When I first launched Haitians in Tech in Feb 2020, at what was the very beginning of the Pandemic, I never imagined it would grow to become the platform that it is today.
At the time the problem for me was clear. I had google’d the term “Haitians in Tech” hoping to come across profiles of Haitians working in the tech space whose stories I could use to navigate my journey as a tech professional, and tech entrepreneur…but my search came up empty.
Less than 5 minutes after that Google search I was the proud owner of the HaitiansinTech.com domain. I threw together a quick html, css based landing page, and I was off to the races.
It didn’t take long before other like-minded Haitian techies were DMing the HaitiansinTech Instagram page wanting to help grow the platform. Those critical core team members like Darlyze Calixte, and Peter Barthemew, and Nita Saint-Hilaire were instrumental in growing the platform and delivering content.
A whole 2 years after launching to be earning a $150,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to do more of the thing that was spawned as a result of an empty Google search is truly amazing. I’m honored that we have been entrusted with this gift that will help us empower and inspire more in the Haitian diaspora community to delve into STEM, and learn to build and bring into reality the creations of their mind through lines of code.