermaine plans to continue building the skills and experience he needs to pursue a career in tech, then applying for new roles both within and outside of his current organization.
Jermaine’s initial interest in becoming a software engineer started with his innate curiosity, but in an unexpected industry: landscaping. He and his brother owned a landscaping company, and Jermaine wanted to understand how to promote and advertise for the company at a low cost. “So I began running our social media optimization, analytics reporting, and search engine optimization — and then expanded and started doing the same for clients,” he says. And when those clients started to ask him to build them better websites, he wanted an understanding of how to do that — and that’s one of the reasons he applied to JTC. For now, Jermaine’s plan is to continue working at DHL, advancing within the organization and further building his software engineering skill set. There’s no telling where his journey will take him. He and Tarun stay in touch over Slack and the occasional Zoom call.
“I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes in this next chapter as a software engineer.”
To Jermaine and all JTC graduates, Chime wishes you all the best in your job search and future development!
If you’d like to get involved with JTC or learn more about its initiatives, check out the following links:
