Episode 7: Meka Egwuekwe - Giving ...and Forgiving

In this episode I caught up with Meka Egwuekwe in Memphis, where his simple dedication to fatherhood led to a shift in his career that, over the years, has expanded to impact every family in the state of Tennessee, but not before a significant shift in his understanding of his own family.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Andover Alumni Now, the class of 1991. I'm your classmate and host, Mike Miners. In this episode, I caught up with Meka Ikwekwe in Memphis, where his simple dedication to fatherhood led to a shift in his career that over the years has expanded to impact every family in the state of Tennessee. But not before a significant shift in his understanding of his own family.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

And uh I didn't realize you were in Chicago because my father lives in Chicago. Um when we were in Andover, I didn't know my father. Wow. Finished graduate school. I uh literally I finished my master's on uh 20th of December in 1996. And on the 31st of December, I was talking to my father for the first time in my life. Um and and then by February I met him at Midway Airport in Chicago. Right. So now he and I have a great relationship, and and I'm um I'm up there uh once or twice a year to you know say hello to him and and the five sisters that I discovered I had. And so um goodness. Yeah, you you you met my brother Chi, who's a year behind us in over. But um but yeah, uh I've got five sisters in addition to Chi.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

So So how did that come together? You didn't know your father, and then all of a sudden he's in your life. What brought you into his life and him into yours?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, so um like any boy, you know, you if you don't have your father in your life, you're curious about your father. And so I was particularly curious because he and I have the same name, right? I'm a junior. Oh, and so just coming up, I I was always just curious and interested in knowing him. And then as I got a little older, I started to get resentful and even angry to some degree. And uh when I was in graduate school, a friend of mine from Memphis was looking for me on the internet. And this was in '95. He found me, he found Chi, and then he found some guy named Sonny. Well, my mother told had told me that my father went by the nickname Sonny. So I said, Well, show me how you did that. And so I I printed a couple of copies, you know, one for me and one for Chi. And I gave it to Chi to say, look, you know, I'm I'm working on this master's right now. When I finish this master's, let's just go up there and knock on the door and punch this guy in the face. That was the that was the plan, right? And so Chi got married in November of '96. In December of 96, his wife was was cleaning up their place on the paper that I share with him and said, they're not gonna go up there and punch this guy in the face. I'm just gonna call the phone number and see. And so she she called, and and one of my sisters answered the phone. And that's kind of how that started. My new sister-in-law, taking it upon herself to inject herself, if you will, uh into my life in this way. But she talked to my sister and and then she called me and told me what she had done.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Wow. How did you guys process that? How did it feel that she did that?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Admittedly, I was not thrilled because my he hadn't married her. I I didn't marry her, right? So why why did she go and do that? Right. But uh at the same time, you know, um, I got over that quickly because got sisters, yeah, you know, and I then my whole perspective changed. Like, well, I want to get to know these girls. There's no way I can do that if I go and punch their father in the face. And so I spent I learned the art of calming down and I learned the I learned the word forgiveness. Especially, especially in speaking with my father. She and I and my father, we we sat down together and just kind of had a heart-to-heart, and then listening to him share his perspective. And you know, it became immediately clear after I had already spoken with my mother over my lifetime, and then speaking with him finally. And these were two people that just weren't weren't meant to be weren't meant to stay married. And so I I learned the word forgiveness.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

What was that first meeting like? So you went with Qi to meet him? The two of you went together?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah. So I had just moved back to Atlanta and uh got a plane ticket up to Midway, and then Chi was living in Dayton, Ohio, so he drove up to Chicago, and we all converged on Midway Airport. And then uh met my father there. He gave uh Chi and I the biggest hugs in the world. And then uh and then he took us to his house and I met his wife and his like three of the five girls. And then and then later on that night, um, well, at his house, he took us upstairs in his home, and then we we s we sat and talked and just, you know, we had questions for him, he had questions for us, and you know, we talked for some hours. And um, and like I said, in in the end, it's uh learning the word forgiveness. And I I can't speak for Qi either. I mean, his his experience uh growing up and my experience were weren't identical, right? You know, we were 11 months apart. We grew up like twins almost. You know, me being the oldest male and having his name, I kind of had I just had a different mindset than maybe he did. And I'll invite Chi to speak for himself. But um and again, to answer your question about what was that conversation like with my father, it was just it was just uh man to man to man. Uh, you know, I was 23, Q was 22. Um, and um, and you know, a father I would have made him 50, I guess. Uh no, no, uh 60. No, 50, 50, yeah. So uh good Lord. Wow, now I'm past that age. So it was it's a wonderful feeling so many open questions in your life suddenly get resolved.

unknown 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

It's not that I had all the answers to everything, but for me it was cathartic in that way uh to as the next stage of my own pathway to manhood.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

So you said you learned something about forgiveness. Can you put in words what you learned about forgiveness?

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, others have already understood this. It was me maturing into understanding what forgiveness means, right? And in the sense that I understood from that moment that forgiveness is more for me than it is for the one I'm forgiving, right? And so the anger that I had up until that time uh that was sort of eating at me melted and folded away. And and I felt better when I when I forgave. And so, so there's there's a there's a uh I won't say egotism to it, but uh there's a subtle selfishness to it, right? That I gain more in forgiveness. And I've you know, I've had to learn the word forgiveness on on a handful of uh occasions. Uh, you know, I've had my run-ins with some people in life. Uh um when my oldest when my youngest one was born, I got pulled over by the cops, for example, and that guy treated us badly uh as I was trying to get my wife to the hospital, and and I had to learn the word forgiveness in his case. Right. Uh so those, you know, so that I I get reminded of those lessons from time to time.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

And uh, but it it is uh it is so important. So so forgiveness is something I I repeat to others uh to to to see that same value that I learned uh by touching the stove to see that it was hot in a sense.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

I think everyone could probably resonate with this. I mean, we all go through situations where we're failed by somebody in some way. Yeah. Everybody to some degree experiences that, I would think. Yeah. And I'm connecting with it because I grew up in a household with a mother with severe mental illness, bipolar disorder, and that comes out with a lot of you know, where she would have done a lot of things that are hard to process, hard to receive, um that it made me angry and that I over time came to the same kind of conclusion. It's like I can walk around with this burden of processing things as having been uh victimized by the things that she did, or I can see the humanity behind the person who was so this is you know, just for me, so caught up in a mental storm that she couldn't navigate it uh any better than she did. And that everything she did, this is the way I process it today, everything she did was the best she could do to be a good mom. And that best is different for everybody depending on what they're carrying and what their capacity is. And looking at my mother that way, being confronted with a mother that was that complicated to experience. I'm really today really grateful for having had a mother like her.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And it sounds like your mother's no longer living.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

She is she is living, but she has severe dementia at this point. So she's you know, I speak in the past tense just because the mother that I knew is not the one I see that I see these days, you know. So there's not a whole lot there to relate to other than to just be with and you know, hold hold her hand and uh be present with her, which is which is a wonderful experience now, especially having processed everything, having gone through the forgiveness and just being able to sit with my mother and just be in love with her. Um like you say, a gift to me.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

I experience a better mother because of my own forgiveness.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, you know, and and it's it's also just enlightening or humbling to some degree about recognizing that we're all just a bunch of human beings.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Including our parents.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Yes, including me.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Like including ourselves, exactly.

unknown 10:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

But to notice how I have failed my children, you know, and exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

And it's funny how it comes full circle like that. And and and you know, and we're also uh it's an interesting reminder about the different levels of trauma that individuals uh have. Some some have more than others, arguably, or or certainly different places on the sphere of trauma than others. Um and your your mom, like you like you mentioned, having the challenges that she's had of just navigating the world with the with an orientation that that doesn't sound like entirely healthy or or someone would call uh normative, but nonetheless, she still doing the best she could.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

And and then seeing my father, uh, my father had his own trauma. I mean, he he was in his early 20s when the Nigerian Civil War broke out and found himself uh drafted into the army of the the group that was seceding from the country. And and then that that's how he lost the war, right? And then that's how he found his way to America, right? And but the the stories that as I've got to know him about that he tells or what he saw in that war, can you not be traumatized by? So again, just recognize that we're all imperfect human beings, yeah, trying to ideally collectively move uh humanity forward despite our imperfections.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah.

unknown 11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Totally. And so now you have a close relationship with them, it sounds like you see and communicate with them regularly, and you know your sisters, and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I mean, and it's been wonderful in that way. You know, it's not without his challenge. It's my my mother wasn't exactly thrilled that that my brother and I have done this. Um and and she's not spoken to him since the mid-70s, right? So they still don't talk.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

But um and so I said the subject with her. But but yeah, yeah, he and I went to Nigeria together. And so I met relative relatives there in Nigeria that I didn't know I had. And and then I've like I said, I've got these five sisters, and three of them have kids now, and and we ought to saw we we sort of all agreed, the seven of us uh uh as his children just agreed that that we had nothing to do with what the adults decided in the in the 70s. Had nothing to do with us. Right. And so um so we can have we we have a birthright to each other, we can have a relationship with each other, and as we have children, uh let's raise our children in a way that uh there was never a gap between us. Even though they know the story, right, and they they know that we weren't raised together, uh, but uh it warms my heart to now see our kids. I think the youngest is 16 and the and and the oldest is 27. Yeah and so between all these these kids and and the relationship they have together on their their cousin uh group chat and so forth, uh uh really they're setting great examples for uh for me and my siblings to to be closer, right? So so that that has been a joy to watch um now 30 years this December of us learning of each other and uh and uh to see that over time has been uh beautiful. And so I I was just in Austin, Texas this weekend at South by Southwest. And um she's daughter lives there. She works for uh Dell Computer, but then his son is actually a computer science major at Morehouse, like I was. And one of our sisters' sons is a computer science major also at Morehouse. And so these two nephews were also in Austin this weekend for a hackathon that they were participating in. Morehouse won the hackathon last year, um, and so they were competing this year. So I we went we all went to dinner, uh as a matter of fact, uh on Saturday night. And and uh and they, you know, and my nephew showed me the uh the app that they built for for this challenge of this AI challenge that they were part of. And so uh they didn't win the hackathon, unfortunately, this year, but but they uh they certainly did uh a very, very good job. And I I am just proud because, you know, um I was the first one to go to Morehouse and I studied computer science and a great career now to see my two nephews, two of my nephews at least, uh doing it was has been warm. And so, and it wasn't again, it wasn't just me and she. It was uh my sister uh Kalachi, her son uh Kanayo um is a junior at Morehouse. Um and so he's he's doing well for himself too. So uh but that's a great example of how we are all in fact Kanayo came and and worked for me here in Memphis for a summer as a as an intern at Code Crew, my nonprofit that teaches AI and computer science to kids and adults, and then and then Aaron uh Chi's son also did the same thing one summer. So um so it's been it's been just the kids are stepping into it.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah, the fabric of the family is tight where it had been severed.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Now it's woven back together, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Right. And they're weaving their own stories. Yeah. So it's it's a beautiful thing to watch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

And that they're just cousins, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yeah, they're just cousins. And several of them would take the initiative to make sure they come together. Um, my oldest daughter's one of the chief ones. She's um an extrovert, like I mentioned. And she, you know, she jumped in a car and she put her sister in the car, and they drove up to Chicago from here and gathered all the cousins together at my father's place. And uh, you know, it's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

That is a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

And remind me where they are.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

The younger one is a senior at Hampton University in Virginia. So she's graduating in May. English uh major with a film studies concentration. And then the older one, uh, who literally just pulled up to my house right now. I'm looking out of the window. She is a third-year med school student. She's doing her rotations, and uh, and so she applied to do them at uh Baptist Memorial Hospital here in Memphis. So so she's actually here for the year in Memphis, uh, has her own apartment and so forth. And uh so I get a chance to see her pretty often, including like now, where she just pulled up to the house. So she spent her days in the hospital uh, you know, on these different rotations. I know she was she had an ER rotation, she had a uh family mad rotation. I guess to the edge of what I know. I I keep telling both these girls, look, it's never too late to switch to computer science. Uh of course, now they're pushing back about AI and all of those things uh with me saying that uh you know, dad, the computer science is not the same now. I'm like, well, that's true, but uh but I can I can help you out still.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

She makes a really good point as a computer scientist who runs a computer science program. Uh so the the the code crew sounds like you said it's a nonprofit that teaches kids coding. Yeah. Is that your main occupation, how you're spending your time?

SPEAKER_01 16:42

So I describe it a little differently. I mean, yes, we do teach coding, yes, we do teach kids, but really, you know, we teach AI and computer science to kids and adults.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

And and I say that from the perspective of us trying to get algorithms on their menus before they're on the menus of the algorithms.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Ooh, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

I say it that way because it's really less about them teaching them to code. It's really teaching them how to solve problems, how to think, how to apply computational thinking, especially.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

And then to have the agency to influence and shape that technology. So rather than being shaped by it. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. But so um, especially black Americans in this country uh have have a long history of technology happening to us, and it's time we happen to the technology. So that's the business that I'm in with this nonprofit that it's it's less about coding and more about solving problems. And that's what you know, any employer, you want smart people that are creative and can communicate and solve problems.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Computational thinking is the term I heard you use.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

That's right, computational thinking. Um, there's four pillars of computational thinking, basically. First is uh the recognition. The second is decomposing large problems into smaller ones. The third is algorithms or you know, being able to articulate strategies that machines or others can execute. And the fourth is abstraction and generalization. Those are the four pillars of computational thinking. And you can already see that those things aren't just limited to computer science.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

They apply many, many subjects, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

And so they apply to any subject.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

And so that's why we stress you know, computer science and coding require you to do those things in order to be effective. And so that's why we see the value that every child ought to have some level of conversational thinking in computer science in schools, because it helps them in their other subjects with respect to those four pillars that I spoke about, right? And so that's why even here in Tennessee, you know, we we worked with a uh local and national coalition that we formed here called uh CS4TN to work hard to make computer science a high school graduation requirement statewide in Tennessee. Um and uh and and not only that, but also have some middle school and elementary school requirements such that they can they by the time they get to high school, they have some appreciation and understanding and foundation with respect to computational thinking. But but all along the way, they're being helped, they're helping their other subjects. So they don't have we're not we're not trying to train them to become software engineers, we're not trying to train them to become tech professionals necessarily, though we want more of that for those who have the interest and the aptitude. But everyone is growing up in a world uh that's increasingly surrounded by digital technology. Um Michael, can you hold on one second? I'm sorry about this.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Yeah, not at all. At this point, Meka leapt from his chair to investigate some screaming from another room in the house. It turned out his younger daughter got into the grad school of her choice, Chapman University in LA, where she'll study film. After taking a moment to celebrate and get all the details, Meika returned, relieved and very proud. Congratulations to her and you. That's awesome. What a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Yes, indeed. I'm I'm a proud dad. And that was her first choice, actually. So uh so that that little Toyota Prius is going to LA.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Fantastic. Hollywood, here we come.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yes, yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. I'm I'm uh sorry, though, I can't even remember where I was.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

CS for TN, which is computer science for Tennessee, I assume.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

That's right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

CS for TN is pushing towards having a high school requirement for computer science.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

I won't say pushing for it. Um we we we were a loose coalition uh that made up code crew, code.org, the college board, Amazon, Apple, uh, Microsoft, uh the Greater Memphis IT Council, the Nashville Software Uh School, and well, Nashville Tech Council, excuse me, and some some others, right? And so uh just really all around the state. Um and uh in 2022, working with the governor's office, we were able to get that bill passed.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Well, you got it done.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Oh, absolutely, yeah. And so in 2024, it took effect. So kids who started ninth grade in 2024, by the time they graduate in 2028, uh have to have taken one year of computer science.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

I am blown away that you were able to accomplish that. Because educational departments, particularly around curriculum, are huge ships to turn. And they're very resistant to changes of that kind.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

I mean, I haven't shared the whole story because there was definitely considerable resistance at first, uh, especially the Department of Education in the early days, were asking questions like why does every high school have to offer computer science, for example? Uh, those kinds of questions we got from the State Department of Education, uh, and some pushback and some compromise and so forth that got us to where we had the statewide plan. Then we started taking elements of that plan and saying, What else can we accomplish? And ultimately, when the when the governor uh got on board with this, and I'm I'm really abridging a very long story, uh, that the State Department of Education actually uh did a 180 in a sense.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Is there a short version of how they turned?

SPEAKER_01 22:00

What what got the Well I mean th th this is a governor whose party has a supermajority in the state, and and uh I don't doubt that politics are part of it. You know, the uh uh the Department of Education is part of his administration, right? Uh he chooses the commissioner that's appointed there, right? And so uh I don't doubt that's part of the calculus. Okay. Yeah. So maybe I'll leave it there because you know, politics are messy and complicated. And and some of the things I see in the State House in Nashville, I I some of those things is not for me, right? But but I'm happy that ultimately, whether I'm speaking to the left side or the right side of the aisle, um, that that we can come to some common sense things in the best interest of kids, in the best interest of economic and workforce development that just makes sense and in the end uh get passed unanimously in the House and Senate and signed by the governor. So these are these are the things that we we I know in this country and uh state and federal level, even local level, we've we figured out a lot of things to argue about and that we don't agree on. But there's a lot we agree on. Yes. And maybe even for different reasons, right? The left side of the aisle was definitely more interested in access and opportunity, the right side of the aisle was definitely more interested in economic development and workforce development. But on an issue like getting computer science education for kids, we all saw the value in it, even if it were for different reasons.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

And so it addressed each of those reasons.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Right, exactly. So let's we ought to be going gung-ho on the on the things that we can agree on that make sense, and that this was one of those things. And so um and so I I lead Code Crew, I'm a co-founder of Code Crew. We've been around for 11 years, and and I'm proud of what we've accomplished. But also some of what we've accomplished is a bit of an easy sell because I really don't have to explain to anyone why it's important for kids to understand how digital systems work. Uh, you know, it's really uh the questions are it is what does it cost and let's figure out how to do it, right? So uh whereas others are leading nonprofits that are still important, if not more so, right? Uh, but may have to still explain to some that why that's important, right? I think of people who do the important work of dealing with abused children or uh domestic violence and so forth, those are those things are are obviously important in my opinion. But uh it's sometimes it's a hard sell to convince people to invest in those things because sometimes there's no dollar return uh that's obvious on that, right? And uh all too often we think too short-term instead of long-term. And someone said to me years ago, and I repeat all the time, that we have an immediate need for long-term thinking. That's a really good phrase. And so there's so there's a shortage of that uh sometimes as to why great initiatives um don't get the support that they need. But uh fortunately for us, people can connect easily the upside of economic benefit to more tech education, workforce to benefit to more tech education, and access and opportunity benefit to tech education. So so uh in a sense, what we do at Code Crew is a bit of an easy sell.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah. You know, it's right in your face.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Exactly. And I've got real stories of real people that um once they're connected to opportunity, have transformed not only their lives, but the lives of the people around them, their communities, and and so forth. Um and so uh Maya was 27 years old, uh with three kids working nights and weekends at Walgreens, making$5,000 a year and you know, Section 8 housing. And she figured out a way to get through our six-month adult program. And when she graduated, she had three job offers that she picked the one that she wanted. Uh now she makes a comfortable six-figure income. And she took our kids' after-school program from Code Crew to her kids' elementary school and started teaching kids how to make mobile apps and program robots and things like that. And so uh we have thousands of young people in Memphis and they're really all across the country who just need to be connected to an opportunity. Let's equip them uh to step into their brilliance, right? Let's equip them to empower their own communities. So when I say that's the business that we're in, that's also the business that we're in, right? It's empowering communities through through tech education, especially uh AI and computer science education.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

God, what a wonderful thing you put together.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Oh, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I I love what I do. I definitely believe I found my calling. Um I wasn't necessarily planning to do this.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

That was going to be my question. How did you come to this calling?

SPEAKER_01 26:33

You know, um, I went to Morehouse and got a bachelor's in computer science, and then I went to Duke and got a master's in computer science, and I spent 19 years as a software architect. But all that time, I was still involved with youth, volunteering in different ways, either through my church or through um, you know, boards I'd signed up for and so forth. And so when my kids were young, I've got two daughters, and I saw this. I was watching CNN back in 2012, and I saw this great California-based program called Black Girls Code. Um, and and I said, I want to sign my daughters up for that. And when I reached out to them, um, they explained to me they had chapters in different cities and they didn't have a chapter in Memphis. And I said, Well, how do we solve that? And we figured out a way to get the founder of Black Girls Code to come to Memphis and speak on a panel. And so uh turns out she was from Memphis. And so I said, Well, let us launch a chapter in your hometown. And so when she saw the enthusiasm here, she let us do that. And myself and some others led that chapter for about two and a half years, which got the attention of the Memphis Grizzlies, who said to us, uh, we'd like for you to consider creating a new nonprofit to focus on Memphis. And I thought about it long and hard, and I said, you know what, uh, I think this is a great idea. And so myself and two other Black Girls Co-volunteers formed Code Crew back in May of 2015. We knew nothing about running a nonprofit really. And so we decided to launch Code Crew within the local business and technology accelerator called StartCo alongside a group of for-profit businesses. And so we learned a lot about sustaining a nonprofit using for-profit models. And so we were still working on full-time jobs for a year, but we managed to do summer camps and hackathons and after school programs for a year and uh collected enough data to take it to a local private foundation who gave us a sizable gift, uh three-year runway with enough money for someone to quit their job, and they gave it on the condition that I quit my job and leave it full-time. And so I thought about it and I said, you know, my two co-founders, they were still, you know, they in fact, uh, each of them were expecting a child. Uh, you know, um uh they happily married and expecting a child. And um whereas my two children, uh both of them were going away to boarding school. So by this point, by uh by 2016. And so I uh I said, well, I'll take the short straw and be the one to quit his job to be full-time uh now CEO of Code Crew. So that's kind of how I fell into this. Passionate about youth and passionate about tech, and now uh bringing them together in the in this way through uh through Code Crew.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

What a beautiful uh confluence of events and uh combination of passions. And it sounds like uh sounds like you landed in exactly the right place for you.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

I I have, and but it's certainly been a growth opportunity for me because it's very different from being a software architect. I imagine, yeah. And so uh lots of growth for me. Uh, but I appreciate all the people that believe in me and believe in us as an organization to work for us. We've got 16 full-time people now on the on the team, um, uh another 10 to 15 part-time people. We've got uh uh an active board uh who is engaged with us. We've got lots of parents and and then uh adult students too who come through um to to engage with us. Uh, but I'm I'm particularly proud of the fact that we have done that in a market like Memphis, where the largest and fastest growing demographics are the ones who are most underrepresented in tech. And there was a real question of our city's relevancy if we didn't convince more young people from those groups to to pursue these opportunities. And so 93% of the the uh students that we serve are black andor Latino, uh, 42% of them are women. And I'm particularly proud of that statistic, even though women make up more than half of our population, so it says we need to do better. But I will say that someone said this better than me. They said you have some departments of computer science and colleges around the country where you got more guys named Dave than you have women in the department.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Now that's that's a shameful condition. Yeah. And um, and I I don't hesitate to remind people about the contributions that women have made as pioneers in computer science in particular, right? That's it.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

I mean starting from Ada Lovelace. Isn't that what Ada Lovelace's contribution was? She was the first computer programmer, right? The first one.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

That's right. That's right. The first modern computer program was written by Ada Lovelace in the 1840s, I think, 1848, if I'm not mistaken. Uh Grace Hopper, Catherine Johnson, and that tradition continued right up until the the 70s and 80s, when finally people started to realize that the money to be made was in the software, more so than the hardware. And so that's when uh that's when you started to see men elbow women out of the mix, uh, and and your departments of computer science fell to percentages of like 18% female and 15% female, ridiculously low numbers. Uh so the fact that we're at 42% uh at Code Crew is something we're proud of.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

We're turning that tide. Uh, but but still, of course, uh we we believe in you know, everyone who has an interest and uh an aptitude to do this uh ought to have a chance to do it.

unknown 31:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

You're obviously so passionate about it. And I love hearing all the effectiveness that you've had in this endeavor.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Uh to be able to crack the bureaucratic hurdles that you'd have to clear in order to get these changes made in the high school curriculum, and then to create an organization that can impact going on 17,000 people. Unbelievable contribution to the community, to our economic situation, to elevate people who it's time to elevate. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Well, I I appreciate that. Um, we're proud. We're certainly proud of what we've done. Um, like I said, a million kids across the state are being impacted by our leadership role and the greater collaboration of computer science education for kids and adults. Uh, but I will say that um that uh while we're proud of what we've accomplished, we have big dreams about what the future looks like. And we you and I were talking about AI and its impact. And and while, yeah, a lot of attention is being brought to AI and coding and AI and automation in general, uh, we're looking at how AI intersects with education broadly. What is what is the education going to look like five and ten years from now uh in an AI native uh economy, right? Uh what does it mean to be an AI-ready school? So education is one area. Another is AI and workforce uh development, right? So uh what will the job look like in general, right? Uh how are the ones who have AI literacy and AI development skills, how are they gonna compete against the ones who don't? And and and we see that that they're they're going to outpace the ones who don't. And so um, but what does the workforce look like in the future? And then the third is is uh you think about small and mid-sized businesses, you think about other nonprofits like us, and um what what does AI mean for organizational efficiency for those kinds of entities? We already can see what AI means for the very large companies uh who've always been, who've never really been about growth in terms of adding workforce. They've always largely been about growth of acquiring other companies. Most of their workforce decisions are reducing workforce. Uh so and AI is accelerating that to some degree, and maybe some can see that uh AI is being used as used as an excuse to accelerate some of that, right? But so we can see for large companies AI is is is part of their plan for how can we maximize our profits to to get better returns for our shareholders and for the CEO. That's my perspective, right? But when I think about a small business who's trying to survive, right, because 90% of them don't make it past three years, right. When I think about a nonprofit who's just trying to maximize their mission and their vision, AI could be a game changer in the sense that now they can scale up what they're able to do. They're less motivated by who they're not going to uh, you know, who they're not motivated by who they're gonna fire, right? Who they're gonna terminate, and who you know, or making some rich person richer, right? They're they're motivated by survival and great outcomes. And so uh so uh that's that's attractive to us as how can we help those kinds of entities be more efficient and achieve more. So uh so we're we're dreaming about the future and and and we're building a new headquarters. At the end of the summer, we'll be moving into a 12,000 square foot facility that uh that will help enable us stepping you know into those intersections of AI with education, workforce, and organizations. So that's that's that's the future that we're dreaming of and building and strategy we're proceeding towards. Again, proud of what we've done, but how do we raise it to the next level, including doing that work beyond Memphis?

SPEAKER_00 35:14

And you have a really clear vision about where you're gonna take it. And it's listening to you talk, it's very clear the value of computational thinking. The way the way you're presenting your ideas is following what you've laid out for me and how computational thinking works. And it's not directly pointed at coding. You're actually exemplifying the exact thing you're talking about, and it makes sense to me why you've been so effective. Such clear thinking, very rigorous, and put to use directly for its stated goals. And it's amazing to see how effective you've been.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

I appreciate that. And I can't claim all the credit. I've got great team members who are smart, and I've got great asertive board members. Some might even say pushy board members to help keep me on my toes with respect to thinking about the future and not getting complacent and resting on our laurels.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah. Well, Meka, it's it has been an absolute joy catching up with you to hear what you're up to. All these things are incredible. From reconnecting with your father to your daughter getting into the grad school of her choice, uh, and then what you're doing with Code Crew and NCS for TN is unbelievable, man. It's really cool to hear everything about what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Well, I appreciate it, man. Uh, it's great to have this opportunity to share some perspective. And um I love And Oprah and what it's meant to um to me personally, but my world perspective, the network of friends, inclusive of yourself, that have made me a better person. And so uh I've been climbing through life, uh a young kid from economically challenged neighborhood in South Memphis, uh, to have the opportunities that I've had, uh, to gone to 17 countries to, you know, all these different things I've been blessed with, uh, but also the opportunity to lift as I climb. And so how how how then can can we preach that gospel for all of us to just we don't have to do a whole lot of lifting, but if we just do a little lifting as we climb, we can all do our part to make the world a better place. So uh and that's that's all in the spirit of non-sivy. So uh thank you, um Andover, for blessing me with tremendous opportunities. So, man, thank you for for this opportunity to chat. Class of 91. Looking forward to breaking bread together, maybe maybe a glass of wine together.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yeah, yeah, that's celebrate a few months.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

I wouldn't believe it's been 35 years, man. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Incredible. So we'll see you in a few months.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

See you in a few months, absolutely. Take it easy.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

See you later. Alumni and loved ones, join us June 5th through 7th for our 35th reunion. We'll see you on campus.