Code2040 Launches a Community Spotlight and Commits to Relationship Building in 2024

In 2024, Code2040 is committing deeply to relationship building — because relationships are at the heart of the work that we do for racial equity. We are committing to being in touch more, inviting folks in the Code2040 community into conversation with us, and creating more opportunities for us to be in joy and dreaming together. Because we want to be more connected with our amazing network of Black and Latinx technologists, we’re launching a new monthly Community Spotlight starting this month as part of a celebration of Black History. Each month, we’re dedicating time to connect with our Fellows and Alumni, listening to their stories and dreaming technological futures of more livable, more free worlds together.

Code2040 is part of a vibrant community of Black and Latinx technologists who are actively shaping the future. In the spirit of Black History Month, we extended our first invitation to participate in our Community Spotlight to our Black Alumni and Fellows, and first we are featuring, Nyaradzo Valery Mararanje, a current Fellow.

Here’s a teaser of our spotlight on Nyaradzo Valery: Nyaradzo is a vibrant, joyful Computer Science major at the University of Rochester. She loves dance, comedy, and creating community. She dreams of a world characterized by abundant happiness and mutual care, and is excited about the magic in coding and the possibilities for AI.

For the whole spotlight, check out our socials!

Our Fellows have inspired me since I started at Code2040 in 2015, and every year, I learn more from Fellows about how I want to show up in community and about what racial equity work looks like. With the year ahead of us, connecting with our Fellows and staying connected with our Alumni is crucial in building our collective capacity for creating change.

It’s an election year, and we can expect issues impacting racial equity to be front and center. We are facing a recession, and the backlash against racial justice is gaining momentum and legal traction. Already this year, over 30 pieces of legislation have been introduced across the country that would impact DEIB programs from universities and public institutions. Simultaneously, the tech industry continues to divest from racial equity. The backlash against racial equity at the collegiate level will undoubtedly negatively impact the diversity of our workforce. With the innovation economy shaping our world, we need to be supporting our Black and Latinx Computer Science majors and early career professionals more than ever.

Supporting our Black and Latinx college students and early tech career professionals is about offering them connection, celebrating the work they do, the people they are, and nurturing their creativity and imaginations. It’s listening to them tell their stories, sharing resources and networks, and showing up to be in community with them.

I approach racial equity work with a commitment to Black Liberation. I know that white supremacy and racism try to tell us that there is only scarcity and never enough; that there is not room for our joy, our love, our imaginations and creativity. What I know deeply is that our collaboration, connection, and collectivity is an antidote, a loving balm that brings us closer to the world we all deserve — one that holds us all in expansive space for rest, joy, and to truly thrive. Racial equity work is about creating space for joy, for rest, and re-imagining systems and structures so that Black and Latinx folks can thrive.

Working for racial equity is a commitment to living otherwise, and to showing up each day to build with people who are committed to creating technologies for more possibility, more livable worlds. As we work and dream toward a world of abundance, where everyone has enough, where imaginations thrive and rest is deeply valued; we also need space and time to be in connection with each other. Our Community Spotlight is one way we are creating space for our community.