Elephant and All Star Code celebrate 10 years of empowering tech diversity

At Elephant, we don’t just talk about our values as a company, we infuse them in the work we create, the processes we follow and the partnerships we form. In 2020, we made a public diversity, equity and inclusion commitment to change, and from that moment forward we have sought ways to support underrepresented communities in our industry and the world at large. All Star Code, our partner for the past four years, is a non-profit organization that provides young men of color the skills they need for a professional future in technology. It is an organization that embodies everything Elephant stands for: ambition, creativity, inclusivity. We were initially excited about working with All Star Code because of their focus on the next generation. As we got to know the organization, its leaders and everyone within its ecosystem from scholars to parents to corporate sponsors, we quickly understood that their mission was even more inspiring than we’d initially realized—and that the brand had even more potential than we could have imagined. All Star Code encourages everyone they work with to push boundaries, and luckily for us, they were open to us reciprocating the push in our work together. Since our partnership began, we’ve helped redesign All Star Code’s brand, relaunch their website, commemorate their 10-year anniversary with an AI-powered film, and have even spoken as subject matter experts on designing products and brands to their scholars. I recently sat down with All Star Code Executive Director Danny Rojas and Senior Marketing and Communications Director Tony Stewart to talk about our working relationship, our Webby-honored work “The Next Ten Years in Tech” and the future for tech and young men of color. Can you explain the significance of All Star Code and why it’s so important to today’s industry? Danny Rojas (DR): Tech is the fastest-growing sector in the U.S., and it offers better opportunities, pay and resilience, especially during economic uncertainties. Yet, Black and Latino representation in the opportunity pipeline remains inadequate due to systemic barriers. From the educational, professional attainment and existing narratives, they come from a deficit perspective. That’s why All Star Code exists—for the past 10 years we have been building a culturally sustainable and responsible technology talent pipeline. The U.S. is known for innovation. It is also a patchwork of culture and a nation of immigrants—72% of our scholars are sons of immigrant parents. Having diverse teams and investing in a diverse composition is a competitive advantage. Since 2013, we have impacted more than 8,000 new learners and currently have over 325 scholars in the workforce. With over 60 scholar-led startups in that time, we are raising the flag for racial equity, both as an economic argument and for the economic mobility of our scholars. What drew you to partnering with Elephant? DR: Elephant did something bold in 2020. They made a concerted effort to say, look, we’re committed to equity here and the way to do that is by entrusting and working with a partner on the ground. This laid an important foundation for our relationship. Elephant is a small but mighty agency, and we were excited to work with such talented individuals. It was Elephant’s commitment to equity and our partnership that led to an opportunity to do better storytelling and refresh our brand. And it’s timely—as our students mature in their education to career journeys, our organization is evolving with them. We want to center them in our storytelling, support them with tech education and workforce readiness and celebrate their joy. Therefore we needed to make our unique brand more accessible, dynamic and relevant to youth culture, which is critically important. The partnership offered the opportunity for our scholars to work directly with the Elephant team, and one of our All Star Code students actually interned at Elephant and had a hand working on the website and brand refresh, which was incredible. He now works at Netflix! Most recently we worked together to create the Scholar Series, highlighting a recent All Star Code scholar, Quincy Box. What excited you about the AI-driven film, and how did it come to be? Tony Stewart (TS): We were looking to commemorate our 10 years as a nonprofit, and we, naturally, became laser-focused on the scholar. After back and forth on creative, we launched into an idea. All Star Code has a vision of the next 10 years of the organization, but what do our scholars envision? We were connected to Quincy Box because he is a serial entrepreneur and has a great story about the work he is trying to achieve in the tech industry. He has a gaming controller patented and started a hardware company to build it. Michael Ashton [a group creative director at Elephant] mentioned we should use artificial intelligence to bring Quincy’s story to life. The two of them spent three to four hours talking, and from there the voiceover script was developed and the entire vision of what Quincy wants to do with his company was on the screen. The film really captured the spirit of what All Star Code is trying to do with every scholar—that is to unlock the potential they have, especially with these tools. The creative vision from Elephant helped drive us toward one of the best pieces of content this organization will ever be able to create. It just hit home so well for me—the first time I saw it I had to hold back tears, it was amazing! Why did the Scholar Series feel right for All Star Code, and how do you see it expanding as a communication device in the future? TS: Technology has democratized reach. It’s available to everyone, and the fact we have a tech-for-social-good focus for our organization to be able to help promote this vision of technology as something that actually makes the world a better place is so often lost in conversations. What Michael and Quincy were able to do was to really take the spirit of what we’re doing outside the technical coding and skills we were teaching and bring to life a story that was unbelievably, beautifully visualized with AI tools. DR: It’s the access our students need to AI tools, and maybe in six months, AI will be a standard operating process, but the story stood alone so powerfully. What Quincy says in the film is all future facing: creating tools for people who look like me, creating concepts that are otherworldly almost. The prompt was incredible, yet inspiring because there are so many other stories to tell that are both hyper localized and national in nature. I’d also underscore one thing, which is the human element. We’re a learn-to-code organization that also teaches computer science and workforce development for the tech sector, but without a focus on human collaboration or human intention or values, it becomes a generic AI story. The human connection is extremely important. One immediate lesson is to teach all our students how to use AI responsibly and build a curriculum surrounding the topic so we can provide the support and toolkit for our students to become incredible AI content creators and storytellers. What are your hopes for the next 10 years of All Star Code? TS: I hope that one day you can throw a stick and hit a startup or tech company and find an All Star Code alum within a vibrant network and community. The idea of All Star Code was always about handing it off to the next generation of tech visionaries that we’ve helped cultivate over the years. We’re just laying the groundwork for what we hope is a transformative, dynamic shift in technology, which is inclusive by default. All Star Code is trying to be a guiding light for all the similar organizations out there, so they can see there is a significant human labor competency which gets lost when you’re only looking at the bottom line. We’re trying to put a human face more broadly on tech. DR: We have a vibrant scholar network across the U.S., and are building a brotherhood—we use this term explicitly. Based on the success of our students, it will be a new, national dialogue about young men of color, technology, excellence and opportunity. The fact that we are working with new generations every 10 years, this is now a legacy project. That’s the unlocking mechanism; when the community decides and says, “we got this from here.” That will be 20 years of All Star Code; 30, 40 years later, it will be systemic change. For those looking to get involved with All Star Code, what are the avenues? DR: There are many—the first one being to financially support the work, mission and journeys of our students. From $5 to $500, anything helps. We are a nonprofit organization committed to offering tech learning and workforce readiness opportunities to as many students across the nation as possible, and with that goal we need fiscal support. The second way would be helping us build bridges with decision makers in the tech sector. If you’re a CEO, CTO or CMO, we want to talk to you because we are looking for long term partnerships. We want to stay in the know with your company, your industry and any roles you are hiring for. We want to work in a meaningful way with industry partners who believe in our mission. Lastly, we are looking for individuals who are interested in sharing their knowledge and time. Being able to provide mentorship, training and guidance to mentees can make such a difference in someone’s life. TS: Amplification and awareness. If you want to bring someone into tech and share opportunities, do that with All Star Code. I don’t see our organization as a charity—it’s a bootstrapping mission. We are talking with the kids, honing their skills, and they are going out and doing it. We are building confidence, self-agency, community and competence through our programs. Whether you’re a CEO looking to diversify your workforce or a mentor eager to guide the next generation, there’s a place for you at All Star Code. Visit www.allstarcode.org/donation for more information. About Amp Amp is a platform that’s integrated with Ad Age and Ad Age Creativity, allowing you to leverage our editorial credibility while showcasing your expertise, accolades and campaigns. 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Elephant and All Star Code celebrate 10 years of empowering tech diversity

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