Develop for Good - December 2023
Winter update
Hello friends! ☃️
It's the most wonderful time of the year: our Winter update! Can you believe we’re nearing the end of 2023 already? Continue reading to learn more about what we’ve been up to during this season of snow ❄️
Win24 project batch kicks off 🚀
After screening 1500+ applications, we matched our admitted students and mentors with nonprofit tech projects, and launched our Win24 project batch on Oct 30, 2023. We’ll be closely engaging the following students, mentors, and nonprofits until Feb 24, 2024.
Students
We’ve engaged 300 college students and recent grads this project batch. We’re proud to be working with such a diverse, high-caliber group. The following universities are the most highly represented in our admitted student volunteer pool:
And the following stats highlight this student cohort as one of our most diverse yet:
Mentors
This winter, we've engaged 39 industry professionals as Team Mentors or 1:1 Mentors with our college students. The following companies are just some of the firms represented in our impressive accepted mentor pool:
64% of mentors have engineering expertise, 53% have design expertise, and 31% are first-time mentors (ever)!
Nonprofits
Our students and mentors will be working on 31 tech projects for the incredible nonprofits featured below. From education nonprofits like Code.org, which is giving every student in every school the opportunity to learn computer science, to health nonprofits like Roc Solid Foundation, a pediatric cancer foundation that builds hope for families fighting cancer, our superstar group of nonprofit partners span multiple impact areas as they use technology to solve our world’s biggest problems.
Thank you to everyone who submitted an application or project proposal. Stay tuned for further updates regarding what our students and mentors are building for nonprofits this project batch!
Nonprofit tech project highlights 🌟
Jumpstart Refugee Talent: Developing an online marketplace for a refugee-owned businesses
Jumpstart Refugee Talent is a refugee-led nonprofit founded in 2016 to help Canadian refugees land employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. Their original website was manually managed to update inventory and sales information. The Develop for Good student team redesigned their website with a Shopify integration to make browsing, shopping, and buying products easier. Read the project case study here.
The Team
Product Manager: Megan Mou (Stanford ‘25)
Engineer Manager: Karuna Adhikari (UToronto ‘26)
Engineers: Ralph Rouhana (UWaterloo ‘24), Joey Orofino (Georgia Tech ‘24), Michelle Bravo (CUNY Hunter ‘24), Ruobing Chen (Carnegie Mellon ‘24), and Sravya Nagalakunta (Purdue ‘26)
Designers: Lily Yang (UC Berkeley ‘26) and Ye Ju Kim (University of Washington ‘22)
The Boys & Girls Clubs of North San Mateo County: Designing a user-friendly website for a community-focused nonprofit
The Boys & Girls Clubs of North San Mateo County is a nonprofit that partners with schools to provide local youth opportunities to contribute to their communities. The Develop for Good team redesigned their website to highlight available youth programs, donation opportunities, and other elements to make their website up-to-date and user-friendly. Read the project case study here.
The Team
Product Manager: Daberechi Okorie (Anchor ‘23)
Design Manager: Alice Meng (Northwestern ‘25)
Designers: Kelsey Cheung (UToronto ‘25), Kim Nguyen (Georgia ‘24), Jessica Sotelo (UC Irvine ‘25), Aesha Patel (Massachusetts ‘24), and Dheeraj Purohit (UMumbai ‘21)
Volunteer spotlights: “Why Develop for Good?” 💡
When asked this question, our newly onboarded Win24 Develop for Good students and mentors had a variety of reasons to share.
Nia Anderson, a junior at Pomona College, is a Student Engineer serving Centro Community Partners. This winter, Nia is leveraging AI to provide comprehensive support to low-income women and entrepreneurs of color from underserved communities throughout their entrepreneurial journey.
“I firmly believe in the power of both small, everyday acts of kindness and larger, ambitious endeavors. Armed with technical skills and an awareness of technology's global impact, I aspire to be a software engineer that ensures the transformative benefits of technology reach our most pressing societal challenges.” —Nia A.
Yichen Jiang is a Software Development Engineer II at Amazon Robotics. He’s currently serving as a Team Mentor to college students developing a mobile app to further Readeezy Literacy’s mission to improve reading comprehension for struggling/disabled teen and young adult readers.
“I'm excited about the impact that the project will have. It means a lot to me to be able to use my knowledge to develop skills in aspiring engineers and work on a project with broader social benefits.” — Yichen J.
Thank you Okta 🙏
Our partnership with Okta has been one of our greatest blessings! Oktane, Okta’s annual conference, was held at the San Francisco Moscone Center on Oct 3 -5, 2023. Proceeds from the Okta merch and points scored at a 'Skee-ball for Good' station were translated into $27,100 of donations to Develop for Good. Founder Mary Zhu presented in a session to galvanize Okta employees and customers to invest their skills and resources in a more digitally equitable future.
Tremendous thank you to Okta Senior Impact Manager Victor Cordon for spearheading this creative and fun engagement. We're excited to continue working with Okta for Good to "build a safely connected world where everyone can belong and thrive" together.
2023 End-of-Year Giving 💜
Every dollar you contribute will be dedicated to continuously improving the experience for our tech students, nonprofit partners, and industry mentors in 2024 and beyond. Here’s how to give to Develop for Good:
💻 Online: Donate on our Zeffy Giving Page
💸 To wire cash: Digital Federal Credit Union
865 Donald Lynch Blvd., Marlborough, MA 01752
Routing #: 211391825
Account #: 45070042
✉️ To send a check, mail to: 584 Castro St #3117, San Francisco, CA 94114
❣️ To give via a donor-advised fund: our EIN is 85-1596146
🔔 Check if your employer will match your donation! Companies like Okta, BlackRock, Bloomberg, Google, ServiceNow, Fidelity, and Adobe will double your impact.
Contact giving@developforgood.org if you have any questions. Thank you for your generosity this season!
So cool Mary + team ❤️
Thanks you for responding. And good for them!