Why this nonprofit leader says more people should consider careers in tech
“You’re not college material.”
That’s what a guidance counselor told Shana Sanders when she was a high school student in East Cleveland, Ohio.
“I said, ‘OK, let me show you who’s college material,’” Sanders said.
On Oct. 23, she was named Woman of the Year in the small and emerging business category at the Women in Technology Awards at the Georgia Aquarium.
The awards recognize “women who lead, inspire and pave the way forward in technology,” according to the Georgia-based nonprofit.
Sanders, who has a bachelor’s degree in electronic media and a master’s in instructional design and technology, was honored for her work as the founder and CEO of We Create Tech, a nonprofit started in 2022 that seeks to bridge the opportunity divide in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, also known as STEAM.
“Traditionally, students in underserved communities have been left out of the conversation,” Sanders said. “And when you look at the history of people from those communities, they’ve been huge contributors to a lot of the history of the United States. And so I thought the name We Create Tech would be fitting to say that the people that we serve, we also create tech.”
A former high school teacher, Sanders has made it her mission to create culturally responsive programs to help more students find pathways into science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That’s also a focus of National STEM Day, which is on Nov. 8 every year.
Sanders came to Atlanta in 2003 and became a teacher in Henry County. Over time, she realized the curriculum had limitations.
“When I was teaching audio, video, tech and film, the state standards really just focused on them becoming news anchors and reporters,” she said. “Our students were screaming from the top of their lungs, ‘We want to be content creators. We want to have our own brands. We want to understand marketing and website design and graphic design and all these things that an entrepreneur needs to know in this time.’”
Her solution: introducing elements of content creation in addition to teaching the state standards.
An early partnership with Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing enabled students to learn to code while making music.
“They were intimidated by coding. They had no idea that it was not as difficult as they thought,” Sanders said. “And then (there’s) the stereotypes associated with it, that only certain people were coders, and so that dispelled that myth once they started getting hands-on action inside of the platform.”
And so We Create Tech was born. Now, the organization serves nearly 1,100 students in middle school, high school and college, as well as young adult career changers, via initiatives like an adviser community called TechRise, as well as the program CreativX Lab, which is designed to spark interest in careers like web design, digital media and AI, and machine learning.
The events We Create Tech organizes include a summer camp in partnership with CEISMC and the Rainbow Dance Theatre, which Sanders described as “technology meets coding meets the arts” as students create music and wearable tech.
“The same costumes that people saw Beyoncé using for her tour, where they would light up on stage — we were able to show the students how that’s created,” she added.
And at the recent TechRise Advisor Connect IRL event, on the rooftop of Microsoft’s Midtown Atlanta office on Oct. 15, 50 students and 10 potential advisers met in a setting kind of like speed dating.
Once they are matched with an adviser, students can explore internship opportunities and get resume support and career help. TechRise has about 150 students overall. Advisors come from companies like Microsoft and Samsung.
One participant, Natasha Narine, a third-year student at Georgia State University majoring in computer information systems, said she felt lost until she joined GSU’s Women in Tech program. That led to a CodePath course for web development.
“When I had finished that course, I had my first website and I really was looking for creative roles,” Narine said. “And why I was so on edge was because I felt like I had to almost abandon being creative to do anything in tech.”
Narine credits both We Create Tech and Sanders herself with giving her “a lot of hands-on experience I would have not had before.”
“My dream job would be to work at Lego, (designing) Legos,” she added. “I definitely have a long way to go until I get there, but just doing creative things, especially with technology, like web design, app design, things like that, I feel like is where I shine the most.”
Sanders’ long-term vision is to open a facility in Atlanta to help students learn STEAM, as well as to expand into new regions.
“I want my legacy to be that they thrive in purpose,” Sanders said, “they do what they’re passionate about and they become globally competitive in STEAM fields and tech, just like the next student who maybe had more financial resources and exposure.”
In a way, Sanders has become the guidance counselor she needed as a student.
“When a child is trying to figure out what they want to do in life, your job is to tell them, ‘This is how we’re going to do it,’” she added.
AJC Her+Story is a new series in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighting female founders, creators, executives and professionals. It is about building a community. Know someone the AJC should feature in AJC Her+Story? Email us at herstory@ajc.com with your suggestions. Check out all of our AJC Her+Story coverage at ajc.com/herstory.
