As a former middle school educator turned entrepreneur, Seretha Tinsley has spent a lifetime giving back to her community through mentorship. Serving in various leadership roles within the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., since 2009, she found inspiration and purpose mentoring young Black women and girls in the community, while ushering in a new generation of young leaders inside the organization.
Serenity Bryce, a young leader who joined the organization as an intern in 2020, now partners with Tinsley to lead the organization’s most impactful education program, Keeping It 100 with Code. Though generations apart, both women are shining examples of mentors, bridging their individual experiences into a collective mission to expose youth to coding.
“Coding is in everything we do. We realized that we needed to be informed and to ensure that our young people are informed, have access, and are enlightened,” says Tinsley.
With 62 chapters across 27 states, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., advocates on behalf of Black women and girls globally and strives to be a catalyst for change for gender equity in health, economic opportunity, and education. With relatively few young Black women represented in the technology sector, Tinsley and Bryce recognized the need for a program that leveraged the technology students already had in hand to teach them a brand-new language that would prepare them for careers in technology.
Students participating in Keeping It 100 with Code have no prior development experience, and many come from underresourced communities. In five months, they move from beginning to advanced levels of coding curriculum based on Apple’s Everyone Can Code program. An impressive 80 percent of students graduate and share their coding projects, with advanced students sharing app designs using Xcode. Apple supports the program by providing devices, programming content, and mentors from across teams within the company.
“The program not only teaches code, but creates a space where young people can collaborate positively with their peers,” says Tinsley.
Tinsley recalls a student who was more reserved than her peers. During the program’s graduation ceremony, she revealed that she had a learning disability that prevented her from participating fully. Over the course of the program, that student gained the confidence to use her voice and express how she accomplished something she never thought she would: She learned how to code.
“The best part of working with these young women is watching them grow and build their confidence, ready to be sent off into the world. For me, it’s the best part of my job,” says Bryce. Students learn how to solve problems, identify errors in their code, and work together to find solutions. These important skills are instilled within students to set them up for success and carry them through life.
Using coding as a foundation, Tinsley and Bryce are working together to improve the career outcomes of future generations of Black women and girls in technology. Their story represents the desired outcome of the program itself. When mentorship is activated, in this case between two women in an organization, it can cause a ripple effect that impacts the programs that are designed and the effect those programs have on the communities they serve.
“Working with Miss Seretha is a true blessing and honor,” says Bryce. “As young women in this generation, just like many of the women and girls in our program, we are looking for mentors who can show us the way and give us the confidence to fly.”
“I’m a firm believer that if you expect the best from someone, you’ll get the best,” says Tinsley.
