Coinbase’s Culture of Community Involvement
Co-Authored by Aurora Harshner, Recruiting Manager and Maïa C. Carpenter, Chief of Staff
We often read about the growing friction between technology companies and the local San Francisco communities. While this continues to be a complicated issue, there are ways that local technology companies can improve this relationship and contribute meaningfully. The technology industry in Silicon Valley attracts some of the brightest minds from around the world. These people measure their success not solely by their professional accomplishments, but also by their ability to contribute with a positive impact on the community. This is a growing concern in the SF Bay Area and more and more tech companies are taking initiative to participate.
Two years ago the SF Education Fund and SF Citi collaborated to launch the “Circle the Schools” program which partners technology companies with local schools. Coinbase and Lowell High School launched their partnership in the Fall of 2015. Since the first meeting with Principal Ishibashi, the partnership has been geared toward supporting career and college readiness with a focus on working with underserved populations and encouraging girls’ interest in technology.
Highlights of Coinbase’s partnership with Lowell High School
The Personal Statement Workshop
For some of Lowell High School’s Latino students, graduating from college would make them the first in their families to get a post-secondary education. Keeping that in mind, in the fall of 2015, Coinbase employees teamed up with the school and worked with seniors in the Latino Equality and Achievement Project (LEAP) to help them complete their personal statements for college applications. These essays are often game-changers for a student’s application. Along with working with Coinbase employees at their school, LEAP students visited Coinbase’s headquarters in downtown San Francisco. Students attended a career panel with Coinbase employees, they received one-on-one mentoring on their personal statements and attended a networking lunch where they had a chance to talk with employees and meet the CEO, Brian Armstrong.
“By coming to our school to conduct a Personal Statement Workshop, Coinbase employee volunteers motivated some of the more reluctant students to begin working on statements. All of the students with whom they worked applied to one or more colleges. Students need to see young adults whom they can relate to working in successful job positions, because that opens possibilities for them.” — Claudia Anderson, LEAP Coordinator.
Girls Who Code
It’s no secret that there is a shortage of women in the technology industry and this is acutely felt within the growing number of engineering-led organizations. One of the ways to address this issue is to increase the percentage of women choosing to enter the field of Computer Science in college. Coinbase teamed up with the Lowell High School Computer Science teacher and the Girls Who Code Club leader to introduce the girls in these classes to real-world engineers. The students attended breakout groups led by our engineers to better understand career paths into engineering roles. The students also attended an onsite application building workshop with our engineers where they had the opportunity to participate in pair programming.
“I really loved the Girls Who Code field trip to Coinbase.”
“I enjoyed the one-on-one learning with real engineers. I learned so many little skills that I could not have read in a book, like inspecting the elements of the webpage I am working on to easily tinker with it. I also didn’t realize how helpful the built-in console is when debugging in Chrome, and it has saved me so much time. My favorite part was talking to real developers and getting a glimpse into their jobs.”— Lowell High School Girls Who Code student
If you are interested in having your company participate in “Circle the Schools”, you can contact them here.
Would you like to learn more about careers at Coinbase? Check out our current openings here.
