We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Santana. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.
Hi Jessica, so great to have you on the platform. There’s so much we want to ask you, but let’s start with the topic of self-care. Do you do anything for self-care and if so, do you think it’s had a meaningful impact on your effectiveness?
Justice work is all-encompassing. Every project you work on feels urgent, every young person’s life you touch feels crucial and the emotional labor required every day to fight against systems of oppression that further white supremacy and anti-abolitionist practices is exhausting. In the last seven years working on AOT, I have realized that I am not good to anyone without caring for myself.
My favorite quote from Audre Lorde says, “Caring for myself is not an act of self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
Self-care for me looks like prioritizing my joy, leaning on mentors and other peers, and being actively enrolled in therapy. I journal every morning and I hold myself accountable to my unlearning process and give myself grace to understand that I am not perfect and that undoing centuries-old systems of oppression is not an easy feat.
Self-care also looks like ensuring that those around me understand my boundaries and can articulate them. It means advocating for myself when no one else around me is protecting me. As a leader of color, I feel like I’ve been fighting for our young people at AOT and at the same time fighting for myself, my family, and my friends. This work comes at a double emotional expense for us, as we re-trigger our traumas in the pursuit of liberation for those that look like us, that share our lived experiences.
Self-care for me is always evolving, but we owe it to ourselves, our ancestors, elders, and loved ones to ensure that we show up the best versions of ourselves every day.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
In the United States, poverty, race, and education are inextricably linked. Black and Latinx students are more often socioeconomically disadvantaged and attend schools with fewer resources, fewer credentialed teachers, and limited access to extracurricular activities and experiences, particularly in STEM, that significantly impact their educational experiences and career trajectories.
These disparities are particularly evident in the tech sector, where Black and Latinx individuals combined only make up about 15% of the workforce despite being over 30% of the population. In a country as racially diverse as ours, we need our innovation sector to be representative of people of color, especially Black and Latinx people. The problem here is not due to a lack of talent, but rather a lack of equitable and accessible career pathways.
In 2014, my co-founder Evin Robinson and I sought to address these issues with the formation of America On Tech (AOT), a national non-profit organization that provides free tech education and culturally relevant workforce development training to underestimated students of color between the ages of 16- 24. Evin and I were inspired to found AOT by our own experiences as young technology professionals of color where we personally witnessed the distinct lack of diversity within the field. Recognizing the transformative potential that these high wage and high demand careers could provide, we set out to make this change starting with our hometown neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
In the 8+ years since this day, our organization has grown tremendously and AOT now serves 16-24 year olds in all of New York City’s five boroughs, Los Angeles County, and the greater Miami community. To date, AOT has provided technology education and culturally relevant professional development skills to over 4,500 high school students of color and continues to ramp up its impact every year.
The most fulfilling part of the work I do with America On Tech is when one of our young people highlights a job or internship they received through our network and the support we provide them. They are the brightest spots for me because it signals that young people are fulfilling their full purpose, promise, and potential in our programs.
Most recently an alum received a job to work for one of the world’s largest technology companies making a total compensation package of $190K. This student is only 21 years old and they are living proof of the wildest dreams I have for our young people and our communities. These are the moments I need to keep going.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Work/Life Balance: Make sure to have a healthy balance of work, rest and fun. Know what your boundaries are and don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself when you are feeling overwhelmed. You are your own best advocate.
2. Communication: Developing strong communication skills is very important in work and in life. Healthy communication leads to optimal opportunities for aligning on similarities and differences. I have always been told that the key to any successful relationship and interaction is based on your ability to communicate effectively.
3. Authenticity: Be unapologetic about who you are and what you stand for. You have one life. You should live it out in your most authentic ways. People can tell when you’re faking it 🙂
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My co-founder, Evin Robinson, has been the biggest influence on my involvement in this work up until this point. In the early stages of AOT, it could have been easy to give up. We received a lot of rejections, it was difficult to raise money (still is lol), people did not believe in our work or that our young people could actually get careers in tech coming from the communities we were serving. Without his support and our partnership to lean on, I am not sure that I could have kept the emotional resiliency required to keep going. I am appreciative to have someone just as committed to the work to check in on me during the most challenging times and reaffirm that we matter and that our young people matter and deserve the absolute best.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.americaontech.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americaontech/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americaontech/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/america-on-tech/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/americaontech
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@americaontech
