Originally published on EmbeddedRelated.
What experience first excited you about electronics or coding? For many engineers, it was something specific — a science kit, a project, a mentor, a moment where technology suddenly felt controllable and understandable. Not every child gets those experiences, and the ones who do not are less likely to find their way into technical fields they might otherwise love. This article is a call for engineers to do something about that gap, starting with a small monthly donation to one of the organizations doing this work.
The featured organizations span a range of approaches and geographies: Digital NEST (career development for primarily Latino youth across five Northern California locations, with an in-house digital media agency), Elevate Tutoring (college access for underrepresented students, founded by one of my undergraduate professors), Girls Who Code, and Hack Club (a global network of student-run coding clubs). I donate to several of them personally and makes specific recommendations about what types of support each organization needs beyond money.
The secondary ask is time: once you are established in your career, consider mentoring, volunteering, or hiring from the pipelines these organizations build. The article makes the case without sentimentality — the engineering community has the resources and skills to make a real difference, and small contributions compound over time.