Championing Young Women in Tech MAPE represented MNIT Staff at Technovation[MN]’s Appapalooza

“In 2018, I was asked to help a team of young ladies and their mentor with locating some state data regarding trade schools and apprentice programs throughout the state. It turns out, they were building a mobile app that would make this data available right at your fingertips. I put them in touch with DEED [Department of Employment and Economic Development] and Office of Higher Education to assist with locating the public data, and I quickly realized they were part of Technovation. I thought this was incredible. I found out that year that they were short on judges for this event and decided to sign up. I also thought it would be great to have support from Minnesota IT Services, which is always looking for new partnerships, especially in the IT workforce. 

The experience was so rewarding that this year, not only did I sign up – but I was even more deliberate about recruiting additional IT professionals within MNIT to participate. I think about how these young coders are solving community problems, connecting people with services, building new services, changing business models to service individuals and communities, and I am inspired. They are on our heels, and I’m excited to make room for them in this world of technology.” 

- Ellena Schoop, Enterprise Data Architect, Minnesota IT Services, Region 7 representative on MAPE’s Board of Directors

Read the full article: https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-384684