Thursday, November 14, 2019 | Everett Middle School at New Relic | by Demetric Strong, IGNITE Advisor
On November 14th we took 15 girls from Everett Middle School downtown to meet staff from New Relic.
Once in the building, we headed up on the elevators to meet with the New Relic guides. The staff greeted the girls and provided name tags. During the sign-in the process they offered everyone breakfast and snacks to get started. Girls who’ve toured at other facilities really appreciated the variety of items available.
After getting everyone settled in, we headed into the main conference room where the group was introduced to a variety of New Relic staff members and their roles at the company. Soon after, we broke into smaller groups and moved to a smaller meeting room. The New Relic sales staff asked the girls their names, future career goals, and recreational interest. He then went on to explain more about his role in sales and how he meets with different people around the world. The girls got to see how a program called blue jeans works when setting up conference calls. He went on to mention if you have a family in the bay area, you can still do the job without leaving.
After the quick meet and greet we gathered back up and went to another conference room to participate in the activity. They learned how important building the software is to track information for stores during their busiest time of the year. Girls were asked to create a robot program that detected any troubleshoot issues happening on a website. Everyone received their own computer to work on and searched websites they found interesting. The staff at New Relic helped guide the girls through the activity and gave provided assistance in English and Spanish.
Following the activity, the girls were provided lunch in the main dining area with the rest of the employees from New Relic. Following lunch, the girls listened to a panel from women in different positions at New Relic providing more insight into what they can do in the field. The girls were able to ask the panelists questions about what steps they took to be in the position now. Overall our experience with New Relic really sparked an interest in our girls of color. Seeing and hearing from people in the field that they want them to be in the same position really excited our students.
We want to give a big thanks to the staff from New Relic for inspiring our girls to make a change!
