Breaking Through

landing page
getting the website set up!
Mentor Match
Resource buttons
Main page info
Content page for Imposter Syndrome

Inspiration

Nobody needs to feel isolated in this field. Our goal is to solve that feeling of alienation.

What it does

Almost every advice column to women looking to thrive in technology says they need a mentor, but where are they supposed to get one?

Our group wants to do a mentor match, where those looking to mentor can be paired with those hoping to find a mentor. Introvert friendly, no cold calling or sliding into DMs, everyone here wants to help and be helped.

We also wanted our site to have resources all in one place for everyone looking for more inclusion and who are trying to figure out how they 'fit'.

How we built it

We claimed the domain name breakingthrough.tech and set up hosting through vercel. (breakingthrough.tech)

We started a mock-up of the website using visual studio code, which we then pushed to github. We used boilerplate code from W3Schools to get us started :)

Our website has an area for people to sign up to become or find a mentor. We also have a resource center, with links to articles and organizations that touch on imposter syndrome, finding your voice, getting paid, etc. Along with resources on being LGBTQ, BIPOC, or disabled in the tech field.

Challenges we ran into

The website was ambitious. Getting the domain linked up to the hosting and then pushing all the code out was frustrating for us first-timers, so we did the mock-up instead, with the ability to go back and assemble it in the future. The first template we used for the website was also incredibly ambitious, so we scaled our attempt back and came up with a cleaner look.

While we really wanted to include our mentor sign-up, we were not able to get it done due to time constraints. The framework is there for us to go back and complete this project in the future!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We learned so much! How to use VS Code together as a group. Registering a domain, hosting a website, and transforming our passions into a tangible product. Scrapping our first website was a tough blow, but ultimately we regrouped and came back stronger. ## What we learned

We've picked up some new skills on front-end development. Our team has mostly worked on backend stuff through our school, so this was a fun look into our future. It was also a great collaborative process.

What's next for Breaking Through

We want to make sure every person feels included in the tech field and want to also include those who take a less conventional route to getting there (self-taught, bootcamp career change, etc.).

We would like to get our database up and running to connect our mentors with people looking for mentorship. We are hoping to be able to deploy the completed version of our site in the next 6 months.

Built With

domain.com
git-pages
github
studio
visual
vscode

Submitted to

Pearl Hacks 2022
- Winner Cisco: "Best #InclusiveFuture Hack"

Created by

It was amazing to work with such a strong and passionate group of women who cared and knew their stuff.
Worked on finding resources, editing/creating pages, messing around with pictures, contacting a mentor to help us with our hosting-connecting domain questions. Flexed my writing muscles.

Lindsey Jensen
As a non-binary neurodivergent mother-of-four with chronic health issues, I felt particularly called to this project as the resources I have found in the past were scattered and hard-to-find in my moments of need.

Furthermore, as an often anxious introvert, finding mentors and speaking up for myself has always been quite a challenge. So the ability to find a mentor in a simple fashion has particularly strong appeal to me!

I worked on finding cohesive images, layout, resizing, thinking through some UX concepts for accessibility/usability.

Added some of the content and links.

Found a more UX friendly option for our Mentor Signup info boxes.

Set up Liveshare and LiveView on Studio Code so we could collaborate live.

Kai Indigo Wolf
Homeschool mama and software engineer attending WGU. I adore houseplants and cats!
My goal is to help empower women in tech to let their voices be heard, and to be unintimidated in the workplace. No one should feel that they have to constantly prove their worth in order to deserve respect, and I think this is a pervasive issue many women face that is not talked about enough. I myself struggle with this issue, and have found it difficult to find resources on this topic. My hope is that this project helps to address that issue.

Deserae Kaufman
As a disabled woman in tech, I am very passionate about providing resources and connecting with other disabled people in tech. There is a lack of collaboration and mentorship for persons with disability in this field, and I would like to become a part of that change.

I worked on setting up html pages, formatting images, setting up our domain name, researching website hosting, and collecting resources for our website.

Lily LaFleur