This Week at Udacity, November 9 edition
In the US, the nation votes, and history is made.
As is the case every week at Udacity, many wonderful things have happened. Students have learned new skills, built remarkable projects, and achieved important milestones. Alumni have advanced their careers, earned promotions, gotten raises, and landed new jobs. Classrooms have opened, scholarships have been awarded, and credentials have been conferred.
Here in the US, something else important happened. We had an election.
It is no coincidence that our long-stated mission at Udacity is to democratize education. Education and politics are deeply intertwined, and in their ideal forms, each is a means to achieve a universal goal — equal opportunity for all, to become the best versions of ourselves that we can be.
In our 2018 midterm elections, history was made. A record number of women won seats in the House of Representatives. The first Native American women were elected to congress. The first Muslim women were elected to congress. For the first time ever, an openly gay man was elected as a state governor. Florida elected its first Iranian-American lawmaker. Massachusetts elected its first black congresswoman. New Mexico elected its first Latina governor.
Each of these stories represents a widening of opportunity, the opening of doors to people who were previously not included or represented. Regardless of political affiliations, we can all applaud inclusion of this kind, for democracy cannot function without it.
In a series of recents posts, we have been exploring ways that technology can help secure democracy:
We also wrote an article for TechCrunch …
… which begins with these words:
Elections are a symbol of hope and freedom, and the right to vote is an expression of belonging and of having a voice. We trust our electoral systems to preserve an immutable record of the voices we have raised, and the choices we have made. Yet the concept of “one person, one vote” is more than just a legal right enshrined in a system. Free and independent elections stand as recognition of our humanity.
This week, we experienced some of the ways elections can indeed stand as recognition of our humanity. Because while technology can help secure the vote, and education can empower us to act, it is our hearts that determine the heights our aspirations can scale to. This week, our hearts voted for inclusion.
And THAT … is This Week at Udacity.
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This post was written by Christopher Watkins, Senior Writer and Chief Words Officer, Udacity
