Dropbox’s education partner program enables employees to give back to the community. Mariama, Armando, and Karalyn share how
As a tech company, we care a lot about preparing the next generation of brilliant minds for the future. Through our education partners, The San Francisco Education Fund and Oakland Public Education Fund, our San Francisco office has teamed up with three Bay Area public schools to give their students a peek into our world at Dropbox, and how they can be a part of it someday. Mariama Eghan, Armando Armas, and Karalyn Baca are three Dropboxers who’ve found participating in the program a rewarding experience.
As a member of the BlackDropboxers leadership team, Mariama organizes many of the happenings that take place in partnership with Skyline High School in Oakland, while other Dropboxers coordinate events with Mission High School and Bret Harte Elementary in San Francisco. These can range from the students coming to take a tour of the Dropbox office and learn from a panel of employees, to team members reading at Bret Harte Elementary in honor of Black History month, to Dropboxers supporting teachers with resources and volunteer hours. As an employment brand specialist, one of Mariama’s main goals in talking to students is to make sure they know that there’s a need for every type of skill set at Dropbox, not just technical.
“We really try and drive home the point that you don’t have to be technical to be in tech. That’s been one of my platforms for a while. Most of the volunteering I’ve done in the last 5 years has been educating students or just people in general that you don’t have to be an engineer or a coder. We have people with so many different skill sets at tech companies! ”
This is a misconception that Armando is also very familiar with. He’s a video production engineer at Dropbox, and as part of his involvement with the education partners program, has had the opportunity to show high school media classes around his team’s editing spaces and filming equipment. It’s given him the opportunity to reflect on his journey to Dropbox, and the mentors he had along the way.
“It kind of reminds me where I started from,” Armando said. “My intro into the video and media field was when I took a media class in high school. Seeing everything come full circle and being in the driver’s seat to introduce those students to where you can go with this career path is pretty awesome. One of the main things that I try to get across is to build a network as early as you can. You never know who’s gonna reach out to you or who you might need to reach out to for a new career path. If it wasn’t for my network of alumni, I wouldn’t be working here today.”
Karalyn, a program manager at Dropbox, is passionate about helping students understand the importance of networking as early as possible. Like Armando, she came to Dropbox after a referral by an acquaintance. She hopes she can someday be that referral for someone else.
“In the career panel, we try to emphasize that there’s no one set path to get to Dropbox. Everyone has a different way they got here. But we definitely try to emphasize that networking is always really helpful during your professional career, because it always helps to have someone on the inside who can be your advocate for the role you’re applying to. We always offer to connect with the students on LinkedIn so we can be that connection for them, too.”
At the end of the day, Mariama, Armando, and Karalyn all find that their volunteer efforts aren’t just helpful for the students. Giving back to the community is an opportunity for employees to learn and grow as well.
Mariama said, “I do believe everyone can work in tech, so I think while we know that we’re in a privileged place, we need to take a moment to step outside of the bubble and give back. We can share what we know and let other people know they can do it too. We can even just do it for ourselves! Because it feels good to help, to give back, to take that day and spend it with someone else instead of hugging your laptop all day.”
Can you see yourself joining our team in giving back to the community? Check out open positions on our job page.
