Erin Spiceland | Natives in Tech

"Google "Native people in tech…; and see Native people in every field, no matter how much of a walled garden exists. They did it, you can do it." One of the goals for NextGen Native is to connect Native people across a variety of professions, and to tell the story of these people to place their experience in context i.e. being Native person in the 21st century. Perhaps no one best exemplifies this to date than Erin Spiceland. Erin Spiceland is Choctaw, and grew up in South Georgia. Her family ended up there after her grandfather settled down in the area after serving in the Navy. She is a software engineer working in for a technology company in Huntsville, AL. If there is one area that every community needs to be part of in 2016, it's technology. Specifically, preparing people to work in technology by teaching them to code. But even more, in the same conversation Erin talks about the importance of coding, she talks about learning her language, and teaching it to her kids. Erin's journey is about more than just coding. Erin lost her mother at a young age after a battle with Leukemia. It was difficult for her to move on after the loss, but she found strength in her faith and realizing that her life did not have to be defined by what she lost. In this episode we discuss: Math and music: the connections between the two. How Erin wanted music to be a major part of her life and influenced her academic future. The benefit of having a support system that allows someone to challenge themselves. How studying computer science in college is behind the curve when it comes to what actually occurs in the real world. What is an algorithm (never be afraid to ask questions). How Erin ended up at Nodesource. Different resources for learning code: Khan Academy; Code.org; Coursera; Erin's perspective of being a woman and being a Native person in a technology company. And how she enjoys surprising people when she tells people what she does. Natives in tech, what a variety of Natives are doing in different industries. I learned a lot from Erin, and she pushed me to understand things just a bit beyond my grasp. In addition to learning my language, I think I've been inspired to learn some kind of coding program, too.