Education equity is an important issue for many San Francisco Bay Area residents during the pandemic. Girl Geek X’s new partnership with Oakland Public Education Fund in adopting CCPA (a secondary public school serving 600+ students grades 6-12 in East Oakland) provides valuable experiences for the Girl Geek X volunteers to engage with the local school community.
Preparing for back-to-school by supporting teachers in classrooms
Girl Geek X volunteers (masked and vaccinated) sanitized surfaces, refreshed bulletin boards, and lended a helping hand for teachers preparing for back-to-school on a sunny Friday afternoon. Volunteers got to meet like-minded people and felt positively about supporting the local schools and community.
“I recently moved to Oakland and want to be more involved with my community, especially helping students,” said Tricia Decker, a software engineer at Lyft. “As someone with a learning disability, I can understand how important it is to have an organized, comfortable learning environment. I was thrilled to work with a teacher settling into a new classroom by decluttering, cleaning, and decorating the space, giving students a fresh start this school year. I’m looking forward to future opportunities to volunteer via the Oakland Public Education Fund and make a positive impact on student success.”
Data expert Adelaide Chen connected with Hackbright alums Adamma Izuegbunam and Jessica McElroy about their careers while stapling new, colorful borders to freshly re-papered bulletin boards.
Adelaide Chen said, “I met amazing women who teach and run the school, on top of that, women software developers who were there to volunteer, that inspired me. It was an opportunity to give back to Oakland schools and Girl Geek X at the same time.”
Take an afternoon off to volunteer
Project manager Annie Chang took the afternoon off from her job at Color in Covid-19 operations to volunteer with Girl Geek X at CCPA, welcoming the break. The recent Covid-19 delta variant-fueled surge has quadrupled her workload in the last week. For balance, she practices and teaches yoga at Ohlone Park in Berkeley on Sundays.
Many tech companies are providing mental health days off and/or VTO (volunteer time off) to encourage employees to rest and recharge.
If your company would like to Adopt an Oakland school, please do encourage them to participate – it’s a great opportunity to gain leadership experience and visibility in the organization, as well as strengthen relationships within and/or across teams.
Volunteering with Girl Geek X ’21-’22 school year at CCPA
Future Girl Geek X volunteer opportunities at CCPA, a public secondary school serving students grades 6-12 in East Oakland, include career panels in the fall and spring, teacher appreciation in the spring, and more. Join the Girl Geek X mailing list to be first to hear about Girl Geek X events!
Vaccinated Girl Geek X volunteers put up new bulletin boards in classrooms in August for back to school preparations at the guidance of CCPA teachers. Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund
Girl Geek X volunteers Adelaide Chen and Adamma Izuegbunam refreshing bulletin boards in the hallways of CCPA in East Oakland. Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund
From refreshing bulletin boards to hand-lettering signs for the classroom, Girl Geek X community volunteers pitched in to lend a land to CCPA staff and teachers getting ready for school reopening. Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund
Here’s a group picture of the Girl Geek X volunteers before we split up to help teachers in their classrooms get ready for back-to-school on Friday, August 6, 2021. Andie Zhang / Oakland Public Education Fund
